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When he accepted his entry into the AWARD Hall of Fame earlier this year, Tom McFarlane quoted Chinese philosopher Confucius: “If you find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
McFarlane is clearly a man that loves his job in advertising as much now as he did when he started out. After spending 20 years building M&C Saatchi, he’s now running The Greenhouse. It’s the agency spun out of M&C 18 months ago to serve Woolworths, when the supermarket chain handed the account back following three years with Leo Burnett.
The account moved without a pitch and reinstated a relationship previously held for 12 years, between 2000 and 2012.
The Greenhouse is a new breed of agency, set up purely around the needs of one client. It has its own offices in inner Sydney’s Surry Hills, away from M&C Saatchi’s Macquarie Street headquarters. And it’s a joint venture between the agency and the client. Woolies pays half the rent on the office space and its marketing teams spend 50% of their time there. At capacity, there’s around 40 people from agency and client all under one roof.
McFarlane said it’s this new venture and the opportunity to do something different that kept him in advertising. He had been preparing to step down from M&C Saatchi, saying his “chapter had come to an end”.
The new leadership in Jaimes Leggett had been put in place and the time was right to go and do something else. It was at that point Woolworths came back on the scene.
“If I was a client, I would want to have direct relationships with the people who are going to represent my company. It’s quite simple, but [advertising] has become complicated.
“Woolworths is a piece of business I was very fond of, and I was very pissed off when it went, so for me it’s unfinished business.”
He views it with the same excitement as setting up his own shop, and likens it to the early days of M&C. McFarlane believes the new setup is the best working relationship for Woolies, but isn’t convinced that the model works for every client.
He is adamant, however, that agencies aren’t dead yet, despite their demise being predicted for decades.
“I’ve been hearing the agency is dead for a really long time, but until clients can actually come up with their own ideas, we’re alright,” he said.
History in the making
At 65, McFarlane has been in the game a long time, including the 20 years with M&C Saatchi where he built the agency alongside its founder Tom Dery. Most refer to the pair as ‘The Toms’, and Dery, who had been worldwide chairman of the network, announced his own retirement in June, but remains chairman of the Australian agency.
McFarlane came from a working−class background and got into advertising because of a love of writing. Early on, he was given a cadetship at the ABC to be a journalist, but at that stage advertising wasn’t even something he was aware of. After school, McFarlane found himself working in an ad agency, then “everything else went out of the window”.
“I’d stepped into a world that I didn’t know existed,” he said. There were different types of people; interesting people, funny people, people that drank a lot, people who wore clothes like nobody I knew.”
So, starting out as the despatch boy in Melbourne, he then studied advertising part−time for four years to work his way up. He did a stint in London and at agencies including JWT and DDB where he first worked with Dery. It was Dery who convinced McFarlane, a Melbourne boy, to make the move to Sydney and join M&C Saatchi.
The agency had been up and running about 12 months, but it wasn’t until McFarlane joined that it really began to take off. In his first year, the agency gained 14 clients, grew to 39 people and won AdNews Agency of the Year.
“It was Tom’s sheer salesmanship that got me to join M&C,” McFarlane said. “I was 45 and had missed the boat of doing my own startup. But this was an opportunity as good as a startup − and it had this massive, famous name.”
M&C’s stronghold has always been Sydney, but it expanded to Melbourne by winning the ANZ business.
The Toms won the account despite it being up for grabs to Melbourne agencies only − with a little theatrics. To get around the caveat, they set up a staged Melbourne office in the front of someone else’s agency, had business cards made with the address and car park signs labelled M&C Saatchi Melbourne. After working 12 weeks straight, the stunt and the pitch paid off and they took the ANZ account.
M&C Saatchi is, and always has been, a pitching machine and McFarlane thrived on it.
“We probably were addicted to it. And the more we won, the more we liked the winning,” he revealed. “A very good friend of mine used to say, ‘you have to be careful you don’t end up enjoying the killing more than the eating’.”
At The Greenhouse, it’s a completely different vibe, since the agency serves just one client, new business isn’t on the agenda.
A long, wild ride
When McFarlane was presented with his Hall of Fame accolade, unknowingly to him, it would be presented by his daughter Mietta. She is currently a copywriter at Droga5 New York, who was inspired to follow in her father’s footsteps. This is because while growing up, among all her friends, McFarlane was the only dad who seemed to love his job.
He made an emotional acceptance speech that touched on his pride in the industry, and his enjoyment throughout.
“It’s a long time, but the years have flown by. It’s been a hell of a ride, wild at times, but always fun,” he said at the awards night back in May.
As to how long he plans to stay in the business, McFarlane is clear that he won’t be there forever.
“On a personal level, I’ve enjoyed what I do for a living, and I am still enjoying it,” he explained. “If I stop enjoying it, I’ll go. I still get a buzz out of advertising. That’s an honest answer; I intend to keep doing it while I enjoy it.”
This is a free feature from AdNews print magazine September edition. Every issue of the monthly magazine has exclusive features, profile interviews and content that isn't usually available online. If you don't subscribe, you're missing out. You can download a digital version of AdNews and subscribe to the premium print edition here.
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