MARSH RINGS IN THE CHANGES AT GPY&R
Nigel Marsh, the new group CEO of Y&R Brands, has announced the appointment of a new managing director of the George Patterson Y&R flagship office. Strategic planner Julie Porter will lead the Sydney office, taking over from Andrew Sargant. The appointment reflects the new CEO’s high ambitions for the group: I have a mandate from Sir Martin and Hamish (McLennan) to have all the Y&R Brands group companies performing at the top of their game, so some fine tuning is necessary. Fortunately we have some of the best-known brands in this market in George Patterson Y&R, Ideaworks, PPR Wunderman and The Campaign Palace, as well as an enviable client portfolio We have great management and an awesome reservoir of talent across the group," says Marsh (pictured with Porter).
"Julie will be an incredible asset to the team."
A highly credentialed psychologist, Porter has had extensive experience in the UK, US and Australia. In the UK she worked with leading creative agencies AMV BBDO and Gold Greenlees Trott. She ran her own organizational change management consultancy, Creative Thinking, before relocating to Australia in 2004 where she has served as planning director at M&C Saatchi and more recently Clemenger BBDO, Sydney. Porter’s client portfolio includes leading FMCGs, financial services and telcos.
"Julie and I have worked together previously in the UK and I’m thrilled she has decided to come on board. She is a world-class strategist and her track record with leading creative agencies and award-winning work will bring a new focus to the Sydney agency. As a psychologist she understands consumers and knows how to chart and implement effective organizational change. She also has the high-level telco experience will be an invaluable resource for Telstra."
Says Porter: "It’s not about reinvention. It’s about harnessing all the good ideas in GPY&R and creating possibilities for clients. It’s about creating a ‘see and do’ as opposed to a ‘wait and see’ culture.
“Clients want to work with successful agencies. I want to provide the leadership and resources which will allow Patts to reclaim its status as an industry legend."
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Mmmmm, "an awesome reservoir of talent across the group."
I hear an axe sharpening.
I bet the GPY&R Sydney creative department is extremely nervous. While their sister shop in Melbourne have shone at Cannes in recent years, they have nothing (and have done nothing for years). Can anyone name anyone in the department? Seriously, I don't even know who the CD is.
GPY&Redundancies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdMIsCF_7p0&feature=related
And if you saw that on YouTube would you be talented enough to turn it into an ad for a big client?
They have added meaning to a technique.
spot on 9.41 they have added meaning which is bang on what the brand is all about, bursting little bubbles ever time you open a bottle.
jealousy is a curse 9.16
Unfortunately the one man solely responsible for the dirge of creative in the Sydney office is now completely untouchable.
Until he takes a rather large holiday in his gigantic house, there's bugger all Nigel can do.
Go for it Nigel!
9.59am - I think you'll be surprised at just how much he can do even with those old dinosaurs still rattling around the white halls.
While 9:16 keeps trolling youtube and CPB's blog, I'm sure Jim and Cuz have their heads down on the next job while a golden light refracts from the statue on their shelves and money pours into their pockets. They also have a sound effect of angels hitting the perfect C note every time they walk into the office.
Keep it up 9:16, you'll be writing scam ads for DDB in no time.
They need a completely new creative dept. if they want to match Melb.
I love it how the people page of the website has been updated and now only has three names on it. Are all the names that were there three days ago now under review?
http://www.gpyr.com.au/people.html
7:59.
Michael Stanford is CD.
Robbie and Bart are the top team.
Let's be honest. It's just another big agency, cobbled together by a bunch of accountants who have no idea or appreciation for the craft at the core of their business. Neither new management or an injection of fresh talent will make any difference because ultimately short-term profit targets (dictated from abroad) will be more important than investing in the talent or values that make truly great agencies. Sack, hire, merge, refocus, whatever. Without a soul, GPY&R will remain just another sausage factory, though probably less profitable one.
Most who were on that page - like Mike M and Damian K - have left the building already or were asked to do so.
The creative bar at this agency is so low you're more likely to trip over it than bang your head on it.
But yeah, hire another planner, that usually helps.
If the creatives were any decent they would've got out of there a long time ago!
If the creatives were any decent? That's unpossible!
Clearly they need a writer of your calibre, 4:55.
Juan Cabral showed that talent will always follow-up great with greater. Only the next ad will say if Jim and Cuz have got what it takes.
If marsh can do to patts what he did to leo's i think a few agencies will be wetting their pants a little.
Come on! Just take a look at the client list in Sydney. Other than Telstra what else is there? And having worked freelance there a while ago that's all I see the entire creative department working on 95% of the time - all of the three and a half mainstream teams! That's what's keeping the Sydney office afloat. By my reckoning if Marsh and co are serious about "harnessing all the good ideas in GPY&R", lose Telstra and get in some new business that demands great planning and great ideas. Let's face it, anyone can have a great idea. As Mo once said: "a great idea doesn't give a fuck where it came from". Lose Telstra and you lose the shackles. Hang on..... Hamish on line one for you Nigel.
Jon and Georgia are a creative force. just watch.
Fuck me!!! Who wrote that?
More like a mandate to cause destruction and unhappiness.
Hello 10.09. Why would you want to get rid of a piece of business like Telstra that is worth squillions of dollars a year? I thought advertising was a business, not an art show. Or am i just being silly? Please, do tell...
Porter has good a pretty decent creative track record - as has Marsh. I reckon they may just have noticed that the work out of Sydney is rubbish. They will make the changes necessary . Nigel reports direct to New York - the days of unwanted interference are truly over....
Porter 'has a pretty decent creative track record"...back that up,...show me the awards.
Creatives are often placed in difficult circumstances, for all sorts of reasons. Clients, office politics....
The creatives in GP Sydney, the senior ones, are very dedicated and talented.The fact that half of you haven't heard of them is probably because they are good guys and don't need to suck industry cock like most of the young 'yet to prove themselves' prats presently infecting this industry.
7.22 Please! Leo's was far better when Mikah was there as CD. WWF yes. But that's it. The rest of the work was pretty marginal. But Leos was a great agency before Marsh arrived. In the days when Collis and Steve Back were a team.
I think just about everyone in the industry knows that as long as GPYR management is in place nothing is going to happen. Those guys have kept everyone at low levels of achievement for over a decade now. Shameful.
Nigel is a great guy but let's see if can get it right. I hope he can.
9.35
Micah was the CD at Leos for about 5 minutes.
9.55... Pretty productive 5 minutes then. The creatives loved him and it showed in the work.
What's happened to Canon? What's happened to Subaru? What happened to Diageo?
The work was kick ass under Mikah. Since then it all became execution over idea.
12.37 How you could think that fresh talent and new management will make an agency less profitbale and souless is mystifying.
Not to mention the fact that there isn't a successful agency in the world, S&S, BBH, AMV, CPB included, that doesn't have a focus on making money. None of them would be here if they weren't profitable.
Fresh talent and new management sounds like a pretty good start to doing what all of the agencies listed above have done.
And for the record any agency brand (with offices in any city in Australia), would kill for the award count of GPY&R Australia, whether one was the financial powerhouse and the other the creative powerhouse or not.....
Sausage sizzle at your place then?
Why is Marsh ringing in the changes? Why doesn't he go in and do it in person?
"Sir Martin and Hamish"
sounds like a gentlemen's outfitter.
anyway - isn't it GOOD that people are trying to change pyr sydney for the better?
Didn't Leos lose 18 pitches in a row?
4.06
If you were at Leos under Micah you can comment. If not, you have no idea. The great work was done by a handful of creatives at the time - including Micah - but he wasn't responsible for all of it.
9.35 am, Leo's almost weren't an agency at all just before Nigel arrived. He turned a ship heading for the rocks around in a very short space of time. He's a very talented and engaging man. I'm sure many of us are watching the GPY&R situation with interest ...
Answers straight to New York, so does not report to McGrath.
GPY&R is good, sometimes great. But until they loose the Y&R from their name and leave Y&R group, they'll never be worthy of the George Patterson name that once was.
You have to be joking 6:03
Y&R are their saviour.
Who are you John Fawcett, Ian Elliot or Alex Hammil?