Ex-R/GA boss Jon Holloway returns to agency
The former managing director of R/GA, Jon Holloway, is rejoining the business as executive strategy director, Mumbrella can reveal.
Holloway said that despite the headlines around his exit from the agency in 2016, he actually left the business on really good terms. This time around though, he said he will be focusing on what he’s best at.
“I’ve changed a lot,” Holloway told Mumbrella of his time away from adland. “I definitely won’t be updating my LinkedIn profile at any point with anything that might be taken [by the media],” he said, referencing his 2016 post which said R/GA had been “floundering” and “all over the place”.
Holloway
I thought ‘advertising doesn’t work’?
6 years.
5 ESDs.
6 ECDs.
5 MDs.
2 CCOs.
… 1 client.
That’s a little more “reinventing” than the standard R/GA every-9-years thing…
Occasionally I read mumbrella and think, there are people who should seek out the trade press with their opinions and then there are others that should actively avoid doing so.
– Karen
Couldn’t agree more.
What globally awarded creative work has Jon led??
Being so negative about the industry as you leave, and continuing to post negative comments about the industry as you try and make new go of it on a new business is silly. The reason why it’s silly is because it makes you look silly when you return.
Burning bridges with a company is one thing, burning them with a whole industry is absurd.
8 months – max.
Good luck to Jon. Hope it’s a success.
Grab the popcorn and keep an eye on LinkedIn!
All the best Jon, haters gonna hate etc
Congrats Jon.
Rock R/GA again!
2-1 🙂
#COYS
James
The irony is that RGA are desperate for advertising revenue.
They’ve been completely out manoeuvred by the Consultancies in the digital space
The delicious irony is that ‘RGA’ is a singular noun and you wrote “RGA are desperate”. Tut tut.
Collective nouns can be singular or plural. Their intention is clearly plural: the team at R/GA.
https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-collective.php
grabs_popcorn.gif
And what ever happened to Delorean? https://staging.mumbrella.com.au/jonathan-pease-john-du-vernet-and-other-adland-executives-launch-micro-consultancy-delorean-556918
Nice to see the industry coming together in these unprecedented times
Hhmmm,
Oops…..awkward…..I had to come back. No dramas, come back. Do a great job and reinvigorate an agency – all good.
This is one of the longest and best executed trollings of the industry of all time.
The sad/funny part of this (depending on which side of the fence you sit) is you know how this is going to end.
The definition of insanity is…….
Welcome home sir. I wish everyone was as honest as you. I look forward to catching up. And getting your perspective on just about everything! Ignore the naysayers! Those who hide behind anonymity and so called common sense. X
this is hilarious. the guy has been bagging out advertising for the past few years post his exit. good on him for starting his own fintech business but he’s obviously crawling back to RGA because his startup is flailing. #tailbetweenhislegs
… speechless.
How was the future Jon?
Not that great apparently.
You are crawling back to an industry you have spent the last 3 years slagging off and calling irrelevant.
How do you sleep at night?
I predict you will take the money for a while and then leave and slag it all off again.
“So we are now operating like an agency. consultancy business that is allowing us to take that kind of deep rigour and design from consultancy and add that kind of creative layer of a creative business and do things that are truly quite different and operate in different ways,” he said.
Dear clients,
This man wants your business after repeatedly calling you all stupid for working with creative ad agencies. This man wants your money after saying that you waste your money on creative agencies. This man will write opinion pieces that start with provocative statements like ‘advertising is dead’ and then try and sell you some programmatic digital advertising strategy that will most like be a series of banner ads. This guy is probably deleting all his past opinion pieces as we speak to cover his tracks and make out that he’s not anti-literally-everything. This man hates our industry and is not a positive force. Beware this snake oil salesman.
No mention in the article of Zuper, the super pooper.
“I’m definitely not the anti-advertising contrarian I probably was. I still have deep feelings and opinions about how the advertising world and now the advertising consultancy world works, but I want to try and change it by doing it, not necessarily by shouting it at people. I will still shout it at people…”
“I will still shout it at people”
Wow.
Why has R/GA taken this risk?
It’s not based on the success of past performance.
It’s clearly not based on any reputational benefit they might derive.
It’s not based on chemistry or leadership capabilities.
What am I missing here?
Agreed. This smacks of desperation on RG/A’s part. Why else would you rehire someone who publicly defamed you on their way out?
What happened to Victoria Curro? Are there no females at RGA leadership level?
Victoria is Sydney MD. Michael is national. This looks like a national role. Although what Aussie clients RGA has is anyone’s guess. Toyota and a bit of Google?
As a manager you get paid to make decisions. Time will tell if this is a good one or a bad one.
On the face of it it’s absurdly bad. But maybe he sees something we don’t.
He said he doubled the size of the business, and they didn’t lose a pitch when he ran it. From his interview the business was going great.
So rga must have wanted to get back this greatness.