How I can help

I work with agencies and marketers from across Australia and around the world to solve tough challenges, add some extra firepower, fill their resource gaps and empower their people to do amazing things.

Advertising doesn’t work the way it used to. Media becomes more fragmented everyday. Culture and Technology change our attitudes, behaviours and the role brands play in our lives more rapidly than ever. Best practice is outdated by the time we document it.

Machine learning, AI and the myriad of other tools we have at our disposal help us to deal with this complexity. However, I believe it’s human curiosity, an obsession with ‘WHY’ and an unwavering determination to find a better way that is the key to making the dollars we spend work harder than the dollars of our competitors.

Agencies

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  • - Proposition, Credentials & New Business

    - Structure, Ways of Working & Process Codification

    - New Opportunities & Growth Strategies

    Any problem that your leadership team is wrestling with that could do with a fresh perspective and maybe a more structured way of looking at it. I can be very flexible in my approach to helping with this and customise a solution that works for your business, structure and budget.

  • - Comms & Media Strategy

    - Media Connections Planning

    - Media Buying, Activation, Reporting & Analysis

    - Analytics Implementation, Trouble Shooting & Dashboard Development

    Think of me as a media mercinary - but the good kind with a passion to use my experience, skills and connections to do good in the world. Not the action movie bad guy kind of mercs that don't care what they do as long as they get paid. I'm a battle hardend veteran you can draft in to help fill a short term resource gap, add some firepower to a pitch or major peice of work or just bring a fresh perspective to a client, brief or any other kind of challenge that really needs a better way to solve it. If your need is broader than what I can solve alone, I have a network of hired guns I can call on to create a bespoke team to get the job done.

  • I've spent a large part of my career working in integrated environments and know from experience that the best work always happens when media and creative come together in true collaboration. I have massive respect for the creative discipline and have always loved working with creative partners. If you're a creative agency that would like to expand into media, have a short term opportunity to provide media services to a client and need help delivering on that ask, are having trouble working with a media partner and could use a hand in making that better, or are working on a pitch or major project that you feel some media insight could make the work even better - we should definitely talk!

  • Maintaining long term relationships are tough in this industry, especially when you spend a lot of your time marking your own homework. Having an independent resource to evaluate performance across all aspects of a relationship from buying processes and media outcomes to service quality and behaviour on both sides can make a huge difference and keep the word pitch far from anyone's mind.

    This evaluation process can also facilitate transparent and mutually beneficial performance based remuneration structures. As clients continue to look for better value and agencies seek ways to maintain margin in tough economic conditions, this approach can often work better for both parties. Rather than a race to the bottom on buying rates and fees, a relationship built on both sides 'putting their money where their mouth is', can be a better way to structure commercial arrangements.

    So, next time you are considering your commercial proposal for a pitch or going through fee re-negotiations with an important client it might just pay off to have a chat about finding a better way to structure things.

Marketers

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  • Sometimes it helps to get a fresh perspecitve on a challenge, or maybe you just feel like you need some more support to find a better solution to a nagging comms, advertising or media challenge. Whatever the task I'll bring a depth of experience, a highly collaborative attitude and an arsenal of over-thought opinions to help you find the better way forward.

  • A well oiled agency relationship can save a marketing team a mountain of time and stress, but on the flip side even just a few seemingly small points of misalignment or sub-optimal engagement can eat up a significant amount of the most valuable resource of both parties - TIME.

    I'm sure you can think of an instance when an agency response just didn't quite hit the mark and the extra time to go back and rework the strategy/plan/idea, whatever it was, took up a huge amount of your team's time, delayed other non-related work streams and created additional stress for everyone as unmovable deadlines loomed or senior leadership became increasingly nervous.

    I can help you to understand how agencies really work, what goes on behind the curtain, the tricks to briefing that minimise the chance of the above scenario occurring and a mountain of other tips and tricks to get every bit of value for those fees you pay each month.

  • Changing agency partners is extremely time consuming and disruptive for a business.

    There will be times when this is necessary, but the value and efficiency that comes from a positive long term client-agency partnership really is a game changer and a massive competitive advantage if your category rivals are changing their agencies every couple of years.

    Just like any other relationship, things can start to go south for any number of reasons. Usually both parties point the finger at each other (if not openly then at least behind closed doors) and the 'P -Word' can quickly rear its ugly head. There are times when the agency really is just providing terrible service and a change is warranted BUT in the vast majority of cases the root causes are balanced across both sides and all it takes is an outsider to dig into the circumstances, provide an objective perspective with the requisite supporting evidence and work with both parties to agree on solutions to get everything back on track.

    If this sounds familiar or you'd just like to be prepared and get out in front of it, then drop me a line and we can discuss the best approach for your circumstances.

  • I lost count a long time ago of the number of times a senior marketer has said to me something along the lines of 'the agency keeps telling me in all their reporting and presentations that the results of all our advertising are amazing but I'm just not seeing any correlation in business performance. I don't think they are telling me the whole truth'. Thankfully I didn't hear this from my own clients very often - but there were occasions.

    All the KPI setting in the world will only go so far to ward off these kinds of concerns when you are relying on the agency to mark their own homework. I'm not suggesting agencies will be dishonest but the art of polishing a turd is something you learn pretty early in your agency career.

    Depending how much you are spending in media, an objective, independent review at least once a year or as often as once a quarter can provide peace of mind, highlight areas of concern and if neccessary support in addressing these with the agency to turn things around quickly.

  • It's pretty easy to find someone offering free training on just about any media topic. Despite the media industry's reputation, there's no such thing as a free lunch and you always have to ask yourself what the hidden agenda might be that sits behind everything you are being told.

    If you just want someone to cut through the bullshit and explain how something really works with no ulterior motive, then look no further. I can provide one-off sessions covering specific topics of interest or design a program over multiple sessions that covers a broader range of topics or goes really deep on one thing in particular.

  • Pitching is terrible for everyone!

    If I had a dollar for every conversation I've had about how broken agency pitching is I probably wouldn't need to be running this consultancy. BUT, change is hard and everyone is used to doing things the same way so it seems like we all just keep doing it.

    If you need to run a pitch (hopefully you've taken a quick look at the services above this one first - seriously, only pitch if you are positive it's the only way forward or the CFO is giving you no choice) but would rather not sink weeks, if not months of you and your team's time going through the typical multiple rounds - creds + full brief response process, then please drop me a line because I've got a process that is significantly more time efficient for everyone involved but will also lead to a far more reliable decision on which partner is right for you.

    I'll also help you through it for less money than the big consultancies

Training

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  • If you're looking for an external speaker for any event, from a regular team meeting to a quarterly planning or training day. Or maybe you just want to put something interesting on for the team, I can fill that gap for you.

    I have a growing list of pre-prepared presentations on a range of different topics or can prepare something bespoke if there is a specific topic you have in mind.

    - Re-Thinking Presentations & Storytelling

    - How We Kill Productivity

    - Make Yourself Indispensable

    - The Value of Curiosity

    - The Power of WHY

  • Is there a critical skill gap in your team that you don't have the exisiting resources to fill?

    Is your team underperforming in a critical area or perhaps a client has highlighted an issue that you need to quickly demonstrate action to solve?

    Whatever is keeping you up at night, if I can't teach your team a batter way myself, I'll find the right person who can and recommend the best format to get them there fast.

  • Our industry is usually pretty good at teaching people the core skills they need to do their job and progress up their chosen career ladder.

    Providing true craft mentorship to our most talented people to help them flourish isn't always as consistent, or easily resourced for.

    If you have a person or people in your business that show the potential and passion to be an incredible strategist and/or planner and you'd like to help them realise that potential, I can help.

A couple case studies

These are campaigns I led with amazing clients and partners while working at Mediahub

This one came to life in close collaboration with Cricket NSW, MKTG, SBS and the support of a brilliant marketing team at WU committed to creating something meaningful that truly connected with their audience.

(Fun fact - the case study voiceover IS NOT AI! A real person managed to sound like that......)

This campaign got attention because it was the first 3D billboard execution in Australia (they've perfected the tech now) but the insight at the heart of it and the amazing work by the team at INVNT bringing together the crew of influencers and translating everything onto a canvas that hadn't been used in that way before was an incredible achievement. The Team at oOh! Media were also incredible, pulling out all the stops to find a way to make my crazy idea work.

It all starts with a conversation!

Woolgoolga Beach - I think it’s better than Bondi and Manly