PHD

The Icelandic singer Björk is renowned for her boundary-pushing style and a distinctive vocal range that blends pop, electronic music and everything in between.

The likeness with PHD’s past year could not be more stark. Rather than boundary pushing, the agency was pushed up against a wall, defending its turf with a staggering 40 per cent of its billings under the hammer.

Rather than defend like a stubborn Paraguayan football team, PHD went on the offensive, choosing to “transform” and showing clients that it’s got plenty more to offer.

It kept hold of 96 per cent of client billings  that were up for review (the average retention rate hovers around 25 per cent), and secured $220 million in new business billings. This drove 30 per cent growth in billings.

The headline act was winning Bunnings, which it won from Initiative in May. The other accounts it picked up were Betr, Spirit of Tasmania, Zurich, Etihad, OpenAI, Sodastream and Merlin Entertainment. It also grew the scope of work for its largest clients.

Its only major losses were Tennis Australia, which it chose not to defend, and telco Vocus.

More importantly, its retentions included Volkswagen, PepsiCo and ANZ. The latter has since re-pitched and is close to an outcome, so keep an eye on B&T to see if the agency can add the bank to its list of retentions.

PHD puts its success down to reinvention of its proposition (very Bjork-esque) to: “Intelligence. Connected”. That slogan may sound more akin to a certain German car brand, but for PHD it means “re-engineering the business around connected data, AI-powered workflows, and integrated client teams”.

PHD said it embedded AI into its core planning product through the evolution of its proprietary platform, Studio. This enables planners to “increase speed and effectiveness while maintaining strategic quality”.

PHD said this has resulted in a 30 per cent reduction in briefing turnaround times, a 20 per cent uplift in campaign ROI and a 42 per cent gain in the efficiency of programmatic buying.

Standout work for clients included a McCain P!ckers partnership with Network Ten’s Big Brother, where contestants had regular snack times to promote McCain’s new range of treats. Work for AFLW and Jim Bean (see below) also caught the eye.

Its consistent work for ANZ, alongside creative agency Special, has captured the attention of Australia; the ANZ Falcon is one of the country’s most recognisable brand distinctive assets.

PHD’s performance is all the more remarkable due to some significant changes to the band.

Chief operating officer and PHD stalwart Stuart Bailey, a rocksteady, beat-keeping drummer if we’ve ever seen one, left to join sister agency Clemenger BBDO as its chief media officer. Late in the year boss Mark Jarrett took up an Omnicom Media group role and handed the baton onto OMD’s Laura Nice.

It wasn’t quite It’s Oh So Quiet as a year for PHDers, but Nice has inherited an agency that has proven resilient and in tip top shape, albeit with work ahead to ensure it holds onto ANZ and can keep on rocking (or whatever it is that Björk does next).

As one advisory panellist put it: “PHD put in a strong performance and has a clear focus on what drives outcomes for clients”.