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Digitas
Team PROFILE
Agency Type
Digital
Ownership
Publicis Groupe
tagline
The Connected Experience Agency
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Davy Rennie
CEO
Sarah Heitkamp
Head of intelligence strategy
Elise Morris
Head of data intelligence
Kate Warren-Smith
Melbourne MD
Simon Brock
Executive creative director
Key Stats
Offices
Sydney, Melbourne
Headcount
70+
Gender Balance Staff
M: 48%
F: 52%
Gender Balance Leaders
M: 25%
F: 75%
Client book
Client Wins
12
Client Losses
0
Client extensions
8
Largest clients
Aldi
McDonald's
Total Tools Hardware Group
Trophy Cabinet
B&T Awards
Campaign AOY ANZ
Agency Scorecards report
For Publicis’ Digitas, 2025 was an important year. While the French holdco’s other agencies—Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo, Zenith, etc.—often claim much of the public limelight, Digitas was quietly, effectively delivering on its strategy in the past 12 months.
First, a bit of background. Band leader Davy Rennie was appointed in 2024 and set about uniting Digitas and ecommerce firm Balance. Digitas was then rethought as the ‘Connected Experiences’ agency and set about delivering campaigns, CX, commerce and CRM for brands including McDonald’s, ALDI, Exetel, Mitre 10 and the New Zealand Government.
Importantly, Digitas, with the help of some shrewd new hires including Sarah Heitkamp (pinched from Publicis stablemate Zenith) and Kate Warren-Smith (from VML Commerce) set about proving in measurable ways that its Connected Experience approach delivers stronger outcomes for both clients and Publicis.
It worked, Digitas returning to growth, winning a number of competitive pitches, retaining all its clients, and significantly expanded the scope and impact of important client relationships. For instance, its work with McDonald’s and Toyota on their CRM systems helped to improve both clients’ business outcomes. It deployed its creative strengths with Exetel’s rebrand and put ALDI front and centre in online food trends. This work helped it win the Best Digital Services trophy at the B&T Awards in 2025, too.
AI, as one might expect, has rapidly become the metronome keeping the beat on everything Digitas does. Studio AI, for instance, has helped reduce timelines while improving creative effectiveness when launching brands. Its Virtual Garage tool introduced AI-augmented production into its automotive work, delivering faster, more scalable and more cost-efficient outputs.
Its Connected Fandom Index, Fandom Flywheel and NX Score helped reframe engagement as something that can be measured, predicted and directly linked to commercial growth.
While not included in the judging period, Digitas has continued to strum, pluck and riff away into 2026, too, expanding its relationship with Gumtree from CRM (won late in 2025) to full media planning and buying. It also named Miriam Healy, formerly engineering director at AKQA, as its chief technology officer to help scale up its agentic and machine learning capabilities.
Digitas, as part of the Publicis Groupe, benefits from a range of recruitment, retention, learning, development and flexible working arrangements including its Work Your World and Viva La Difference models.
Hightlights reel
ALDI: 'ALDIfy'
ALDIfy was one of the pieces of work we were most proud of in 2025 because it solved a real brand problem with sharp cultural instinct and serious practical value. ALDI has long won on price, but many occasional shoppers still doubted it had the range to keep up with the meals they actually wanted to make. Instead of arguing with that perception, we built a smarter proof point: ALDIfy.
ALDIfy turned viral food trends into shoppable ALDI recipes, using real-time cultural data to identify what was breaking out across TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and Google, then translating those dishes into affordable, achievable shopping lists built from products available nationwide. It was fast, visual and native to how people already discover food. It moved from feed to fridge with almost no friction. What made it special was the discipline behind it. The platform made ALDI culturally relevant without forcing the brand to become a bloated digital supermarket. It stayed true to the Good Different model while proving range in a way people actually cared about.
In the first four months, ALDIfy generated almost 300,000 sessions, helping reposition ALDI as a brand that can genuinely keep pace with food culture, at ALDI prices.
Hightlights reel
McDonald's: 'CRM'
Our McDonald’s CRM work was one of the pieces we were proudest of in 2025 because it showed how first-party data can drive sharper creativity, stronger fandom and serious commercial impact. In QSR, everyone has an app, a loyalty program and a stream of communications. That is table stakes. The real opportunity is using data to make each interaction feel more timely, more personal and more worth acting on.
That approach came to life across major launches. For ‘A Minecraft Movie Meal’, we used audience signals and behavioural data to shape tailored journeys for different fan groups, including families, adult Minecraft fans and chicken lovers. The result was a campaign that felt culturally tuned-in and individually relevant, helping deliver a 40 per cent repeat purchase rate and engagement well above benchmark. ForMcWings, we segmented audiences intoChicken Lovers andBeef Eaters, then served each group creative designed around their tastes and motivations. That helped push sales 50 per cent above projections in week one.
We also expanded CRM beyond email and push into theMy Macca’s app, using personalised landing pages, deals and bonuses to make the experience more useful and more persuasive. That makes CRM far more than a comms channel. It is one of the
business’s most powerful growth platforms.
Hightlights reel
Exetel: 'Rebrand'
Exetel was one of our proudest campaigns because it proved how powerful clarity can be when an entire category is built to obscure it. Exetel already had the product credentials. It was consistently ranked among the best for speed and reliability. What it lacked was a brand with enough force to cut through a market drowning in half-truths, fine print and fake complexity.
Our answer was Brutally Honest Internet, a full-scale brand overhaul built around the simplest possible truth: honesty had become the most distinctive thing an internet provider could offer.
We gave Exetel a brutalist visual system, direct language and an ownable brand asset in Warp Green, the colour of working internet, designed for screens and almost impossible to ignore. We also pushed the idea beyond communications into the product itself, renaming features like Warp Speed so the whole experience felt consistent, intelligible and sharp.
This was the kind of work agencies love to make because every part of it lined up. Strategy. Design. Product. Performance. And the results were immediate. Within 30 days, the rebrand delivered the equivalent of 4.2 months of sales, dropped cost per order by 79 per cent, and drove Exetel’s best sales month on record.
Digitas' take on 2025
2025 was a defining year for Digitas Australia.
We focused on doing work that genuinely mattered to our clients and proved its value in the real world. By bringing creativity, intelligence, technology, CRM and commerce closer together, we helped some of the region’s most recognisable brands including McDonald’s, Toyota, ALDI, Exetel, Visa and the New Zealand Government turn customer engagement into action and loyalty into lasting growth.
Our work showed that emotional connection, when designed and measured properly, can drive meaningful business impact. Alongside client results, we invested deeply in our people, our culture and smarter, AI enabled ways of working, creating an environment where ambition, curiosity and care could thrive. In a year where expectations were high and scrutiny was sharper than ever, Digitas delivered connected experiences that stood out, stood up to measurement, and set a new benchmark for what modern agencies can achieve.
Sarah Heitkamp, Head of intelligence strategy
The modern customer practitioner.
Deep customer tech and media understand that allows her to unpack the true potential of connected experience.
If we were a band, we'd be...
The Venga Boys
“The Venga bus is coming and everybody’s jumping…”
Whilst for legal and compliance reasons we cannot say
we are the party, when Digitas gets involved, the potential for experiences that raise the floor and the roof compound. A modern
collection of talented W-shaped individuals who create work that just sticks in your head.
Digitas
B&T's Agency Score
7.6
Previous season: N/A
Critic's Comment
“An up-tempo performance from Digitas in 2025, capped with an impressive B&T Awards win. Très bien!”