M+C Saatchi Group has overhauled its Aussie and APAC leadership with Dani Bassil taking the reins of the ANZ Group business and Justin Graham leaving his APAC leadership role later this year, B&T can reveal.
Graham departs M+C Saatchi after spending 12 years with the business, joining in 2014 as chief strategy officer before rising to become the Australian group CEO, then the APAC CEO and global advertising lead.
Bassil’s appointment follows the announcement that former M+C Saatchi ANZ CEO Michael McEwan has joined Droga5 Melbourne, a decision B&T understands was made months ago.
Bassil is not replacing McEwan directly, who was more focused on the advertising side of the business. Instead, Bassil steps into the ANZ group CEO position previously held by Graham before he became APAC CEO. Bassil brings leadership experience in marketing, advertising and digital as CEO of Clemenger BBDO Australia, and previously as CEO of Digitas UK at Publicis, where she forged a strong reputation in that market.
Bassil, who served as the CEO of Clemenger BBDO for two-and-a-half years until she left in January, will head up a leadership team that includes Steve Coll, Tanya Vragalis, Jenn Butler, Benjamin Harrison, Jen Hegarty and James Coller.
Graham told B&T that he was proud of the legacy he leaves behind at M+C Saatchi.
“It’s the people. I look at the people who were before me at M+C Saatchi that are in these extraordinary roles, like Brent Smart at Telstra, [Paul] Bradbury or Kimberly [Wells] at TBWA and Mim [Haysom] at Suncorp. There’s a next generation of those people coming through who still love the industry like I do,” he said.
“We have some really core values in this business: run towards the fire, walk in other worlds and be excellent to each other. As I think about those values in particular, I see people who live by those values every day, and they’re pretty good values to live by in life overall. If people are walking out of here doing that, then I’ll be happy.”
Changing Clients, Changing M+C
It is a time of flux at M+C Saatchi. The business, Graham said, is adapting to changing market conditions and the demands of clients. Currently, it is in the middle of ironing out its new structure and approach that it feels will deliver significant benefits to clients.
“We have always talked about ourselves as a collective of specialist agencies, highly entrepreneurial, independent in nature, those last two points don’t change, but we have moved, as an organisation needs to, and evolved with the changing dynamics in the industry to a very much regional-first model. There are regional leads around the world, and those specialisms now come and supercharge what that region looks like,” he said.
“For me, I was fortunate to move out of a global role that was focused on advertising and our communications product into the APAC role. It’s been fascinating. We’ve got some thriving businesses, we’ve got a brilliant digital media business in Singapore. Malaysia continues to be one of the leading agencies in that market. We’ve moved to some licensing agreements in the region, and we’ll see more of that within our network moving forward. We see that as a great way to have great people, independent but leading with our brand, taking the best of M+C Saatchi but acting in that entrepreneurial way.
“Moving forward within the region, Singapore will continue to be a really important part for us because of our extraordinary digital media capabilities, it’s a global centre of excellence led by Kabeer [Chaudhary], and we’ll continue to build out work from there as well. But Australia will continue to be the jewel in the crown within the APAC region, which is why we’ve made a big hire around an ANZ CEO, which is a role that hasn’t existed in this business since I did it.”
Zaid Al-Qassab, the global CEO of M+C Saatchi Group, said of Bassil: “Her broad leadership experience and client-centric approach will power the agency forward, and her vast digital expertise is what’s most needed in the next phase of our journey to give brands Cultural Power. I’m excited to see what magic she can make.”
Bassil told B&T that she had always admired M+C Saatchi and was very excited to bring her “experience in brand, consulting, media and digital together to lead this group”.
“How we drive value and growth for clients through strategic thinking and cut through with powerful creative and brand ideas is what I get out of bed for, and there’s no better agency brand than MC Saatchi to partner with clients to achieve this. I can’t wait to get started,” she added.
Graham added that Bassil was perfect to take M+C into a world that has become truly digital.
“Our whole business has moved into a digital world, and the core of Cultural Power [M+C’s new agency positioning] is recognising people as channels and the channels that exist around us, away from traditional channels. Dani will thrive in that environment,” he said.
There have been other recent moves at M+C. The aforementioned McEwan and Lisa McMillan, who left her role as chief client officer at M+C Saatchi Group’s Bohemia, to become managing director of UM’s 80-strong Australian Government buying and planning team.
“We’re really clear on our strategy as a business, as any business needs to be in this time of disruption. There have been choices made around that piece as well, and we’ve had some extraordinary people in our business, but we’ve had to take a deliberate approach as to how we’re going to grow moving forward. That largely comes from what clients are asking of us,” he explained.
“Now, really clearly, there are three pillars within our business moving forward that sit under the idea of building enduring brands through culture. There’s an integrated communications business within that. A lot of the specialist capabilities are being that at the core of how brands are built in 2025 and beyond. That’s a really exciting part, and what people will be more familiar with coming out of M+C Saatchi.
“Then there’s M+C Saatchi Consulting, which we’re in the process of launching in Australia and led by Ben Harrison, bringing this idea of creativity upstream into growth, strategy, data and analytics, brand identity and customer strategy. The final piece is around our Sports & Entertainment business,s which is more upstream, strategic focus on intellectual property, partnerships, looking at sponsorship properties and how we can build those through media properties as well.”
Graham added that M+C has been ahead of the curve for many industry trends during his time with the agency.
“The market has dramatically changed [since he started]. The holdcos have consolidated. I think about the agency brands that existed 12 years ago that don’t exist now, and the new ones. The rise and rise of in-housing, which we’ve lent into with this business and will continue to do, is not a trend, it’s a movement that will continue. There will always be a role for agencies outside of organisations, but as the CMO role has changed, and brands have built out capability under their own remit because they want to be closer to the media buying, closer to the data and have built production systems as well,” he said.
Graham’s Legacy
Graham leaves behind a remarkable list of impressive campaigns and pieces of work for some of Australia’s top clients, a lot of it non-traditional advertising and executed at important moments in society.
“‘Clever boy’ was a really important piece of work for us and for Optus because it was truly innovative and really moved from communications into utility and the brand’s story coming to life. We’ve done a lot of really innovative work over the years, such as ‘Fire Blanket’ for NRMA, the work we’ve done for Commonwealth Bank as they’ve evolved to the business they are today, and that’s important, hard work that touches a lot of different people,” he said.
Then, of course, there is Tourism Australia.
“The work that we were able to do through the pandemic and then coming out of that was nation-building work. They were an extraordinary partner and client because we needed to move people around Australia domestically just to keep businesses afloat, and we were able to do that with the Hamish and Zoe work. Then opening the borders again,” he said.
“Through that whole time, the Woolworths work has been a core part of our country. That’s the theme for me, it’s the work that you see everywhere and that everyone comments on – for good or bad – it’s on the front page of the paper, it’s on the back pag,e and it’s in the marketing section.
“But more recently, it’s the ‘Plastic Forecast’ work which has been awarded all over the world and getting a Green Pencil at One Show was a recognition of work on a small budget, but something that had never been done before.”
Graham’s exit
Graham will continue in his role until November, as well as continuing in his roles on the Advertising Council and with industry charity body UnLtd and will support Bassil after she joins in August.
Graham joined M+C Saatchi from Droga5 in 2013, where he was chief strategy officer. His decade at M+C Saatchi has included six years as group CSO Australia, before being promoted to the role of CEO ANZ in 2020.
One of Bassil’s first task will be pivoting the full-service agency group towards a digitally-led creative and media landscape – a remit she is well accustomed to.
Reporting by Tom Fogden and Arvind Hickman.
