It was a make-or-break season for Omnicom Media Group’s PHD.

With 49 per cent of the media billings it handles under the hammer, putting a foot wrong could have proven disastrous—and the year did not get off to a great start.

In January, Nunn Media confirmed it had picked up PHD’s client Spotlight Retail Group, carving out around $90 million in billings, but PHD put any disappointment quickly behind it.

The agency went on a retention and winning streak that earned a RECMA Compitches score of ‘A’.

It retained its largest client, Volkswagen, in a global review, as well as Asahi, ANZ, Pepsi and HP.

The agency welcomed Zurich, Reckitt Benckiser, McCain and another FMCG client adding more than $160 million in new billings.

PHD also made it to the final two in the Federal Government review. Though incumbent UM retained the account.

The year was also marked by several changes to the agency’s squad.

Emma Wood (head of investment), Brendan Hewitt (Sydney strat lead), Elyse Foley (head of planning) joined the playing roster, while Mitchell Long (national strat lead) Kathryn Furnari (group business director), Sarah Truong (group investment director), Alex Williams (head of planning) departed.

Such movement of senior players would unsettle most teams, but not PHD.

Team members benefitted from PHD’s professional development program PHD@PHD, which offers 100 hours of training each year.

The agency is also active in supporting important causes such as Shift 20 Initiative, partnering with the Dylan Alcott Foundation, and have an all agency focus on youth homelessness—raising $6,000 in 2024 by spending a night on the streets.

PHD launched a reverse mentoring scheme in which senior leaders are mentored by entry-level team members, which provides invaluable cross-generational learning in an agency represented by five generations.

PHD described its year as one of ‘resilience’. B&T would go a step further and say it is one of progress on the previous season and has cemented the agency as one of the market leaders.