Publicis Mojo Sydney: Mumbrella Creative Agency Review – Craig Davis assumes creative control of ‘bonsai’ Mojo
The newly published Mumbrella Creative Agency Review examines Australia’s top 30 ad agencies. Today Robin Hicks examines how Publicis Mojo Sydney has fared over the last 12 months.
The loss of Micah Walker, Publicis Mojo Sydney’s ECD, casts a shadow over an otherwise decent year for the agency, which has been a familiar presence on the podium at awards shows. Last year, the ‘Pure Waters’ campaign for Lion Nathan’s James Boag beer won handsomely, and was recently named one of the best beer ads of all time by The One Club. So did ‘Ride’ for Coca-Cola’s energy drink Burn, which was one of the few Australian film winners at Cannes. This year should see Publicis Mojo’s Knight Rider-themed ad for Hahn Super Dry, which was named Mumbrella’s ad of the month for July 2011, win a fair few trophies.
But it will take more than awards to convince the market that Publicis Mojo Sydney is, like the Melbourne office, anything but a shadow of its former self. The arrival of Craig Davis in 2009, who relinquished a global creative director role at JWT to become co-chairman and chief creative officer of Publicis Mojo Australia and New Zealand, promised much to restore former glories. But Davis has struggled to push Mojo on as much, perhaps, as he would have liked.
One panellist remarks: “Publicis Mojo Sydney is in danger of being held back by its senior management. Craig Davis is influencing the creative reputation really positively, but seems to lack the authority to drive change as much as would be ideal. That said, Publicis has done some great work that’s effective, and has a superb client list – it’s just not Mojo anymore.”
The great agencies have one thing in common. They figure out how to trigger emotion in their time. Like Mojo once did.
Now Micah’s gone, Mojo might become less Cannes-obsessed and go back to figuring out what makes mainstream Australians tick again. (Watching a couple of episodes of ‘Housos’ would be a good start).
I worked under Micah at Leo Burnetts. To his credit he had that brilliant “anyone can be President” attitude the yanks all have. Didn’t matter if you were in dispatch, or worse still, in the Retail Dept like I was – everyone had a crack at the good stuff and the best idea got presented. Must say, therefore, I find Micah’s departure and the reason inferred by Craig Davis intriguing to say the least. Shame because when it comes to raw creativity they’re both the real deal by anyone’s standards.
Peter, what’s your favourite work that Craig has created?