BRW ranks UM 5th Most Innovative company; Y&R Group comes in at #9; PHD Australia at #34 + Starcom MediaVest Group ranks #38 on the list

Australia’s most respected business title BRW has named media communications agency UM as the nation’s 5th most innovative company in a new listing appearing today. Also ranking on the list was Y&R Group in at #9, PHD Australia at #34 and Starcom MediaVest Group at #38.

The new listing follows another BRW ranking in June this year where UM was ranked 11th in the annual Best Places to Work feature.

In its summary of UM’s 5th place in the Most Innovative Companies ranking, BRW called out UM’s work for News Ltd and the Australian National Preventative Health Agency. For News Ltd BRW focused on the uniqueness and effectiveness of the Fast Front Pages campaign where the front pages of News Ltd’s major titles were posted daily on billboards close to high traffic commuter locations to draw people’s attention and build excitement around the publisher’s major products.

Click here to see the ranking.

Says BRW: “This kind of campaign exemplifies UM Australia’s innovative courage – there was no guarantee it would work.”

For the Australian National Preventative Health Agency UM’s MyQuitBuddy app was credited with garnering $750,000 in media coverage and being downloaded 200,000 times which is 7% of smokers. Thirty nine per cent of MyQuitBuddy users are still off the cigarettes six months later, an 800 per cent increase on former success rates for quit smoking campaigns.

Says Matt Baxter (pictured), UM Australia CEO: “We are particularly proud of being ranked 5th in the new listing because driving innovation is the total essence of what we strive to achieve for all our clients. This ranking together with the Best Places to Work recognition demonstrates the quality and enthusiasm of the UM team right through the ranks and across all offices. It’s a great moment for us.”

The annual list highlighted Starcom’s work in developing and implementing ‘POEM’, an effective and new approach to measuring consumer-led interactions across paid, earned and owned media channels.

Starcom’s proprietary model measures the influence of paid, owned and earned channels, allowing optimisation and improved ROI.

Says Chris Nolan, Starcom MediaVest Group Australia CEO: “Innovation is at the heart of what we do all day, every day and the team has worked hard to make this approach effective and relevant for our clients.”