January can be a slow month. The kids are still off school, there’s the long weekend at the end of the month, offices return from Christmas at different times.
But last month proved to be nothing of the sort with (at our count, anyway) more than 20 significant account moves over the 21 working day month. We almost ran out of paper to write them all down on.
Before we come to the creative and media podiums, let’s take a look at some of the wins that didn’t quite make the cut. As ever, we prioritise new business, rather than retention and account prestige and the novelty of a win play significant parts in our rankings—as you’ll read below, a couple of interesting new entrants to the market have notched silver medals. We’ve recently had questions about how agencies can make it onto the podiums, the best way is to drop us a line at [email protected]. It goes without saying that we can’t report on things that we don’t know.
Initiative’s Goodman Fielder win will be important for the agency and CEO Jo McAlister, appointed in November. Dentsu won Pandora’s global media account. While the jeweller’s billings might not be enormous in every market, together the account will be a significant win for the Japanese holdco. We revealed that GroupM’s Mindshare and Sparro had split the Australian Labor Party’s media account—with the election coming this year, it will prove to be a very lucrative account over the next few months. Havas’ Geely win is important, too. The Chinese carmarker’s trajectory only points up, meaning it will likely grow in billings. UM’s King Living win was a decent bit of business, too.
On the creative side, BMF’s Tourism Tasmania retention was expected, but is still important for the agency. There were two indie auto wins, Dig nabbed Porsche and Richard Rose drove off with Mitsubishi. The AFL’s creative for the 2025 season went to 72andSunny and the Bureau of Everything won growing beauty brand MCoBeauty. WPP’s bespoke food offering, The Kitchen, took home the consolidated creative, media and production account for Masterfoods. Hopeful Monsters picked up the creative for Club Med. Meat treat brand Jack Link’s also announced Special and Hatched as its creative and media agencies, respectively.
But anyway, onto the podiums.
Media Agencies
Bronze – PHD
PHD kicked of the year with a bang, picking up the media account for insurance behemoth Zurich. The move was part of a global review of its media, the global account had sat with IPG Mediabrands’ UM.
“PHD is thrilled to partner with Zurich in Australia, we’re looking forward to working with them to help drive their growth, through both stronger performance outcomes and more intelligent planning solutions; it’s a great way to kick off 2025,” Mark Jarrett, PHD Australia’s CEO told B&T.
Zurich’s move consolidated the work of 20 agencies across more than 15 markets across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and North America, according to Campaign. Ordinarily, this win would be significant enough to perhaps nab a silver medal on the podium if it were not for EssenceMediacom’s intriguing new account.
Silver – EssenceMediacom
EssenceMediacom won the account for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) looming streaming service, Max midway through the month. The new platform is due to enter the Australian market later this year and will need to do so with a bang, to say the least. As the streaming wars hot up with global players Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount+ and Disney+ and local offerings such as Stan and Binge all competing for viewers’ eyeballs, Max will need to be aggressive to cut through.
EssenceMediacom, B&T’s reigning Media Agency of the Year, will be responsible for media strategy, planning, implementation and measurement, and will support WBD’s in-house team across biddable channels.
“This premium value proposition needs a media agency who is up to the task of getting that message out far and wide, and we think EssenceMediacom is the agency to do that. The connection, chemistry and culture fit was evident from the outset, and their team really impressed with clear articulation of the strategy, and focus of delivery against results,” said Sasha Mackie, WBD’s senior director of marketing ANZ.
EssenceMediacom Australia and New Zealand CEO Pippa Berlocher said: “We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Warner Bros. Discovery on the launch of Max in Australia. WBD content has always been at the cutting edge of culture and we’re looking forward to helping them breakthrough and bring it to life locally in a uniquely Aussie way. From the first interaction of the pitch, we loved working with the team at WBD and had amazing chemistry from the start. We can’t wait to get cracking.”
Gold – OMG
On 14 January, Omnicom won one of the largest accounts in all of adland—Kimberley-Clark’s consolidated media (excluding the US).
In its latest annual report, Kimberly-Clark spent a whopping AU$1.68 billion on advertising. While most of that is weighted to the US, the win remains hugely significant for the agency group.
Kimberly-Clark’s brand list is a who’s who of the personal care aisle: Kleenex, Andrex, Kotex, Wondersoft, Viva, Huggies, Pull-Ups, DryNites, Little Swimmers, Depend and Poise. GroupM’s Mindshare had been charged with Kimberly-Clark’s media in Australia.
“We are excited and eager to get to work with our partners ahead,” a Kimberly-Clark spokesperson told B&T. Though we expect not as eager as Omnicom’s accountants.
Creative Agencies
Bronze – Howatson+Company
Myer appointed Howatson+Company to man its creative and to organise its production “following an extensive market evaluation” that saw the department store dispense with Clemenger BBDO and WPP’s Hogarth.
“Howatson+Company demonstrated an unparalleled understanding of our business and the broader retail environment. Their creative platform and operating model will position Myer for future growth and create a competitive edge in how we interact with customers. We are thrilled to welcome them as our creative and production partner,” said Clarabella Burley, chief marketing officer at Myer.
Howatson+Company has been expanding its production operations in recent months, taking Endeavour Group’s production and launching its own AI operation, Plus Also Studios.
Silver – Wieden+Kennedy
Another new name on the New Business Winners column this month, and one you should all be familiar with: Wieden+Kennedy.
That’s right, the storied advertising agency that has produced some of the most important and famous work in the history of the industry has opened up shop in Australia to join McDonald’s creative roster. DDB and Akcelo still hold most of the account, but Wieden+Kennedy’s entrance to the market will be of interest to creative agencies and marketers alike.
As it stands, W+K will be responsible for Macca’s chicken and McCafe products. Not a huge remit, admittedly, though we wouldn’t be surprised if that grew at some point in the future. Its “small core team” will include talent from across the W+K network as well as new Australian hires.
“The appointment sees the highly successful creative company join our award-winning agency village, which aims to continue to deliver compelling and successful campaigns to drive our brand and business forward,” a McDonald’s spokesperson said.
“We were incredibly impressed by W&K’s understanding of our fans and creative approach and we are excited to work with them, alongside our existing agency partners – DDB, OMD, Akcelo and Digitas – in 2025. We would like to acknowledge and thank the other agencies who participated in the process,” they added.
W+K told Little Black Book that it will “find the unique fan truths that make McDonald’s special in that market”.
“The team in Australia have set a very specific goal to make work that brings these fan insights to life and find their ways into culture,” the agency said.
W+K also said that its “priority first and foremost is McDonald’s” but didn’t rule out pursuing other pitches. Consider yourselves warned.
Gold – IPG & WPP
We don’t often split winners but the Kimberly-Clark account’s size has meant that this month, we have to.
A Kimberly-Clark spokesperson told B&T that IPG will take on the creative for its Clark’s Feminine Care and Family Care brands which include Kotex, Kleenex, Wondersoft and Viva.
WPP, meanwhile, will handle Kimberly-Clark’s Baby and Child Care and Adult Care brands. These include Huggies, Pull-Ups, DryNites, Little Swimmers, Depend and Poise.
Kimberly-Clark’s creative work had previously been split across a variety of agencies including R/GA, Ogilvy and UM.
As we mentioned above, Kimberly-Clark spent well over AU$1.5 billion on advertising globally at the most recent count. It’s a helluva win for both businesses. Though what happens when (if?) that Omnicom-IPG merger concludes remains to be seen.