BMF: Mumbrella Creative Agency Review

Robin Hicks

September 20, 2011 12:28

The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how BMF has fared over the last 12 months.

A consistent performer for over a decade, BMF did not disappoint in 2011 – even with a new management team in place that is less than a year into its stride. Though there is not a clear leader in the market at the moment, no one could object too strongly with the panellist who describes BMF as the best agency in Australia – a view echoed by Mumbrella’s readers.

In four out of ten categories the Photon-owned shop was voted the top

performer in the country, bringing credibility to the panel comment that BMF is a “benchmark agency in most areas.”

Of all the categories, planning was singled out as a particularly strong point. One panelist noted that the department’s head Martin Rippon, also the agency’s MD, is “the almost invisible reason why BMF is such a planning force.” On the creative front, ECD Dylan Taylor was identified as a “quiet, steady and quite brilliant creative talent” who is able to drive consistently strong work.

At the management level, CEO Jeremy Nicholas – who replaced Matt Melhuish, who moved upstairs to run Photon’s agency portfolio – is credited with stepping up with an assured lack of fuss. “It takes a while to let go from a practitioner’s role to management. But over the last six months, Jeremy has grown into the role and has reignited the agency’s entrepreneurial culture,” says one panelist.

If there is a weakness it is perhaps that BMF has not been performing at its very best of late – an observation made by individuals on the panel, and reflected in the agency’s lowliest position in the survey: momentum.

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Robin Hicks

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