STW Group has surrendered its group membership to the Communications Council and told its agencies it is up to them to decide if they want to take part in the industry body.
At the same time Rob Morgan, chief executive of Clemenger BBDO, has warned the organisation which oversees AWARD, Ad School, and The Effie Awards,that it need to refocus on being an advocate for the industry in legislative and business circles and called for a merger of the Communications Council and the Media Federation of Australia.
“I will go on the record to say that we believe emphatically in the organisation,” Morgan said.
“We believe in it needing to prosecute our right to trade, our right to make a dollar and our right to protect ourselves against external influences and we must prosecute the case for the value of advertising.
“I think one of the problems with the organisation in Australia is, and I will go on the record with this as well, is to say that it is ridiculous there are two organisations in this country – the media people and the advertising agencies are different organisations. Nowhere else in the world does that exist. And that is a kind of sad indictment really on the fact they are not talking with one voice.”
Speaking from Cannes, STW CEO Mike Connaghan confirmed that the holding company, which includes ad agencies Ogilvy, JWT, Etcom, Spinach, and the Brand Agency, has surrendered its group subscription.
Instead, STW agencies will choose on their own if they wish to be members of the Communications Council.
Margaret Zabel, CEO of the Communications Council, downplayed STW's decision, saying it was a return to how its agencies had historically managed memberships after trialling the group membership for one year.
“STW Group encompasses a broad range of agencies and disciplines, some of which naturally find more relevance and value in membership than others,” Zabel said.
“We understand Mike Connaghan wants the decision to be in the hands of the individual agencies – those who both fund membership and recognise where the value is returned."
She also said that the Communications Council continued to work with Morgan on the issues that he had raised.
“Over the last 18 months, we began a thorough strategic review of The Communications Council to understand where our members receive the most value, and how we can develop our offering and services. Rob Morgan’s feedback has been instrumental in influencing some of the changes that we have already made and planned for. One of those being increased focus on some of the bigger industry issues facing agencies, which involves forging alignment with relevant bodies.”
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