Whybin TBWA Tequila Australia claims a talent-based turnaround

"The loss of St George was like a body blow to the agency. It was our largest client and represented 30 per cent of the agency’s revenue,” Paul Bradbury, CEO of TBWA Tequila Sydney told Campaign.  “As one door shuts, others open. With the senior management team retiring, we decided to reengineer the office and give it a new lease on life.”

Bradbury first joined Whybin TBWA in 2007 and was promoted from managing director to CEO of the Sydney office in August last year.

The first step for agency chairman and executive creative director Scott Whybin was to rerecruit Matty Burton and Dave Bowman as joint-executive creative directors. Burton and Bowman had started their careers together at Whybin TBWA where they worked for six years before splitting up to pursue careers at Droga 5 Sydney and Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney respectively.

“Their return to Whybin TBWA gave the Sydney office the necessary impetus and we picked up a number of large accounts for 2010, including Insurance Australia Group, Energizer, GFK, and National Australia Bank,” said Bradbury.

Since then the Sydney office’s organic growth has been significant, nearly doubling from 88 employees a year and a half ago, to 171 today.

The success of the Sydney office prompted the group to direct its focus on its Melbourne branch. “Sydney was a great proof point to us that if we focus on the quality of our staff, we will achieve great things,” said Whybin. “The Melbourne office was built largely on work we have done for the federal government, but government business alone was not sufficiently sustainable for the long term.”

In March this year, Whybin TBWA Melbourne won its largest account – ANZ Bank. “It’s a massive win, and allowed us to bring a lot of people on board,” noted Andrew Scott, CEO of Whybin TBWA Melbourne. Today, the Melbourne office has about 35 people managing the ANZ global account.

Following the win, the Melbourne office started working towards acquiring top talent including Damien Royce, who joined the agency as digital creative director, along with Mark Watkin as managing director in May last year. More recently, Paul Reardon came on board as executive creative director.

“Besides new business growth, the group’s creative work has improved dramatically as well in the past year or so. We’ve picked up 25 creative effectiveness awards and a bronze at Cannes,” said Bradbury.

Taking advantage of it strong position in Australia and New Zealand, Whybin TBWA has plans to expand the group’s capabilities and scope throughout the Asia Pacific region on the back of its regional duties for ANZ.

In February, the group launched Integer, a specialist shop which focuses on shopper experience marketing, and in March it expanded its PR offering with Eleven PR.  

“Our aim is simple, to be the biggest and the best at creativity. We’ve doubled in size over the past 14 months to almost 300 staff and we’re happy,” said Whybin.