GroupM ANZ CEO Aimee Buchanan has tapped a second CEO for her agency group from Mediabrands’ Reprise to take the helm of Australia’s no. 2 media agency EssenceMediacom, a week after the two networks officially merged worldwide – except the UK where account conflicts have forced a split in the operation.

Pippa Berlocher will take over from Pat Crowley, who will remain with the agency as Managing Partner but returns to a hand-on role as the pointman on his long-standing client, Commonwealth Bank. He will also work on others including Myer.

Berlocher’s appointment follows Buchanan’s move last August installing Reprise Australia CEO Maria Grivas to run Mindshare ANZ and comes amid rumblings that Mediabrands is exploring a merger of its Reprise and Matterkind divisions – although it remains conjecture.

Crowley was adamant last April when becoming CEO of the still to be officially merged Essence and Mediacom operations – after another round of earlier mergers which included Ikon and AKQA Media becoming Essence – that he was up for running a 600-person operation. But he told Mi3 yesterday he wanted to get “back on the tools”.

Most industry peers will not be surprised by the decision of the veteran media agency exec. Crowley took on the Essence-Ikon-AKQA Media job before any merger of Mediacom was on the cards on the proviso that Ikon clients – including the Commonwealth Bank – would not be forced into GroupM’s trading model.

“It’s about redeploying my expertise in places that drives more value for me, for clients and for the business,” Crowley said. “And it’s a big operation. I want to do what I love doing, which isn’t really operationalising 600 people and the second largest agency in the country. I want to get back on the tools. The decision I made back in October 2020 was a different decision to what we are operationalising today. It’s a much bigger, complex organisation than it was back then when it was going to be a re-engineering of the business I’ve been involved in for a long time, which was Ikon. I’m better debating [Mi3’s] Netflix article and having an opinion on Facebook and iOS.”

GroupM CEO Aimee Buchanan said: “You wouldn’t have designed this, but if you’re going to drive change to keep Pat happy, I think we’ve got the best possible outcome.” Having a long and influential relationship with a major client like Commonwealth Bank helps.

Buchanan said Berlocher has an “incredible blend of EQ, IQ and understands the digital, data and tech world. She’s built a company, launched in Singapore, launched it India and China and sold it to Dentsu. She’s got an incredible CV.”

The agency has faced several key client losses in the past year. When asked if the client washout from mergers was over Buchanan hedged her bets.

"I don't know if I can answer that 100 per cent. At the moment, I say there's no more to come. But I think a lot of the clients we've lost were out the door before we even got to EssenceMediacom. There was a lot of legacy that we've been navigating as we try and bring the two businesses together. It is a massive disruption," said Buchanan. "I'd like to think that we're in a pretty good place, but some stuff will just come up for review because it's statutory. But ... Never say never is a good caveat."