Patts looks to Y&R Indonesia for new Sydney boss after seven month search
Patts Sydney boss Andrew Dowling
Y&R has chosen an executive from within its network to head up its struggling Sydney operation, appointing the CEO of Y&R Indonesia as managing director of Y&R Group Sydney.
The announcement comes two months after news emerged that Y&R Group Australia and New Zealand CEO Russel Howcroft would be moving to Ten. Howcroft’s regional role has since been scrapped in favour of a local structure “to get closer to clients”.
Andrew Dowling – an Australian who started his career at Patts Sydney – was chosen to lead GPY&R Sydney, IdeaWorks and VML after a global search that took seven months and involved three recruitment consultancies.
Y&R Group Sydney’s newly appointed COO Jason Buckley, who moved up from chief financial officer in September, told Mumbrella: “We’ve been looking for some time now, and we realised that we couldn’t fly in Harry Potter to magically sort out Sydney. We wanted someone who had passion and a genuine connection with the business.”
After five years at GPY&R Sydney, Dowling moved to Singapore to take on a senior suit role at Y&R in 2007. After nine months, he joined Iris as board director of its Asia-Pacific operation. In November 2010, he moved to Jakarta to run Y&R and The Campaign Palace Indonesia.
“We wanted someone to continue to build on the progress we’ve been making, not throw it all out and start again,” Buckley said.
The Sydney agency’s main priority is to consolidate and grow off the back of existing clients.
Dowling said: “The year ahead will be about securing the clients we have, and getting the best out of the talent from our three agencies. New business will come our way – but our first priortity must be our current clients.”
While Y&R’s Melbourne, Brisbane and New Zealand operations have seen double digit growth in 2012, Patts Sydney has struggled having lost key client Arnott’s – ending one of Australia’s longest standing client-agency relationships – Big W and Dymocks in the first quarter of this year.
The agency has since replaced a third of the lost revenue, and has been buoyed from the profits of Y&R’s other offices.
New clients for GPY&R have included Emirates, NSW Government Life Jackets and NSW Government Electoral Commission. Digital agency VML has picked up Dell, News Limited, Revlon, Stabilo, Camera House, Nokia and LG, while retail agency Ideaworks has won Hillross Financial Services, Deals Direct, Muffin Break and Mad Mex.
The agency has had awards success. GPY&R Sydney was named Effectiveness Agency of the Year at the 2012 Australian Effies Awards for its work for Vinnies. But its reputation is no match for its Melbourne sibling, which was Australia’s most awarded agency at Cannes this year.
In the Mumbrella Creative Agency Review, a study of industry perceptions of 30 of Australia’s top ad agencies, GPY&R Melbourne ranked 17 places above the Sydney office.
Patts Sydney’s chief creative officer Julian Watt said: “A big word for us is consistency – something that has plagued us as an agency. We need to grow up as a team and get better at everything we do. We don’t have to be the biggest, just the best – and do work that other people respect.”
“The business is in a state of massive transition. We want to make sure on the right side of these changes in the next 12 months,” he said.
Dowling’s move will not mean the end of The Campaign Palace in Indonesia. While the once-great ad agency brand was closed in Australia in June, the agency has been doing well since it launched as a challenger brand in the high-growth Southeast Asia market nine months ago, Y&R’s regional president Matthew Godfrey told Mumbrella.
“The Campaign Palace is an iconic agency brand that is thriving in Asia, we have a rapidly expanding team of very talented people to match the agency’s phenomenal growth in business already this year. We look forward to continued growth and expansion, both in Jakarta and beyond,” he said.
Y&R also looked from within its network for a new business director at GPY&R Sydney, appointing Amy Luca from the network’s Chinese operation in September, and in the same month a new creative director, promoting Bart Pawlak from senior copywriter.
congratulations Andrew and welcome home!
We have always loved home-grown at PattsY&R. Well done Andrew. You and the Sydney crew will have a super 2013 I am sure.
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Well done Franko! Good to have you home
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Salamat Pagi Dowls….
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Great stuff Dowls.
Great bloke and even better person to work for.
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I was available.
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