“The Judges Remembered It”: PHD’s Mark Coad Reveals Agency’s “Dramatic” B&T Awards Pitch

“The Judges Remembered It”: PHD’s Mark Coad Reveals Agency’s “Dramatic” B&T Awards Pitch
B&T Magazine
By B&T Magazine



Yes, it’s our final episode of our podcast mini-series in collaboration with Seventh Street Media (SSM), and to finish it off, PHD Australia chief executive Mark Coad has kindly joined us in the studio.

PHD was named Media Agency of the Year at last year’s B&T Awards, and Coad begins his interview with SSM boss Luke Girgis on Fear At The Top by revealing how the agency pitched itself on live judging day in “fairly dramatic fashion”.

“The judges are in a small room, typically four or five execs would turn up with a few storyboards and a PowerPoint, and they’d set about telling their story for 20 minutes, [followed by a Q&A],” he explains.

“We didn’t really want to do that, so we found out what the venue was – where the awards [judging was] being held. We found out there was a large conference room in the bottom of that building, we leased the room for the day, and we put all of our staff in that room.

“When it was our time to present to the judges, we walked into the judges’ room and we asked them if they wouldn’t mind following us down the lifts, and we walked them into a room full of all of the staff of PHD, and we told them our story in front of all of our people.

“It [stood] out – the judges remembered it – but I think there’s a really genuine aspect and an honesty and a rawness to telling your story in front of the people that you’re most accountable to, which is your staff and your team, and it worked.”

Coad shares how the agency exercises that accountability on a day-to-day basis, and what makes a good leader in his eyes.

PHD’s boss also reflects on his successful stint as managing director of OMD Melbourne, and the biggest mistake he’s made as an employee.

To listen to what all of Coad had to say, whack the headphones in and click the play button on the podcast embedded above, or you can access it via iTunes.

And if you missed our other three episodes of our podcast mini-series, you can catch up on them here, here and here.

Big thanks to OMD’s Aimee Buchanan, HW Communication Group’s Virginia Hyland, CHE Proximity’s Chris Howatson, and PHD’s Mark Coad for being such great guests on the show, and a massive shout out to the legends at Seventh Street Media for helping make it all happen.




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