Michele Teague quits Palace MD gig after only 10 months; Mark Mackay to oversee Sydney office
Michele Teague is set to depart the managing director role at The Campaign Palace, Sydney after only 10 months in the role. One of New Zealand’s leading marketers, Teague joined The Palace in October last year, having had extensive experience in a number of NZ’s leading corporates in technology, FMCG, tourism, retail and advertising agency sectors.
The news come a day after BWM announced it had appointed former Campaign Palace national head of digital strategy and planning, Megan Hales, to the newly-created position of national head of digital strategy.
Teague, who effectively replaced South African CEO Jacques Burger, started at The Palace on October 11. Her appointment came just after Westpac dumped The Palace from its roster.
Says TCP chairman and CEO Mark Mackay: “I appreciate the tremendous effort Michele has made and wish her well.”
Mackay said he would oversee management of the Sydney office: “We have globally acclaimed creative and strategic leadership in Reed Collins and Keith Newton and a strong, experienced senior account management team with Bruce Davidson, Kathryn Cooper, Veronica Makiv and Toby McKinnon. Together they are more than capable of delivering the strategic and creative solutions our clients expect,” he said.
Teague said that running one of Australia’s icon agencies had been a great experience and she was looking forward to the next challenge.
She joined The Palace from Telecom NZ where she had held the position of head of communications for retail. She is also on the the board of the New Zealand Rugby League, chairing the remuneration committee. Teague has also had senior marketing and management roles at Restaurant Brands (operators of the KFC, Pizza Hut and Yum franchises in NZ), Pacific Retail Group, Woolworths and as global marketing manager for Air New Zealand.
Teague started her career on the agency side, including eight years atY&R’s Mattingly. Career highlights have included developing the ‘Inspiring Journeys’ brand strategy for Air NZ and the brandingcampaign and relaunch of Telecom’s 3G XT mobile network.
32 Comments
My only suprise is that she didn’t quit almost straight away after they lost Westpac, before she started…. and then to try and handle domino’spizza account (stuff of nightmeres) more resignations and clients to follow I suspect.
Reckon Pac Brands will go straight out to pitch now she has gone and was the one with the wealth of marketing, and retailing experience. Also clients relationship with M&C.
Hopefully TCP can survive this but I doubt it. Lucky escape for those that get out now.
Maybe shafting Burger and Fishlock wasn’t so clever after all….
One of Australia’s icon agencies.
Can we stop with the bullshit and just be honest with each other for once? This is an industry blog. We know that the Palace hasn’t been an iconic agency for decades.
Let’s call a shit a shit and be done with it.
If only for the sake of the people that worked for it and loved it, can someone please kill this brand?
It’s tragic.
Is that you Michele?
It’s not been The Palace since I left 20 years ago.
I *dibs* this name.
John Koay to be her replacement.
To quote from CB when she was appointed : ‘TCP executive chairman Mark Mackay said he had searched globally to fill the Sydney post and Teague was the standout from a shortlist of well credentialled candidates’
Well Mark, if that was true what happened?
Is there any connection with her departure and that of new business prospect Greg Foran leaving as Director of Supermarkets at Woolworths?
Can you spell Machiavelli ?
Someone higher up should be held accountable for the mess the Palace has become.
Straws. Grasping?
I am not a fan of the palace and certainly have reason to grind an axe as I was made redundant by Michele. But this really makes no sense at all, she was an extremely tough and demanding boss who actually gave a shit about the clients and trying to lift the standard of work produced.Guess she must have got sick of WPP dramas. Would work for her again in a heart beat if i get the opportunity. Hate to say it, but I think the palace is really fucked now.
Wpp has everyone contractually tied in – if the truth about its top teams management of the great talents of the Palace ever came out it would make front page news – but its unlikely ever to – sadly
Misleading headline?
The idea of Michelle heading up Palace was probably a bad idea from day one – they just could not find anyone else prepared to go through what Burger endured, Evans before him and lots of other good people like Sareff , Fishlock etc
Why is it always when the palace is mentioned on this blog there is such hate for the company? This certainly can only be a result of extremely bad management and a company in continuos turmoil that should have shut doors back in the early 2000’s.
How can Mackay oversee sydney as well as melbourne…since his return I have seen no press releases of major account wins in either town, rather the loss of Westpac and Dominos in sydney and Origin and others in Melbourne.
The Target work in Melbourne was once good but since Leishman left it went down hill. The past 14 months every new ad worse than the last with most ideas a copy cat and nothing original. Do they have CD’s on that account? I guess not. Bonds slammed a couple of weeks ago.
Isn’t it about time WPP placed the palace inside Patts and closed the doors. Then it can be what it is, a memory of the past.
Piss off idiots. That place is full of people better than these vocal detratctors. Gee, there sre some shit people in this industry. Bless the better few.
And just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse…..pure madness.Think I will spend this weekend dusting off my CV, I feel a mad rush for the exit doors fast approaching now this has happened.
7:34…re: “Leishman” – Nice bit of “self promotion” TL.
Stay strong Palace. Mackay has the goods.
There are still some very good people in that place, but I presume it’s WPP who is not giving them enough $ and support for resources. I hear that new guy Reed who started not long ago is a bloody awesome guy, and I have no doubt he probably has something awesome in the pipeline while all of you are bitching…
A very smart move by WPP making the current management take over, they will save a bundle turning out the lights at both Sydney and Melbourne when they are the last to leave. Finally after more than a decade, we now get to see the death spiral.
RIP the Palace.
Compare the iconic names that went through the place in its first two decades in both Melbourne and Sydney with the neville nobodies currently in residence. The work was fresh, daring, bold and iconoclastic. If you worked there you were a god, and commanded respect for your outstanding talent. Hate to say it, but it’s the Palace in name only now, and all the more of a travesty for pretending the name confers creative prestige today. Some great sporting teams and businesses pass on the culture from era to era, but it’s abundantly clear that hasn’t happened with the Palace. Don’t bother with CPR, a great brand is dead.
To blame WPP for the Palace’s problems is beyond pathetic. Mackay hired Teague.
I am not a CP or Michele hater.
But I have sat across a pitch by CP recently and I was terribly disappointed by the quality of thinking & creativity.
It was pretty unworthy for a once iconic home to legends of the biz.
They were the reasons why I got into the biz in the first place and it was an honor to have worked with some of them.
True some of them had egos and bad boy manners but they were excused because their book & reels were grounded in iconic work for real clients who paid the bills.
This PR on CB is another reminder that it’s best not to try any spin when it contradicts the harsh reality of the situation.
Best of luck Mark.
The Palace’s chances of survival are precisely as good as Happy Soldiers’. Same management team , same legacy.
How much worse can it get under his leadership? Having led the Palace to utter mediocrity for a number of years they rightly parted ways. Why they brought him back is a mystery.
Fold it into Patts already and be done with it. The current management team does not have the ability or charisma required to bring in much needed new business. The hiring of Teague to run the Sydney office was further proof to that point.
Russel is strangely silent on the Palace disaster
@1:14 – I would take a guess he is being quiet because he must have clicked by now that hiring back the ghost from TCP past was not a smart move at all. Just what we need, a reminder to clients that things really have not changed that much and we have the same exec as we did ten years ago when the TCP was struggling then too!How did that work out? Brilliant move !!
Whats next?…..trying to bring back the team from 20 – 30 years ago! Pure Genius!
Car crash…slow motion anybody.
Mark is a nice bloke, but perhaps a fair weather sailor.
So how come Target hasn’t bailed?
Seriously, if it was your brand, would you leave it in the hands of an agency that can’t even look after its own image?
I’d find an agency that can give me the full spectrum, not just 2 and a half creatives and a small team of yes men.
Or they can stick it out with the incredible shrinking agency. Whatever. At least they know they’re the biggest fish in the pond.
Target hasn’t bailed because they have the Palace over a barrel.
What other agency is going to dance like a monkey for so little remuneration?
But I hear the relationship isn’t as solid as it used to be, so watch this space. Would do both brands a lot of good to split and reinvent themselves.