The 2023 season was a solid effort by PHD with some wins and losses throughout the season. The Eveleigh-based team won five new clients, including McCain, HESTA, Virgin Voyages, Intuit Mailchimp and Lipton Hot Tea & Infusions. It also retained clients including the AFL and Vocus Group.

It lost Unilever to GroupM’s Mindshare. That account alone is thought to be worth in the region of $40 million. It also lost the Priceline Pharmacy buying and planning account to Initiative, another $10 million dropped. One other notable loss was the $4.5 million-rated Bakers Delight account to indie shop Nunn Media.

Despite these, PHD came out of the year in the black—something that not every major media agency could say at the end of the 2023 season. The agency grew its billings by 6.8 per cent year-on-year, according to COMvergence.

It wasn’t all deals and accounts, however. The agency invested in its team development through PHD@PHD, a training initiative offering more than 100 hours of soft and hard skills training, which led to 71 promotions. This commitment to workplace culture earned PHD the Great Place to Work certification, with 83 per cent employee satisfaction. PHD also ranked eighth on the AFR’s Best Place to Work list and fifth on its Most Innovative list.

In terms of industry accolades, the agency won accolades globally. Multiple employees in its Aussie outfit have been recognised on prestigious lists, including seven shortlisted for B&T’s 30 Under 30 and three senior female leaders on the B&T Women in Media Power list Longlist. Additionally, PHD staff won individual awards like B&T’s 30 Under 30 Media Planner/Buyer and Women Leading Tech Award for AdTech – showing the agency’s bench strength and ‘academy’ is in good shape.

PHD actively engaged in industry events, with team members speaking at Google panels, MFA Leadership events, the Programmatic Summit, and Cannes in Cairns. To enhance campaign measurement, PHD partnered with Beatgrid for cross-media measurement using single-source first-party data, improving their understanding of ad performance across channels.