What does the future hold for Mitchell & Partners?

After the retirement of Harold Mitchell last year the Dentsu Aegis group has been shuffling its pack, moving some major clients into Carat away from its traditional powerhouse agency Mitchell & Partners. Nic Christensen sat down with the new management team at Mitchells to find out what the future is for an agency now a third of its former size.

Harold Mitchell was undoubtedly a dominant figure in Australian media buying, and while he may have retired last year, his shadow still looms large over the business empire he built over 40 years and what was known for much of its life as the Mitchell Communications Group.

(L:R, Mitchell & Partner’s leadership team: John Thompson, Kenny Stewart, Luke Littlefield, Adrian Roeling)

Two takeovers, one by the British firm Aegis in 2010 and a second when Japanese giant Dentsu consumed Aegis in 2012, has meant that the Mitchell name is long gone from the front of the building at its York Street headquarters in South Melbourne, which are now the home to the Dentsu Aegis Network and the 25 businesses which make up that brand across Australia and New Zealand.