Mid-sized advertisers are being lost within agency holding groups and are “in revolt” against poor service and, increasingly, the lack of “transparency around planning motivations”, reckons the boss of upstart media agency Atomic 212.
CEO Jason Dooris refuted that such a claim was self-serving. He cited a handful of business wins taken from “the top three agency groups in Australia” in the last month by way of example. The wins total some $17m in billings across media and digital planning and buying, claimed Dooris, with another $15m-plus win to be announced shortly.
“We are observing clients revolt against an increasingly low touch service offer. Agency groups who sell media space to themselves are really beginning to blur the lines between who are the buyers and who are the sellers,” he said.
Greater transparency around planning motivations “has been a key opening discussion point with many of our new clients and has been topical in the media recently. It's a real Pandora's box,” Dooris claimed.
He said those business wins, mainly for the digital component, included O’Brien Glass (full media planning and buying), Adairs, Origin Energy, Marvel/Eaglemoss and TAB Luxbet.
To service the new business, the agency has hired Sara Borghi, performance media manager from Omnicom Resolution Media, Nolwenn Roland, performance media analyst from Remind in France, Rodrigo Queiroz, performance media manager from JWT, Victoria McKeown, head of investment from Carat, Christina Cole, media manager from MEC, Fez Ghista from Farron Research and Matt Smiles from Optimisation.
The firm has also hired ex- Carat, Barcelona and Brazil footballer and digital exec Aline Eloy. Dooris said she would help the agency continue to score goals.
“We're new so we can cherry pick. They're all bright, alert people and that makes the difference to clients who feel that they get lost in the big, multi-national agency systems, which don't always manage to get the balance right between income and staff resources.”
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