A well-known Perth advertising agency has harnessed a string of high-profile client losses to reinvent itself as a collaborative, contemporary business.
A RADICAL transformation is taking place behind the glass facade of Marketforce’s iconic West Perth offices.
Scorched by the defection of a swag of clients during the past two years, Marketforce chairman and chief executive John Driscoll is leading an ambitious campaign to rebuild and revitalise the 37-year-old business.
A new senior management team, including new joint creative directors, has been installed following the departure of long-time general manager Carrick Robinson and creative director Andrew Tinning.
And Mr Driscoll has also revealed plans for a major makeover of the Hay Street headquarters that will sweep aside the confusion of offices to make way for a light, airy, open-plan design.
Mr Driscoll characterised the rebuild as a “change of people and skills”, but this is more than a simple changing of the guard – Marketforce is being reinvented.
Its historic brand and big, powerhouse image is getting a makeover – and the themes of openness and collaboration appear to underpin every decision. Mr Driscoll said he was focused on getting the right blend of personalities in the new senior management team to ensure everyone was “pulling in the same direction”.
He said newly installed creative directors Pat Lennox and Ben Green were highly awarded creatives who also possessed adept business minds.
“It’s unusual to find a creative such as Pat, who has as his qualification a bachelor of economics,” Mr Driscoll told WA Business News.
“That brings a different flavour to some of the challenges our clients face when you have someone with a strong analytical, numerate mind who is looking at the problems from a creative and business perspective.”
The thinking behind the radical reshaping dates back to before the GFC to a booming Western Australian economy.
Marketforce was performing at the top of its game; its creative work had earned it a national reputation and new clients were walking through the door.
But good times bring their own challenges and what followed this peak period was a succession of client losses that culminated in Lotterywest ending its 36-year association with Marketforce, taking its $6 million account to rival agency Meerkats.
“If I go back three years, Marketforce had a period of record growth, record profit record everything,” Mr Driscoll said
“I think in that period of heightened performance we probably weren’t as quick, in some areas, to develop some of our service offerings and bring in new people to help move that forward.”
Industry analyst and Campaign Brief WA editor Martin Trevaskis said the success of smaller agencies such as Meerkats had also possibly hurt Marketforce’s big agency brand.
“Marketforce has always had this reputation for being dominant and maybe there was a time when big was good ... perhaps now you need to appear small even if you are big,” Mr Trevaskis said.
At just 49, Mr Driscoll is already a Marketforce veteran. In his 22 years at the agency he has seen it reinvent itself several times and was cognisant of the need for renewal well before Lotterywest packed its bags.
Mr Driscoll brought Nigel Fisher on board as director of digital services early in 2010 to bolster the agency’s digital offering and also set up Marketforce Consulting, a planning and brand strategy division led by newcomer Nicole Walton.
“Digital is a critical part of where we are headed,” Mr Driscoll said.
“I don’t think clients look at it as something new any more, digital is just part of the communication landscape.”
Rick Multari has been appointed to head up client services and ensure the team is meeting clients’ needs in the face of a rapidly evolving media landscape.
But perhaps the biggest challenge of this transformation will be winning new business.
Mr Driscoll said he was confident there were at least five major clients in Perth that would be reviewing their advertising contracts in the next 12 months.
He was not willing to name any businesses, but industry insiders suggest the RAC could go to the market and there was talk the Bankwest account could return to WA.
It’s a challenge that excites Marketforce’s new creative directors, who both started their careers at the business in the late 1990s.
Mr Lennox said Marketforce had always had a reputation for great creative work and he was excited by the prospect of winning new business.
In their first few months in the job, he said the focus had been on implementing structures and processes to ensure a high standard of creative work.
Mr Green said it had always been in their plans to return to Perth but the opportunity to head up the creative department at Marketforce was something of a dream come true.
