Vale David Mattingly, one of AdNews' Hall of Fame. Mattingly was the former chairman and CEO of Y&R Mattingly, and was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in January this year.
He was renowned in retail advertising and launched the retail arm of Monahan Dayman Adams in the 70s, with Myer as its leading client. It was one of the first Australian retailers to use television advertising. The agency transitioned into Y&R Group, which eventually became GPY&R.
Known to many as 'Big Dave' or The Big Man', he will be greatly missed. Ted Horton described him today as one of the biggest personalities in advertising.
David Mattingly was inducted into the AdNews Hall of Fame in 2010.
Mattingly was retail director at Melbourne agency Monahan Dayman Adams in the 1970s and was the driving force behind Myer becoming the first department store to use television advertising.
Following the establishment of the retail agency MDA Mattingly, Myer closed its advertising department and appointed the agency to handle its print and catalogue work. Others followed, including Safeway, which also appointed Mattingly for all media.
From billings of $4 million in 1981, the agency grew to be the second largest agency in Melbourne in 1987 with billings of $89 million and staff of 164. By 1989 the Mattingly Network had offices in all mainland capitals and Auckland. Between 1990 and 1997 it was ranked third or fourth nationally. In Melbourne it was first or second from 1987 to 1997.
The key to the success in retail was Mattingly's re-engineering of the ad agency model. Instead of using outside talent and premises, everything was handled in-house.
The operation, called Gasworks, was big enough to employ its own photographers, film directors, producers, editors, sound engineers, illustrators, typesetters and retouchers all under one roof, which included photographic and recording studios and complete pre-press facilities. It was so efficient it ended up doing all of Myer's advertising Australia-wide, another first for a national department store.
David Mattingly retired from advertising in 1998. He is a director of Austereo, Wilson Everard, Appco and Drummond Golf, and the only Australian inducted into the US Retail Advertising Hall of Fame. His successor Ian Herdman described him as the greatest salesman he has ever met.
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