What you need to know:

• M&C Saatchi has charged Bohemia CEO Brett Dawson with a global brief to build a global media and commerce capability for the network.

• The UK listed ad group is fighting a takeover from the UK’s “Queen of Tech”, Vin Murria, but is pushing ahead with its growth plans.

• Australia is one of two operations for M&C Saatchi that has creative and full media capabilities. Dawson’s remit is to devise a blueprint to combine media and commerce into the UK, European and US creative operations.

• The firm already has a global performance media unit of circa 400 people across search, social, content and commerce that will form a core part of the bigger plan. 

• M&C Saatchi ANZ CEO Justin Graham said the acquisition of Bohemia five years ago and the blending of creative and media had been “extraordinary” for the local business

• Dawson would return to the Australian group in 2023 as an international hunt for his replacement has started  

The UK-listed advertising network M&C Saatchi is about to do what its bigger global holding companies can’t: bring creative, media and commerce together. 

Bohemia founder Brett Dawson has been tapped by the network to develop a media and commerce masterplan and will leave for London, first for a break before starting in September on the global brief.

Australia and South Africa are the only two markets M&C Saatchi has full service media and creative capabilities but the company, which has rejected a $364m takeover offer three times from its biggest shareholder, vice chair and Britain’s “Queen of Tech”, Vin Murria, wants creative, content and commerce at the core of the firm’s new capabilities. M&C's performance media division across search, social, content and commerce is already a global practice and will be central to the bigger media ambitions.      

Murria, meanwhile, has until the end of this month to make a final “put up or shut up” takeover bid – the company’s market cap is up 25 per cent in the past year but M&C Saatchi has been subject to a two-year investigation over accounting irregularities, which saw co-founder Maurice Saatchi leave. In January the firm was cleared by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.  

Creative and media together works 

Dawson will return to Australia and the M&C Saatchi business next year after devising the group’s network-wide media and content play, likely to include M&A deals. It's an atypical move – acquired company founders tend to cut and run with their spoils after completing earnouts.

M&C Saatchi ANZ CEO Justin Graham said the agency had gained substantial upside bringing Bohemia’s media and connections planning capabilities to the creative network and it is now a focus for global CEO Moray MacLennan.    

“Because of what we've done in Australia, we've effectively moved to a single reporting line, we're now showing up as a truly connected unit,” Graham told Mi3.  “In some ways, the Australian business is seen as the blueprint for what connectivity can look like globally.

“If you think around the shape of the work we do overall out of all the different parts of MC, a lot of that is fuelled by the connection planners that come out of Bohemia. Now, many of our clients wouldn’t know that they are sitting within Bohemia, but they have not only brought their expertise to those clients, but also upskilled people across the whole business in how you think around mapping growth for a client, understanding how you unlock your cohort of customers, and then going and actually measuring against that," he said.

"So I look back and that has been the real success. And in many ways that is where Moray, our global CEO, has identified the Australian business has that blueprint of connectivity. He said let's take a moment in time to think around 2022, let's go and look at what that next evolution of growth can look like with someone that's actually helped really lead that.”

Hence Brett Dawson is off to London.

Creative, content, commerce convergence

Graham said M&C Saatchi had some global media capabilities  – there’s about 400 people in its performance marketing division covering search and social – but the convergence of media, content and commerce is a major growth opportunity for the business. 

“We know that a huge growth area for us is around just media e-commerce across our network, full stop,” he said. “And so with all of that, we've been able to get to a point where we’ve recognised what the future of Bohemia can look like in Australia around leadership, and what our broader future can look like as well. What does media and commerce look like globally for us? How do we build capability in our key markets in the UK, US and Europe in particular? How do we accelerate that marriage so we can almost leapfrog some of our competitors?"

Commerce versus media revenue models  

Dawson told Mi3 he sees huge opportunities to reinvent the media agency remuneration model as commerce and content became increasingly important for brand and product growth.

“I'm a firm believer media and commerce go together,” he said. “You need media to reach the consumer and then we're adding commerce or 'shoppability' to our media output. That’s step one. 

"Step two is I think we can actually transform our remuneration model. There's no reason why we couldn't become an official reseller in certain places. If we can bring new sales channels to our clients in the same way that Flight Centre sells 50 brands, why couldn't we represent some of our clients and sell their products and therefore be paid in a different way? We could be paid a sales commission as opposed to a fee-for-service like media. That's the long run of it. But my point of view is media and commerce work better together, just like media and creativity. Commerce is as much about what you say, where you say it and who you say it too. We want to build it together under one roof.”

Although there remains great resistance by global holdcos to merge their media and creative agency networks, Graham and Dawson are glowing over the upside of the two disciplines operating under the same roof in Australia with its 450 people.

Said Graham: “The idea of understanding the commerciality of how brands grow and just the growth conversation has been so beneficial to everyone here, even if they're not buying the media or engaging with the resources on that. I can't imagine living in a world where that doesn't exist anymore. The evolution over five years for M&C Saatchi has been extraordinary from a time where there was more of a focus around film to a time now where people are as excited around the connections plan and thinking around how we unlock growth in that area.”

Media can “think” again

Dawson acknowledges the tension between media and creative networks but argues under one roof is better. 

“The acquisition made us better because we understand the role and power of creativity and at what point we can really influence it,” he said. “We work better with M&C because of it, but also all the other creative agencies that we work with, because we lean into it and we understand the process and how they get to the work and where the role and craft of media can make the most difference. Equally the creative team lean into media like they never did when we first arrived. They are grabbing our strategy team. It's really happening on the strategy side and connections planning."

Dawson thinks media planning is "going back to the future" as the culling of cookies drives planners back to contextual approaches. 

"Heaven forbid, we've actually got to think again as media people. That's exactly what we're doing," he said. "How do you take an individual brand idea, an individual audience and nuance the creative, the messaging to work across multiple channels so that it's the best it can be? That, right there, is the art of media planning.”

Dawson pointed out that media owners were already pushing fast into to commerce and content, citing News Corp and Seven West Media as examples where Bohemia is already working with clients to develop “shoppable” content initiatives.

“Media companies realise that it's really hard to monetise their audience with ads in particular. So they're looking to monetise their audience by making their content shoppable. They are generating the content and then working out great uses that help the audience experience," he said.

"We’re going to approach it in similar ways. News Corp is running at it right now: how do they monetise their audience in new and different ways. And I'm thinking about how can we can add more value to clients than just buying and placing media? Can we create a new part of the market? Maybe it's in a marketplace, an Amazon or a Woolworths marketplace. It might be in a walled garden or it might be in a channel – social, for example.”

Whatever becomes of Dawson’s global media and commerce masterplan, Graham said he would return to Australia next year and M&C Saatchi ANZ’s executive leadership team.

For now, London – and commerce – is calling.