The Manifest Group founder, who recently caught up with B&T, says that Aussies “have a chip on their shoulder” but should use this to their advantage. He believes the industry is teeming with creative ambition, if not belief, and that communications agencies which provide a consolidated proposition across multiple channels and can make brands culturally relevant are primed to eat more of adland’s lunch.
Traditionally, PR and communications agencies have had a confidence problem in integrated agency teams, with larger and better funded advertising agency peers leading on ideas and sitting on much larger budgets.
In recent years that dynamic has shifted somewhat, according to Alex Myers, the founder of global brand communications agency Manifest Group.
He believes that a combination of factors, such as the fragmentation of media and rise of social media; a preference for a consolidated agency approach; and the use of AI and technology to democratise production and processes, has opened the door to communications agencies to have a far greater role in an integrated campaign team.
“There used to be that old debate about PR agencies eating advertising agencies lunch, but I think that has moved along in the sense that brand teams now understand the value of a consolidated approach, an agency they can use across multiple channels, rather than being siloed,” he said.
“There’s a real opportunity for comms agencies to evolve better into that consolidated proposition than an ad agency that has always been specialists on that kind of craft production side and the strategy being thinking around a channel.
“The comms world always understood that a story, an idea, exists above the channel. If you’re going to build a story that is culturally relevant, it can’t be based on a quirky line of copy or a specific asset. It has to be something that exists without a channel first, and then you decide how you’re going to deliver it. And something that’s happened in the UK is increasingly comms has become more integral to the conversation.”
Myers said his agency has increasingly been taking the lead in integrated agency teams even though media and creative agencies “control most of the budget”. This is due to the strategic thinking that agencies such as Manifest Group can provide over the whole spectrum of paid, earned, owned and social media.
“I think strategy is eating creativity for lunch a little bit,” he said. “That can be seen as a lack of creativity, but I don’t think that’s true. What I think is it’s just the prioritisation is moving upstream and the creative is better when the strategy is better.
“That means that comms agencies, globally are able to provide that strategic counsel on how a brand is culturally relevant every brief, whatever channel you’re working in. We do digital, we do social, we do out of home advertising, TV, advertising, PR now across the globe, right?
“There’s now an appreciation that even if you’re working back from value metrics of return on investment right, then consolidating your channels makes so much more sense. If you use one agency partner across four different media channels, like paid, earned, social and owned, the ROI improves by more than 40 per cent. You’re also going to get an idea to market 20 per cent faster, which is more important than ever before. So it’s not just about efficiency, it’s about speed to market.”
Australia’s ‘chip on your shoulder’
Myers believes that the Australian communications and creative industries has an opportunity to produce braver work, such as its Breastralia campaign that used a naked mural to spark a discussion about normalising breast feeding.
“In Australia, it’s fascinating because there’s a massive chip on your shoulder as a country and as a region in APAC that you look out to the rest of the world and might not think that you’re not as good as them,” he said. “I don’t know if this is Aussie culture or not, but there’s a shit ton of great work going on in Australia, possibly because you’re on the other side of the world (and far enough from global HQs to get away with it).
“Australia is bubbling with creativity. I think that the mixture of culture as well, it’s not a myopic culture. Where Australia could improve is that brand teams are miles behind on understanding the potential of merging channels strategically, so all the creativity in Australia tends to still sit in a lane a lot more than it’s doing elsewhere.
“Although the US is our biggest operation; Australia is our fastest growing region.”
That said, Myers also appreciates that Australia tends to be skilled at multiple pursuits rather than being a standard bearer of creativity (which is the UK), or productivity (the US) and sustainability (Sweden).
“Australia is the standard bearer of swearing,” he added.
Established in 2009, Manifest Group, has been expanding its global presence and opened its Melbourne studio in late 2020. Locally, the team is led by Isabel Thomson-Officer, who built the office from scratch during the Covid pandemic.
It is the communications agency that made the Scottish craft beer brand BrewDog famous, and has offices in Melbourne, London, Manchester, Stockholm, New York and Los Angeles.
Recently, Manifest Group won an agency of record brief for the Swedish EV manufacturer, Polestar. The fit tech brand Zwift is also a new win, while Manifest has also picked up briefs for a government department, Nuanu Creative City, Trilogy Skincare, R.A.D (footwear brand newly launched in Australia), and Happy Souls Kids. The Australia team utilising its 24-hour creative model supports the Manifest global team on a few accounts too.
The agency, which has around 10 full time staff, plans to double in size in Australia in the next few months, and Myers views this market as its future engine for growth.
Telstra a north star
One brand that is getting it right is Telstra. Myers believes that Telstra is a brand that reflects and represents Australia’s creative ambition and said that the work it produces “shits all any other telco in the world”.
“Telstra has an ambition to do something different and in different ways. It measures it empirically. It values marketing as a science, but that science is culturally relevant. “It’s about how do we make Telstra a brand
that people have a real legitimate connection with. Well, they do that by having a real legitimate influence on culture across multiple different touch points.”
Myers encourages Aussie communications agency peers to “raise their sights” and “look at the horizon” rather than “the step in front of you”.
“There is great work that’s being done and exciting creative talent that exists in Australia, but be willing to colour outside the lines,” he said.
“Raise your sights a little bit emotionally. It’s your responsibility to make brands exciting, ethical, all of the things you want the world to be…not just writing fucking press releases.
“This is the new industrial revolution. Get with it. Enjoy yourself. Have some more fun. Fun is good strategy.”
And good strategy, coupled with big culturally relevant ideas, are what shifts the dial, or at least eats others lunch.
