We have been through a volatile and bizarre 2 years, however more storm clouds are on the horizon. Increasing inflation and costs of doing business, specifically wages, as well as fragmented media options and greater client expectations, mean leaders have never had more challenges, opportunities and tasks to consider.

However, as a leader, can you make visible progress on everything? A proper strategy is often about what you choose not to focus on (at least for now).

Many of these hard choices will be exacerbated by a significant skill shortage. In a period of change and inflation: business development, leadership, mindset, and motivating employees have never been more vital to an agency. New starters in the industry and staff are not just demanding higher salaries, but a different kind of culture and work environment.

In this session, Virginia Hyland, CEO of Havas Australia, will interview Chris Hirst on his leadership experience as Global CEO of Havas Creative, and as the author of ‘No Bullsh*t Leadership’. Chris leads a team of 11,000 employees across 75 countries and believes in the principles of an open culture – where people are given permission to take risks and make mistakes. He is actively engaged in broadening the appeal and future health of the advertising industry.

The 2021 OUCH! Factor survey found pitching last year cost agencies $100k a pop, and an average of 175 hours was spent on each pitch by agencies, and 125 hours by marketers and procurement. Are agencies and brands aware of how much it is costing them to pitch/ brief out their media & creative, the opportunity cost, and the effect on talented staff, in terms of burnout, particularly with a skills shortage?

In this session, we’ll hear from Julia Vargiu from New Business Methodology as she premiers the OUCH 2022 survey results, before handing over to agency leaders to debate and discuss sourcing new business outside of pitching scenarios. The discussion will establish criteria to walk away from RFPs, and will uncover more strategic methods to win business (before an RFP hits the market).

What are the alternative ways for agencies to position themselves as valuable experts and price on outcomes (not hours), and ultimately avoid competitive RFPs?

The needs and wants (and RFPs) of brands are changing rapidly. However, as an industry have we really been listening?

There are many agency and brand models that can and do work. Rather than speculate as an industry, CMOs will discuss their reasons and rationale for outsourcing vs in-housing, and their reasons for using multiple agencies vs one agency.

Hear from 3 CMOs all with different models, who discuss the considerations, and the pros, cons, and challenges of outsourcing vs in-sourcing.

In this fireside chat between Melissa Fein, CEO of Initiative Australia and Nicole Taylor, Senior VP of Marketing and Head of LEGO Agency, Nicole will share her key leadership learnings, based on her 14 years of experience as a CEO/ Managing Partner of DDB Spain, McCann Worldgroup Australia, DDB Australia, George Patterson Y&R Australia, and how LEGO and its agencies Initiative and Huge Inc. collaborate to drive results.

This discussion will cover The LEGO Agencies’ global approach to media and creative, with a focus on integration, innovation, transparency, and speed to react to changing consumer trends and campaigns that aren’t working.

How have Initiative and LEGO collaborated to implement this strategy locally?

Nicole’s work at LEGO is helping drive innovation, which in turn is improving agility, productivity, and transparency.

Session details TBC

Session details TBC

33% of every marketing budget is wasted on poor briefs and misdirected work. Whilst the monetary and time costs are obvious, what about the effect it has on talented staff, who are demoralised when they feel they’ve worked incredibly hard only to ‘miss the mark’. There is also the opportunity cost of directing your agencies best talent to pitching vs working on current account work.

We’ve been talking about a better briefing process for years now. This panel will urge the industry to align for better pitch guidelines, like the IPA Pitch Pledge, announced in May 2022.

Matt Davies and Pieter-Paul of BetterBriefs, will premier the specific Australian market research of the first global and largest study into marketing briefs.

Matt and Pieter-Paul will discuss their research findings, and the monetary, time, and mental health costs incurred by agencies and clients from poor briefing; the result being misguided pitching, poor proposals, and staff burnout.

The agencies winning the battle for talent aren’t necessarily the ones with the best reputations but rather those with the most innovative business (revenue) models. The high-profile defectors haven’t jumped from one traditional agency to another, but from agency to technology company; agency to media company; agency to consultancy. The most talented people in the business aren’t just leaving your agency, many are leaving the agency business.

Resignations have been fuelled by factors that are now very familiar to most agency leaders – the pandemic, the economy, and the need for flexibility. But these are largely temporary dynamics that will eventually turn themselves around. The central cause of the problem – the key driver — is the agency business model itself.

More specifically, agencies are lacking a revenue model. Whereas most other modern businesses have a dynamic, multi-faceted pricing structure, many agencies simply have a schedule of hourly rates. They have a self-limiting inventory of hours they sell to their clients, which places a self-imposed ceiling on both income and profits.

In this compelling presentation, Tim Williams of Ignition Consulting Group shows how agencies can replace their current cost-driven compensation approach with an actual revenue model; a variety of ways they can price their services based on the value they create rather than the costs they incur.

Session details TBC

Australia has a thriving market for growing and independent media and creative agencies. What have hyper-growth agencies done differently? Growing pains are inevitable (especially in a tight labour market), so what strategies have these agencies used to grow, whilst maintaining their customer experience?

This panel will bring together specific agencies to share how they have diversified into creative, CX, digital transformation services, or who have returned/ repositioned their agency to a full-service model.

They’ll share and discuss some of their diversification strategies, varied remuneration models, repositioning their agency as consultants and innovative ideators vs tactical media buyers, acquisition of other agencies, and how they have recruited in a tight labour market (to enable their scaling).