If B&T had a cent for every time someone had said to us that it’s an “interesting” time to be in media, we wouldn’t be rich, but we’d have at least $10.
Channels are exploding and audiences are more slippery than ever. But at the same time, clients are demanding improved results with the same budget as last year or, even worse, lower.
It’s tough out there. But not for these 10 new business bosses. They’re ensuring their agencies are getting the lion’s share of the accounts coming to market. And there have been some very big moves this year, at both global and local levels. These 10 are the people out there winning those pitches and delivering results for their agencies.
As ever with B&T’s Best of the Best lists, there are plenty of people who just missed out on this top 10 — we have to be ruthless and we take no great pride in doing so.
If you would like to throw your hat — or a colleague’s — in the ring for our upcoming Best of the Best lists: Data Scientists, Media Agency Heads of Investment/Trading, Casting directors and Social Changemakers, please email editorial@themisfits.media.
So, here we go, it’s your Best of the Best Media Agency New Business Bosses and Growth Chiefs.
10. Morris Bryant, partner, Sparro by Brainlabs
A little over a decade ago, Bryant and his brother Cameron founded Sparro. Not to be confused with B&T’s very own Greg ‘Sparrow’ Graham, the agency has been on a stellar run of new business lately. Specialising in digital media, the shop was acquired by British firm Brainlabs at the start of the year. It’s not hard to see why Brainlabs swooped to buy out the agency. At the time, Sparro managed the digital buying for brands such as Estee Lauder, Catch, Temple & Webster, Andie and Archie Rose.
Post-acquisition, Sparro has truly spread its wings. Earlier this month, it picked up the SEO work for Healthengine. But in July, it picked up the paid digital media, above-the-line media, SEO, and affiliate marketing for Under Armour. This win, which saw it take the Silver medal in B&T’s monthly New Business Winners round-up, showed how the work that the agency had done to expand its expertise beyond its traditional paid digital media and SEO beat. We cannot wait to see how Bryant and the now 100-strong staff lead Sparro to truly spread its wings in the coming 12 months.
9. Jacquie Alley, chief operating officer, The Media Store
Jacquie Alley and The Media Store have been quietly going about crushing the new business scene. In 2023, COMvergence listed its growth at 16 per cent, winning About Time We Met, Travel Texas and pro-bono client Cure Cancer. More recently, it has compounded this success by picking up the comprehensive media strategy, planning and buying for the Melbourne Royal Show as well as partnership and contra management. Overall, the agency has grown its revenue by 65 per cent in recent times following its new business wins. This, as well as being a longstanding leader in diversity, equity and inclusion in the industry, saw Alley win the Executive Leader category at this year’s B&T Women in Media Awards.
8. Jimmy Hyett, CEO and founder, This Is Flow
Hyett founded This Is Flow hot on the heels of Bryant in early 2015. Since then, it has grown to list 40 staff members and has 25 clients on retainers. COMvergence listed it as growing nearly 21 per cent from 2022 to 2023, winning the buying and planning remits for brands such as the a2 Milk Company, P&O Cruises and Air Asia. It also picked up the accounts for Unilever hairdressing brand Toni&Guy and beauty brand Impulse — seeing its billings surge by 60 per cent from $50 million in 2022 to $80 million in 2023. It’s little wonder that B&T awarded This Is Flow a 9/10 in our inaugural Agency Scorecards.
7. Sam Geer, managing director, Media, Accenture Song A/NZ
“But he’s only just started!” we hear you cry. And you’re right. Geer, along with his fellow former Initiative colleagues Melissa Fein and Chris Colter, officially started at Accenture Song just this week after their bombshell departure from the IPG Mediabrands agency was announced in May. However, while Geer was at Initiative, he was a critical component in turning the agency into a new biz winning machine. Over the course of 2023, Initiative won accounts such as Priceline Pharmacy, Fantastic Furniture, Cricket Australia, Crown Resorts and the WA Government Jobs Tourism, Science & Innovation plus a heap of Pernod Ricard and Sanitarium brands. Of course, he has only just started at Accenture Song and the trio will need to build an agency from scratch. But, if we were going to pick anyone from adland to do it, Geer would be near the top of our list.
6. Mat Nunn, managing director, Nunn Media
Nunn has driven his eponymous agency to become something of a powerhouse in the Australian media scene — and not just for indie agencies, either. In 2023, COMvergence listed its growth year-on-year at just under seven per cent, impressive to say the least given market conditions. The agency now ranks as the 13th highest-billing in the country, again according to COMvergence figures. Last year, it picked up a number of impressive clients: Bakers Delight, the Giants AFL team and Melbourne Airport which COMvergence values at $4.5 million, $3.3 million and $2.3 million, respectively.
However, in January, Nunn and the agency had a serious win indeed. It pinched the Spotlight Retail Group’s media account from PHD — the account itself is thought to be worth in the region of $90 million. “It’s pleasing to see the Spotlight Retail Group again recognise Nunn Media for its operational scale, digital expertise and ability to execute campaigns that drive tangible commercial results,” said Nunn. We couldn’t agree more.
5. Renée Ashby, head of marketing and business development, OMD
Ashby has been with Omnicom’s OMD for more than a decade rising from an EA and officer manager role to become its business development director. Now, she’s running a crack team, with OMD being the largest media agency in the land, controlling some of the largest billers in adland. In 2023, Ashby led the team to some impressive wins: Amart Furniture, Frucor and Cancer Council WA — valued at just under $20 million, $8.1 million and $4.3 million by COMvergence, respectively. It also picked up the combined account for brands including Bacardi, Bombay Sapphire and Grey Goose. In the case of Frucor and those Bacardi-owned brands, it won the repitch too. Of course, OMD’s parent, the Omnicom Media Group, has recently announced Kim Hamilton as its first chief marketing officer. However, the Group has maintained that its agency brands will still come first and that Ashby, as well as her other new business and marketing counterparts, will be supercharged in their positions to deliver even better growth. Perhaps its biggest bit of business was its retention of the Telstra media account late in 2023.
4. Raj Gupta, chief strategy and growth officer, UM
Gupta joined UM in 2019 after spending a whopping 18 years with MEC (merged with Maxus in 2017 to create Wavemaker), first as the chief strategy officer and adding growth to his remit in 2022. And, frankly, UM has had year to remember in 2024. In May, it won the $217 million-rated global Levi’s account. Then in August, the agency had an enviable double-whammy of wins. First, B&T revealed that it was in the process of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on its retention of the huge and highly sought-after Federal Government Master Media Account — valued at a cool $140 million. Then, a mere eight days later, UM was at it again, winning the media account for Target, estimated to be worth $25 million — again a story B&T broke. It’s little wonder, then, that UM topped B&T’s monthly new business round-up earlier this month.
3. Rory Heffernan, national managing director, Atomic 212º
Atomic 212º and Heffernan continue to go from strength to strength. COMvergence pinned its growth year-on-year in 2023 at a very healthy 16.1 per cent on the back of 11 account wins — most notable of which were the BMW, BMW Motorrad and Mini brands, Craveable Brands’ Chicken Treat, Oporto, Red Rooster and Tourism NT. These three wins alone netted the agency nearly $30 million in billings, according to COMvergence. In fact, its performance last year was enough to put it top of the pile for indie media agencies in B&T’s yearly new business round-up. More recently, Heffernan has been leading the team to some impressive accounts — in September alone, it was announced that Atomic had won the account for BlueScope and GWM — pinching the latter from Nunn Media.
2. James Hier, chief growth and product officer, Wavemaker
Hier has been with B&T’s reigning Media Agency of the Year for nearly seven years and spent another seven years with its predecessor MEC. In 2023, Wavemaker had a stellar year. COMvergence pinned its year-on-year growth at more than 20 per cent, amassing some $80 million in new clients with the $28.7 million-rated Mitsubishi account being the pick of the litter. Just days before everyone shut up shop for the Christmas break, Wavemaker found time to bring the $20 million Allianz account. What’s more, it successfully re-pitched for the Mitsubishi, Bridgestone, SA Govt, Allianz Travel Insurance and Henkel accounts. Such was its success, B&T also ranked it top of the pile in our yearly new business round-up amongst its holdco brethren.
1. Helena Snowdon, head of new business, media brands, Publicis
While the previous nine new biz whizzes are great, Snowdon and Publicis have been on a roll for the ages. In 2023, COMvergence listed Zenith and Spark Foundry’s growth at 30.7 per cent and 24.5 per cent. Zenith’s wins netted the agency some $65 million in billings, according to COMvergence, with the Adobe account alone valued at a cool $36 million. Spark, meanwhile, won the Lindt and Cancer Council Victoria accounts. Starcom’s big hits were the TPG Telecom and Keypath Education accounts — TPG Telecom alone is thought to be worth some $45 million.
In 2024, that hot streak has continued apace. In March, Publicis announced that it had netted the global Spotify media account — worth $370 million according to COMvergence figures. Then in July, Publicis again won the global media account for Lego — thought to be worth more than $600 million per year, which would give Snowdon and the team some comfort lest they stand on one of the brand’s plastic bricks sans shoes. It’s little wonder that the team from Zenith told B&T as part of our Agency Scorecards project that they’d been having a “truly incredible” time of it recently. Frankly, we can’t see that growth slowing any time soon. And that, reader, is why Snowdon is the Best of the Best.
