Publicis Mojo Melbourne: Mumbrella Creative Agency Review – losing Tourism Vic is a huge blow for a dwindling force

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

If there is an agency that has fallen as far from past glories as The Campaign Palace, it is the Melbourne office of Publicis Mojo. Once a tour de force and a genuinely world class agency brand, Mojo Melbourne has shrunk beyond all recognition in recent years. So much so, it is easy to forget the agency exists, tucked away with the equally low-key Zenith Optimedia in Publicis Groupe’s tower on the Southbank.

Though worryingly quiet compared with its sister office in Sydney, there have been glimpses of quality from Publicis Mojo Melbourne this year. The agency has produced some decent work, which is reflected in its only respectable score in both the expert panel and Mumbrella reader survey: for its creativity.

Its ‘Play Melbourne’ campaign for Tourism Victoria has perhaps not bettered previous campaigns. But it has been a well-received effort, with the client having expressed approval with the results so far. Work for Cadbury bite-sized, Peter’s Maxibon and Toyota has also been solid. But so much, more than is healthy, hangs on the Tourism Victoria tender. No one in Melbourne believes they can retain the business, which they have done so with two clenched fists for eighteen years.