There’s been plenty happening at PHD in the past 12 months. Mark Coad started as chief executive in August last year after his stint running Clemenger’s creative agency in Melbourne, CHE. Coad left OMD for the creative gig but has gone back to his roots. Good learning, he says, but media is in his blood. Coad has been nicknamed Israel Folau, the football code swinger who has jumped from Rugby League to AFL but is now playing the thinking game, Rugby Union.
ANZ was the win in 2012 that put PHD in the big league for local Australian clients. The bank landed before Coad’s arrival but the relationship officially started on 1 June. Since then PHD, has won Bosch, Betfair, Jenny Craig, Sussan and MYOB. It’s good clutch of new wins and promising for a global media network that has held plenty of promise since rebranding from Total in 2009 but has not really picked up steam.
One of the more interesting developments at PHD is its new global ‘operating system’, Source, which is essentially a gamified approach to knowledge and ideas-sharing globally. Every staff member globally is incentivised by ‘pings’ to contribute to client briefs and pitches from South America to South Africa. And, of course, it’s the brainchild of Mark Holden, PHD’s now London-based global head of planning who served a stint in Australia a few years back.
PHD is starting to find traction. We’ll see what Coad and Toby Hack can conjure up in the coming year.
Sourced from AdNews Agency Report Card, May 31 2013 edition.
What they say:
PHD launched in Australia in 2009. Since then we have more than doubled in size, won countless awards (including agency of the year, twice) and opened a Melbourne office. PHD is an agency of professional, passionate, honest, realistic and transparent media specialists. We have achieved this this by doing great work for great clients. We have a strong track record partnering with game-changing brands and creating innovative and effective work.
