Pitching is the life blood of agencies and few earn their biscuits more than the chief growth officers and new business leads helping agencies shine in the often brutal and relentless grind of pitching.
This year, B&T has chosen to pay homage to some of the unsung heroes who lead pitches at creative agencies.
This list deliberately avoids CEOs, ECDs and others wheeled out in the the theatre of pitching to shine a spotlight on those responsible for attracting and delivering on new business opportunities. If you want to know more about the top creative suits, check out:
B&T’s Best of the Best Holding Company Creative Leaders
B&T’s Best of the Best Indie Creative Leaders
Our creative growth and new business leaders list is a mixture of wily old hands, who have been around the new biz merry-go-round more times than they care to admit, as well some of the newer business magicians behind recent success.
As with all of our lists, there are many worthy candidates who have an excellent case to be included, but we could only choose those B&T felt deserved special mention this year.
In August, stay tuned for B&T’s Best of the Best: Film Directors, Consumer PRs, Growth Chiefs for Media Agencies, and Technologists. Please email: editorial@themisfits.media if you have any suggestions.
10. Nitsa Lotus, chief growth officer, TBWA Group Sydney
TBWA Group pulled off a coup with Bear Meets Eagle On Fire when it won a closed creative pitch for Telstra – arguably one of Australia’s largest in the past year.
Nitsa Lotus has worked at TBWA Group for the better part of 18 years, more recently serving as managing director of its Sydney office and chief growth officer. With more than 20 years experience, Lotus has worked with the likes of VISA International, Pfizer, HCF, David Jones, Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, PepsiCo, ANZ, GlaxoSmithKline, St.George, Beiersdorf, Singapore Airlines and RaboDirect.
Her experience ranges from bringing in new business, launching new products for big blue chip brands to helping challenger brands take on leader brands.
9. Amanda Quested, head of group marketing and communications, M&C Saatchi Group
Amanda Quested heads up new business across its group of agencies, including M&C Saatchi, M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment, Bohemia Group and more. Recent success or the group includes a creative brief for Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, a media brief for Fever-Tree and a full-service brief for Ryman Healthcare, but lost the Tourism Australia account.
Quested has worked at M&C Saatchi group for nearly six and a half years, and served in senior client services roles at Leo Burnett, Host Sydney and BBH in London.
A well-respected figure in new business circles, she has worked with global brands in technology, QSR, telco, finance, automotive, retail, NFP and FMCG.
8. Matt Cooney, chief growth officer ANZ, Publicis Groupe Creative Brands
Cooney is regarded as one of the industry’s most accomplished new business leaders, with more than 25 years of global experience in Europe, the US, Asia and ANZ. He has also run his own consultancy providing leadership, advice and guidance for clients and agencies.
Since 2017, Cooney has led many of Publicis Groupe’s, creative brands’ marketing and new business drives as well as helping guide the growth of the wider Groupe’s ‘connected platform.’
He has won and grown business for brands such as Sony, Unilever, IKEA, Woolworths, Tango, Arnott’s, BBC, The Economist, Guinness, Big W, ING, Qantas, McDonald’s, Virgin Mobile, David Jones, Air New Zealand, Levi’s, Adidas, Starbucks, Foxtel and Vodafone. Previously, Cooney served as a director at BBH, Fallon, DDB and hhcl+p.
7. Georgia Price, business director, Howatson+Company
Georgia Price is one of the shining lights in Howatson+Company’s crack hot new business team. She has worked at the agency for three and a half years, rising from account manager to business director as the agency has rapidly grown into a creative powerhouse.
The agency, which scooped B&T’s Independent Agency of The Year in 2023 and a host of awards at Cannes Lions and Spikes, has also been notching up success in the theatre of pitching. It won the full service remit for Honda – a landmark win for the agency as it builds out its media credentials – as was UNSW’s creative. Its clients include Allianz, Samsung, Qantas (Olympic campaign work), Mastercard, Telstra’s Belong and Doordash.
6. Johan Borg, chief growth officer, VML
Johan Borg has regional ANZ responsibilities for WPP’s largest creative shop in this market, which recently formed when VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson merged.
The agency has gotten off to a solid start retaining creative duties for Monash University, and winning briefs for the National Breast Cancer Foundation and Brown-Forman Australia to work on its alcohol brands including Jack Daniel’s El Jimador and Woodford Reserve.
Borg previously served as general manager of Dentsu Merkle and Isobar, and has held senior account management roles at Soap, Host and Ogilvy. Much will be expected on the new business front of WPP’s powerhouse creative agency, which has more than 350 employees in Australia and New Zealand, and clients including Aldi, Coca-Cola, Ford, The Australian Defence Force and more.
5. Anita Zanesco, chief growth officer, Clemenger BBDO
Joining a year ago, Anita Zanesco is a relatively new addition to Clemenger BBDO’s new look leadership team under CEO Dani Bassil. She took charge of the agency’s growth strategy following recent wins across the agency’s Government portfolio, PZ Cussons and ASD (National Cybersecurity).
It has been a quieter time on the new business front recently for Clemenger BBDO. The agency was one of three shortlisted contenders in a joint bid for the Tourism Australia review, but couldn’t quite get that one over the line.
Perviously, Zanesco led new business at Havas in Australia for two years and has close to two decades’ agency and marketing experience, starting with five years at Publicis London, followed by stints at Leo Burnett Australia and TrinityP3.
4. Tori Lopez, managing director, Special Group
Tori Lopez has spent nearly a decade helping grow Special Group into the formidable force that it is today.
She has taken on the managing director hot seat for the past 10 months and played a pivotal role building its portfolio with major recent wins including supermarket IGA, Cricket Australia, Employment Hero and an expanded PepsiCo remit.
Lopez will no doubt play an important hand to help Special retain one of its largest clients, ANZ. Special Group won a Creative Agency of the Year at Campaign’s Global Agency of the Year Awards.
3. Georgia Suttie, new business director, BMF
Georgia Suttie has led new business for BMF Australia, and its parent company Enero Group, for nearly a decade.
The former professional tennis coach held creative roles at DDB, Mojo and Grey Advertising, before working as marketing and operations director at TrinityP3 for around 15 years.
Recently, BMF won creative duties for drinks and hospitality Endeavour Group, whose brands include Dan Murphy’s and BWS.
It also picked up Tennis Australia and won plaudits for its ‘Come Down To Air’ work for Tourism Tasmania, which has put the account up for pitch. Suttie knows the ins and outs of the new biz game like few others.
2. Jaime Morgan/Phillippa Netolicky, general managers, Thinkerbell South and North
Jamie Morgan (South) and Phillippa Netolicky (North) and the general managers of Thinkerbell’s Melbourne and Sydney operations, often leading new business efforts for one of the hottest creative teams in the market, and B&T’s Advertising Agency of the Year in 2023.
Morgan has worked at the ‘Measured Magic’ agency for five years as Melbourne GM and MD. She has also served in senior account director roles at Leo Burnett, CHEP, AJF and a host of other creative shops.
Netolicky has been GM at Thinkerbell’s Sydney office for about 18 months, and previously served a client partner at Howatson+Company, chief growth officer at Claxon and is a former MD of McCann.
The pair are widely respected in both capital cities and have routinely done the business in the past 18 months, bringing in Bega Group, Pringles, Hort Innovation (which includes creative for apples, avocado, mango, mushrooms and other producers), The Reject Shop and, earlier in 2023, Menulog. Recently, Thinkerbell lost Dan Murphy’s in a consolidation review by parent company Endeavour.
1. Matthew Michael, managing director, The Monkeys & Accenture Song
Matthew Michael is managing director and one of the key architects of The Monkeys’ new business success.
Michael began his career as a marketing assistant at Heineken and worked at IBM for more than ten years in senior marketing, advertising and media roles. He joined The Monkeys in 2011 as a strategic business director and has served as managing director for the past decade.
The past year produced mostly highs, with a sprinkle of lows, for the widely decorated creative shop. It won the prestigious Tourism Australia – arguably the most prestigious creative account in the land, in a combined pitch with stablemates at Accenture Song and Droga5.
Other recent wins include TAB, Crown, Carlton United Breweries (VB, Pure Blonde and Peroni), the Government of Tuvalu and The Sydney Opera House. The Monkeys produced back-to-back Cannes Lions Grand Prixes for the latter two with ‘First Digital Nation’ and ‘Play it Safe’.
The only blot on the record book was when The Monkeys stunningly lost Telstra to TBWA and Bear Meets Eagle On Fire.
