Zenith wins Media Agency of the Year as CEO continues to build on success in year two
Earlier this month, Zenith Media, part of Publicis Groupe, won the prestigious Media Agency of the Year title at the Mumbrella Awards, standing out as the only holding company agency shortlisted against four strong independent contenders.
The significant victory underscores the agency’s remarkable growth and success under the leadership of CEO Jason Tonelli, who took the reins at the start of 2023.
On the win, he said: “We are proud of the talent we have across every role here at Zenith, and we are grateful to our clients who trust us every day with their brands and our partners who work with us to create the campaigns we get to make.”
An industry leader, Tonelli has held various roles during his lucrative career, including a board member of the Audited Media Association of Australia (AMMA) and RMIT University and CEO positions at Performics Australia and Razorfish ANZ.
Tonelli’s leadership at Zenith Media over the past 18 months has propelled the agency to new heights.
Fifty staffers have been promoted resulting in its retention rate tipping over 87%, with its team happiness score at an all-time high, according to the latest mediaI scores.
“Having this stability has meant we’ve been able to retain clients and continue to have longstanding partnerships with them, as well as add to our client base – leading to us to top the ComVergence new business rankings, as well as coming in #2 in RECMA’s quality score index,” Tonelli said.
When he assumed his new role, his core strategy was to introduce a fresh and innovative perspective.
“After 23 years, we felt it was time to give some meaning to our team, clients, and the market regarding how we define being the ROI Agency.”
Jason Tonelli
He did that by creating ROI3 (ROI cubed), which allowed the agency to double down on the three key tenants of insight, imagination and investment.
“We importantly underpinned this approach with what ROI meant to our team and our clients, and we’ve made investments to ensure that we continue to train and support our team to be the best versions of themselves and do the best work of their careers for our clients,” Tonelli added.
“It takes a whole of team effort to be successful as a business and to receive an accolade like this. I am very grateful to our people and clients for taking this journey together.”
A major challenge he faced was the different ways people define ROI. When he acquired his role, it was essential to first clarify what ROI meant for the agency and how it would be measured.
“It would have been easy for us to not define what we did and to try and be all things to all people. We needed to be focused. Early on, I said we wanted to be known for doing media really well, and we doubled down on that.
“That meant making some tough decisions on where we invested in the product, what we stopped doing, and being honest with ourselves and our partners about where we could not deliver against a client need and instead find solutions within the broader Publicis Groupe.”
As he enters the second year of his role, Tonelli plans to keep up and build on the current momentum of the agency.
“We want to continue to do strong, award-winning work for our clients. We want to continue to invest in our talent across the country so they can enable this work, and we want to grow sustainably as a business,” he commented.
“That means bringing on the right people and right clients – while ensuring that we have fun doing so.”
Keep up to date with the latest in media and marketing
Have your say