Paul Worboys had two false starts in his career before finding himself on the right side of the line in advertising. He studied to become a photographer but rejected the uncertainty of the artistic life for a more financially salubrious career in banking, starting as a bank teller.
“I got the fright of my life when I was told after a couple of years that I had a wonderful future and that in 20 or 30 years I could be running a branch. That scared me so much that I resigned and went travelling overseas and that’s when I fell into marketing,” he says.
His first sales and marketing role was for London-based high street retailer Chelsea Girl but it was at Ogilvy & Mather Direct in Sydney, which he joined on returning to Australia, working under managing director Malcolm Auld and creative director Michael Kiely, that he set his heart on a careerin advertising. “I still think direct marketing is one of the best careers for anyone in the advertising world for some great training because the basis of what you will learn in a good direct marketing agency will serve anybody – it’s about understanding consumers and targeting and talking to an individual consumer,” says Worboys.
He jumped into the digital space feet-first in 1995 when he was back working in London, co-founding a digital agency with a couple of mates. After selling to new media company Poppy Tyson, his mates stayed and Worboys decided it was a good time to come home having been in the UK for six years.
Returning to Australia he says he was full of the possibilities for blending direct marketing with digital but his vision fell on deaf ears except for Rob Clarke, the then CEO of Leo Burnett Sydney, who hired him as integrated business development director charged with building Leo’s digital department from scratch. From here Worboys joined Whybin Lawrence\TBWA and before long launched Tequila and became managing director of the digital start-up, which was recognised several years running as B&T’s Digital Agency of the Year.
John Preston, founder of Match, who had known Worboys for years socially before they worked together, recommended him to launch Tequila. At the time Preston was media strategist at Whybin’s, but later became managing director.
He says: “Paul has an absolute passion for digital and had the ability to turn on a client with what was possible. This was over five or six years ago so digital was a hard sell then. Paul had four things going for him – an absolute desire to get digital onto the clients agenda, he ‘got’ below-the-line and above-the-line interaction, a passion that shone through in new business and finally a terrific team which he handpicked to deliver outstanding ideas.”
After Tequila, Worboys took some time out, hanging out at his beach house on the NSW Central Coast but soon got bored, so started consulting three days a week, which is what he was doing when the Saatchi’s job came up in September 2006.
He liked that agency CEO Simone Bartley and former executive creative director David Nobay were committed to the integration of digital.
Acknowledging that the departure of Nobay was a blow for the agency, Worboys says it is exciting as well, both for Nobay’s next stage with Droga5 and with the new creative team of executive creative director Steve Back and creative group head Dave Bowman, which is a reunion of sorts. Worboys previously worked with Back at Leo Burnett Sydney and Brian Merrifield, Saatchi’s creative director of digital and emerging media, worked with both Back and Bowman at Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland. And despite the speculation, if there’s a formal link between Droga5 and Saatchi’s, Worboys is not talking about it.
“I’ve always believed in the magic of a group of people,” he offers.
“It’s not a very high-brow philosophy but I really do believe that if you get a group of people, it’s the magic of that group of people together that delivers success by building the right team around you.”
So far the work he is proudest of at Saatchi’s is the integrated campaign for Emirates called “Unblock Europe” promoting Emirates’ 22 entry points into Europe. To drive traffic to the micro site Emirates ran a competition giving away two tickets to the winner’s preferred European destination. It attracted over 40,000 visitors to the site in the first month with nearly 20,000 registrations. But Worboys thinks the best work in the digital space is yet to come with the medium constantly evolving.
“The technology is also allowing consumers to connect with each other as well as connect with brands and that connection means they are more informed and they can pass decisions about brands faster. In the future brands need to engage more as opposed to the broadcast platform, they need to engage these consumers in smart ways, and the technology can do that, but you have to do it right,” says Worboys.
Having worked at other multinationals including Ogilvy, Leo Burnett and TBWA, what is it about the Saatchi culture that’s different? Bartley says Worboys’ greatest achievement at the agency so far is the integration of direct and digital.
“Prior to Paul arriving our digital team operated much more in a silo. Now the division is truly integrated, the work has improved immensely. One of his greatest strengths is his infectious personality. Paul bubbles over with enthusiasm and happily spreads it across the agency. Paul is just so Saatchi ...” says Bartley, mentioning that he already has more pictures on the look-alike wall than anyone else.
The notorious look-alike wall is a board in the agency where staff put up pictures that look like staff – pictures put up to represent Worboys range from the late Billy Thorpe through to the Paddle Pop Lion.
