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Publicis Australia

Team PROFILE

Agency Type

Creative

Ownership

Publicis Groupe

tagline

Create Change

LEADERSHIP TEAM​

Simone Waugh

Managing director

Ryan Petie

Executive creative director

Simon Murphy

Chief strategy officer

James Ansell

Executive director digital and social

Jude Johannesen

General manager

Michelle Sakzewski

chief client partner

Natalie Mitchell

Executive producer

Key Stats

Offices

Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Melbourne, Sydney

Headcount

55+

Gender Balance Staff

M: 47%
F: 53%

Gender Balance Leaders

M: 40%
F: 60%

Client book

Client Wins

5

Client Losses

N/A

Client Retentions

5

Largest clients

Nine Publishing

Queensland Transport and Main Roads

Subway ANZ

Trophy Cabinet

2

AWARD Awards

1

B&T Awards

Agency Scorecards report

Publicis Australia, the artist formerly known as Publicis Worldwide, has been a constant growth performer, doubling in size in the past five years, but 2025 was special.

Based in Queensland, the Publicis-owned creative agency took out the B&T Agency of the Year Award for Queensland & states/territories outside of NSW and Victoria, while also picking up two AWARD Awards.

On the new business front, Publicis Australia added five new accounts, including Contiki, Charles Darwin University and Nine Publishing. 

It also retained or extended its partnership with five more, including the Queensland Government creative panel, Isuzu Utes, Bulla Family Dairy and Paralympics Australia.

Although based in Queensland, the agency now has a portfolio of clients across Australia and New Zealand, including Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Darwin. 

It hit the ground running with Nine, delivering ‘Here’s To Reason’. As part of the campaign, the creative agency built a brand platform that did not amplify extremes, but instead championed reason.

The platform delivered strong lifts in differentiation, trust, affinity and subscription intent with 71 per cent of people stating the campaign made them think differently about the SMH and The Age with 49 per cent agreeing Nine’s journalism is balanced, and 65 per cent were even more likely to subscribe.

The creative agency has committed to transitioning to 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2030.

Employee engagement also plays a key role in reducing its environmental footprint. 

Through Ecologique, the agency’s sustainability employee resource group, it delivers initiatives including Clean Up Australia Day, Green Commute Month, National Ride to Work Day, Earth Week, and internal reuse initiatives such as clothing swap and resale events.

Hightlights reel

Nine Publishing: ‘Here’s To Reason’

At a time when global media is increasingly shaped by polarisation, outrage algorithms and opinion masquerading as fact, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age made a deliberate, countercultural choice: to build a major brand platform that did not amplify extremes, but instead championed reason.

Publicis Australia made a deliberate, counter‐cultural choice: to build a brand platform ‘Here’s to Reason’ for the mastheads that did not amplify extremes, but instead championed reason.

Championing reason meant rejecting the emotional shortcuts that dominate modern media marketing. It meant avoiding outrage, tribal cues and polarising rhetoric, and trusting that audiences would value clarity, context and truth.

In a highly competitive and politically charged category, this was a genuine act of courage. The partnership came to life through an omnichannel, film first idea in striking black and white, an intentional device to echo “black and white facts”, and localised executions for Sydney and Melbourne.

Hightlights reel

Queensland Transport & Main Roads: ‘Ridesight’

Motorcycle riders are among the most vulnerable road users in Queensland. Despite making up only one in 20 registered vehicles, riders are approximately 30 times more likely to be killed in a crash than car occupants.

Yet, most drivers have never ridden a motorcycle and have little understanding of how exposed, unseen and vulnerable riders feel on the road.

‘Ridesight’ is a virtual‐reality motorcycle helmet experience that gives drivers a first‐person view into the everyday world of motorcycle riders. By fitting a physical motorcycle helmet with VR technology, users are placed directly inside realistic riding scenarios that simulate common near‐miss moments riders face daily. 

By using virtual reality to let drivers experience the road through riders’ eyes, and engaging more than 35,000 people in real‐world settings the agency created a scalable innovation to turn up in schools, communities, sports and workplaces that turns understanding into safer behaviour.

Hightlights reel

Tourism & Events Queensland: ‘That Holiday Feeling’

Queensland’s strength is its diversity – from reef to rainforest, cities to outback, culture to events. But this very diversity had historically made it difficult to own a single, distinctive position in the tourism category.

The challenge for Tourism and Events Queensland was not awareness, but emotional ownership. How do you unite countless experiences under one idea people instantly recognise, feel and remember? And how do you launch that idea in a crowded tourism market dominated by functional messaging and interchangeable imagery?

The strategy was grounded in a simple human truth: when people think about a holiday, they are really thinking about a feeling, and that feeling is what Queensland delivers best. Holidaying in Queensland isn’t defined by a checklist of seeing things. It’s defined by how the place, people and experiences make you feel: more relaxed, more free and more connected. The everyday fades away. You feel like yourself again, the holiday version of you.

This insight became the foundation of Tourism and Events Queensland’s long‐term brand platform: ‘That Holiday Feeling’. Rather than owning a specific type of holiday, the platform was designed to own the emotional category of “holiday” itself.

Music became the unifying connective tissue. At the heart of the launch was a landmark creative idea; The remake of Madonna’s iconic Holiday, re‐imagined in a Queensland way by Queensland born artist Kita Alexander.

Publicis Australia's take on 2025

Publicis Australia has grown significantly in the last five years.

We’ve won 5 new business pitches; expanded outside of Queensland into Sydney, Melbourne, Darwin and Canberra, and onboarded many clients – such as The Travel Corporation; the new Queensland Government; 2032 Games Projects; Containers for Change; Charles Darwin University and more.

We were awarded in Spikes Asia, AWARD Award, Effies Finalist, B&T Agency of the Year (Queensland) and were a finalist at the ARIAs.

We have embraced diversity in our culture with over 32 per cent first and second generation Australians, and led the integration of First Nations’ voices in our work both strategically and creatively.

The youth voice is critical to the agency with 37 per cent of the agency under 29 years, leading to breakthrough work engaging youth in road safety and travel.

James Ansell,
executive director digital and social

Leads digital experience and social across Publicis Australia, delivering growth and fostering agile, collaborative culture.

If we were a band, we'd be...

Kita Alexander

A Queensland-born musician who recently featured at the ARIA awards as an emerging artist, recognised for her music also being recognised globally. This is the perfect musical analogy for Publicis Australia – who like Kita, are from Queensland, receiving global award recognition and cementing expansion in 2025 into Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Darwin.

Critic's Comment

“A new stage name did not affect Publicis Australia’s performance. Five client wins and three retentions, plus a B&T Award for an agency on the rise.”

Publicis Australia

B&T's Agency Score

7.6

Previous season: 7.5

This year's Agency Scorecard was assessed by an Advisory Panel.

See all Agency scorecards
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