Zenith, one of the most successful media agencies of the past year, has overhauled its market proposition to become the ROI3 Agency. B&T caught up with the leaders of the three pillars – ‘Insight, Imagination and Investment’ – to find out what the new proposition means for clients.
Zenith has long championed its credentials as a media agency that delivers a return on investment.
After rolling out its ROI-cubed proposition in 2023, the agency has enjoyed stunning success, scoring ‘9’ in B&T’s Agency Scorecards and growing media billings by 33 per cent last year, according to COMvergence .
The re-positioning reboot was championed by Zenith Australia boss Jason Tonelli when he took the helm in 2023, but is being led by national head of strategic insights Kim Xavier (insights), chief strategy and product officer Penny Shell (imagination), and chief investment officer Elizabeth Baker (investment).
Baker, who first joined Zenith a year before it globally adopted the ‘ROI Agency’ proposition, said that the time was right to reinvigorate the agency’s proposition.
“We really recognised that there was this need to reinvigorate the meaning and really match what return on investment means in today’s landscape,” Baker said.
“Our buying prowess along with imagination and insight – the multiplier impact of all of those in combination – is what delivers the best outcomes for our clients.”
National head of strategic insights Kim Xavier leads insights and helped set up Zenith’s research arm five years ago.
The agency has a panel of thousands of Australian consumers that it uses to inform its media planning and investment strategy on behalf of clients.
Zenith claims its Imagine Consumer Panel is the largest single-source consumer dataset in Australia, providing the agency with unique insights into what Australians are thinking, feeling and doing in real-time.
“This has given us the ability to be on the front foot of really understanding what’s going on in the market. And of course, it’s called ‘Zentiment’”, Xavier said. “We measured the Voice referendum last year and were less than 1 per cent off what the actual result was five months ahead of the vote.
“A lot of our clients use it to augment traditional brand trackers because this gives that broader context and broader view. It allows them to answer broader business questions as well that can’t often be done through more micro-targeted research tools.”
Shell, who leads Zenith’s ‘imagination’ pillar, said that its insights capability allows the agency to unlock new media budgets and opportunities.
“Times are tough for clients and for consumers,” she said. “The risk is that we let go of some of those braver media activities, which is what imagination is designed to do to create new media concepts, and we default to performance-based marketing.
“Of course, performance is important and plays a role, but we want to make sure that we’re still creating new and bespoke solutions for clients. So we created a structure that helps clients understand how critical imagination is to their overall media solution.
Shell continued: “We have a lot of clients who are challenger brands, so just operating in an opportunity to be seen or grow a share of voice isn’t going to be enough. They need to do something really distinct and unique. We need to give our clients the confidence and the reassurance that when we’re putting forward those imagination solutions, they’re going to deliver.
“I’ve been working really closely with Lizzie and her team around bringing in media partners to create a bespoke solution, rather than an off-the-shelf solution for a client that might be a proactive opportunity.”
Baker is one of Australia’s top media buyers and leads a team of around 90. She said that clients need flexibility and agility in where they invest their advertising dollars, and using insights and imagination fuels more effective ways of brokering partnerships.
“I definitely think that Covid did change the trading landscape, especially with channels and media owners that have been less flexible,” she said.
“The way that we are now negotiating with our partners is there’s flexibility within that. It might be that we have a fluid investment, fluid deals across multiple assets. It’s not a case of we’re being locked into television versus digital versus publishing.”
“Seeing how the activation of the panel can help us test and optimise media plans is just game-changing.
“It’s almost as good as first-party data. Some clients aren’t able to share great first-party data, so the power of this, from a buying point of view, is really exciting.”
