Howatson+Company has quickly become one of Australia’s finest creative agencies. Of course, the team did have strong foundations to build on with team captain Chris Howatson’s fine pedigree at Clems and CHEP Network in seasons gone by. But, frankly, H+C is now operating at such a high level, that those previous associations are merely incidental.

In the 2023 season, H+C picked up a very impressive 21 new clients — four on full retainers including Domain, its third-largest client. It wasn’t perfect, however with the team losing three clients in MYOB, Temple & Webster and the Australian Computer Society, though it did resign the latter two. At the end of the season, it listed 43 clients in total.

During the 2023 campaign, H+C produced some exceptional work, netting itself a whopping 17 campaign finalists at the B&T Awards. Its “Non-Rapid Taste Test” for Matilda Bay and “35+” campaign for the Lord Nelson Brewery were favourites among the coaches at B&T, and its “EXHIBIT A-i” for Maurice Blackburn tugged on the heartstrings with a powerful visualisation of refugee trauma and injustice. Its biggest success on the awards stage, however, was for its overall agency proposition — winning the Independent Agency More Than 50 Employees at the B&T Awards and a string of Independent Agency of the Year trophies at the Andy’s, Spikes and even at Cannes Lions.

The H+C team puts this success down to the strength of its people and its independent status — allowing it to further invest in its playing squad. During the 2023 season, it invested 6.3 per cent of its entire revenue on learning and development — equating to around $4,000 per player, impressive given it added 38 new first-teamers during the season, too.

In the 2024 season, H+C have moved into a flashier new home ground in Surry Hills and is plotting even greater on-field success. With such a strong season in 2023, we can see H+C becoming even stronger still.