Host: Mumbrella Creative Agency Review – A subdued year for the newly wed
The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how Host has fared over the last 12 months.
Host has a pretty good excuse for having had a quieter year than usual. The agency can no longer claim to be the best independent agency in Australia, having sold a majority stake to French group Havas in July, making a wealthy man of Anthony Freedman, who founded the agency a decade ago.
Though this year’s work was not the best in its history, the agency continues to enjoy a decent reputation built on its unique model (outsourcing creative), entrepreneurial leadership, strong culture, and work that, more often than not, has the edge of surprise. Its standing in the market has been done no harm by its founder’s position as chairman of the Communications Council.
Prior to the sale, one panellist noted: “Host continues to deliver impactful, different, highly creative work across what is now a big agency. The agency sells itself well on its differences and uses its additional services (PR and social/digital) to great effect. All it needs now is to sell, and let an international owner drive it into the ground.”
Cynicism aside, Freedman will need to be careful that his agency’s culture is not lost in its parent’s. Or by his ambitions to expand overseas. There were rumoured to have been a number of suitors, among them Publicis Groupe and Interpublic, which bought 303 instead. Freedman will have selected the one he thinks will give him the wriggle room to run the business his own way, and with 49% still his, this should be enough to ensure Host’s uniqueness remains intact.
Overall, our survey places Host as Australia’s third most highly regarded agency. It was just one off the spot off the top for effectiveness, planning, integration and account management. Tellingly, though, Host gets its lowest marks for creativity and momentum, echoing one panellist’s view that Host appears to have run out of steam. But then getting acquired will have slowed the agency down.
The months ahead will be about bedding down the re-jigged management team, with Suzie Shaw taking over as the agency’s first MD and Olly Taylor taking on a new role overseeing creative and strategy as chief strategy officer. More than anything, 2012 will be about showing its new owners – and the market – what it’s made of.
To read more about Host, including full details on how it was scored by both our expert panel and Mumbrella’s own readers, to view examples of the agency’s work and read its own assessment of its performance, buy a copy of the Mumbrella Creative Agency Review priced at $75. The book features an assessment of the country’s top 30 ad agencies. To buy the book, click here.
