Saatchi & Saatchi had a transitional year in 2023, to say the least. In February, Patrick Rowe was named CEO, stepping into the hot seat from a broader role within the Publicis Groupe. 

Then in May, the agency’s head of creativity, Simon Bagnasco departed. In September, it was announced that Mandie van der Merwe and Avish Gordhan (pictured above with CEO Patrick Rowe) would make the hop from Dentsu Creative to serve as its joint chief creatives. 

In October, chief strategy officer, Iona Macgregor, announced that she was jumping ship to whiteGREY (now rolled into AKQA). Her replacement wasn’t announced until July this year. In November, long-time staffer Toby Aldred was bumped from GM to MD and chief client officer. 

But despite what must have been an exhausting cycle of welcoming and leaving drinks, Saatchis’ creative output seemed to be largely unaffected. Global Publicis Groupe rules mean that the agency has been tight-lipped on its new business success but we understand it won more than 15 clients across a variety of scopes of work in 2023. It still lists some of Australia’s most important creative accounts on its books, too, including the likes of Dettol, Heineken, Nescafe, TPG Telecom and Visa.

The agency also had a knack for creating award-winning work for the likes of Arnott’s, Toyota and Vodafone. In fact, “In The Middle” for Toyota, “Find Gary,” for Vodafone and “Life’s Little Moments” for Arnott’s all picked up gongs in 2023 — including the much-vaunted Grand Effie.

Saatchis told us that it expanded its integrated offering with new data and CRM smarts. It also expanded its sales promotion and retail offering. Like Publicis Groupe stablemate Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi benefits from a wide array of employee engagement and support initiatives, some with fancy en Francaise names such as flexible working arrangement Liberté, LGBTQ support initiative Égalité and sustainability-focused Écologique.