The 2023 season was a good showing for UM. It picked up eight new clients, the largest of which were the $8 million-rated NRMA Motoring & Services account and General Mills’ $6.5 million-rated media account — all on retainers, too. It only lost three, the largest of which being Mailchimp. UM also successfully re-pitched for four accounts, including brewer Lion, AMEX and the MLA. Together, these accounts are worth in excess of $100 million in billings. 

As the clock struck midnight on 31 December, UM commanded nearly $600 million in billings, according to COMvergence — down just 0.7 per cent year-on-year. That figure is impressive considering that Covid swelled the Federal Government’s media spending to $240 million, putting its 2023 spend down a fair bit.

The government’s Master Media Account went to pitch early in 2024, with UM retaining it in July. This result will be considered in UM’s 2024 Agency Scorecard. On its own, UM’s federal government team accounts for around a third of its entire roster. To say it’s important to the agency would be an understatement, to say the least.

UM said it prides itself on its progressive and innovative approach to hiring and team development. During the 2023 season, it commenced a scholarship program for final-year students with the University of Wollongong’s Woolyungah Indigenous Centre. This has also expanded into a partnership for careers, sponsorship, business acumen and volunteering. 

The agency also provides employment prospects for people with disabilities and has partnered with Dylan Alcott AO’s The Field — a job site for those with disabilities seeking employment and a provider of advisory and training services to the agency. It also created the ACCELERATE learning program that identifies the skills and steps to guide its teams’ development — UM said it improves its staff retention and leads to better results for its clients. 

UM (along with other IPG Mediabrands agencies) has spent time and money investing in automation to take care of repetitive, low-value tasks. In fact, such is UM’s success with automation technology, it told us that it has been able to carry out a minor reduction in headcount. Interesting times we’re living in.

All told women account for 64 per cent of UM’s playing staff, with men accounting for 35 per cent — the remainder choosing to identify as other/non-binary for the purposes of our reporting. According to the WGEA reporting, UM had no gender pay gap in the ‘23 or ‘22 seasons.