My, how Mojo Melbourne has shrunk
Mojo Melbourne, which at its height three years ago had a staff of around 120, is now down to less than 20, according to sources who contacted CB yesterday – and that number includes several consultants. Three account service people are believed to have resigned in the last week.
In early January, CB revealed that Matt Houltham (left) resigned as digital partner of ZenithOptimedia and Publicis Mojo Melbourne to join Naked, Melbourne as managing director.
Back in November, CB also revealed that Franklin Tipton (right), the executive creative director at Mojo Melbourne – who had only been a year in the role – had resigned – to return to the U.S. with his wife and two young children, in February this year.
Mojo Melbourne’s rapid decline in staff numbers has been noticeable since the the departure of former national ECD Darren Spiller to the national ECD job at Fallon USA in June 2009. Spiller was soon joined at Fallon by his fellow Publicis Mojo, Melbourne team mates Christy Peacock to head of art in August 2009, Leon Wilson to creative group head in November 2009 and head of TV Corey Esse in February last year.
According to the same sources, Mojo’s digital creative department is a shadow of its former self, with the last of the full-time digital designers departing on Monday, leaving only two outside contractors overseeing digital projects, including the needs of Tourism Victoria (which will be going up for pitch early this year). At its peak last year, the digital department numbered 15 to 20, headed by then digital creative director, Joel Thomson, who left late last year.
65 Comments
What is happening to all the Publicis-owned agencies in Australia? S&S Sydney is also a shadow of its former self as well.
Is Rick Otten still there?
Eeek!
Come on MOJO! Grow damn you! And you too M&C Melbourne! Dig deep you bastards, we need competition in this market place, we need different places to work, we need variety. It’s the spice of life. Seriously, lift!
The Melbourne Market is becoming more and more dominated from a business perspective by Clems and DDB, we need Patts, we need Leo’s and we definitely need Mojo and M&C.
Come on mutha fuckas!
Has anyone asked the question why? Something must be evil at the top of on the ground management to get everyone to jump ship….
Oh shit.
Send Craig Davis down there to fix it. Quickly.
They are part of the problem, not the solution.
Smelly Lemon, bad management.
Sydney seems to be hiring.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul…
Sort it out Jelly Melon!
@3:32 – I think you’ll find that someone came down (literally and figuratively) to give a speech to the Melbourne office and staff have been leaving ever since.
The Felon has to be in management, the remains of the team are still a talented bunch…
If they don’t fix the aircon soon it’s going to be the same story in Sydney.
Wow. Between this and Mojo Auckland they are really doing a bang-up job. But I guess there are award shows to judge and websites to launch…
Sydneys not that big either. Blame the management, they fiddle while the place burns!
Staff are overworked, with no promotions in sight and have had no pay increases for several years. We were also concerned that the agency has no HR person and that account service staff are not allowed the autonomy to look after clients properly.
I’d still be keen to give a stint at Mojo a crack.
CB needs to check their source. Apparently no one from account service has resigned in the last week (or this year), nor is a digital designer leaving on Monday.
There are very talented people at Mojo Melbourne producing great work. I don’t hear great things about DDB or Clems at times too…but that’s just the way things are in ad land.
CB stop feeding bullshit and start being credible. This industry needs it!
@2:57 PM – well put and yes, everyone should stop bitching, get on with things and start creating a more competitive environment for the industry.
Campaign Brief – grow up. don’t forget what this blog was originally all about. show-casing great work, talented people etc.
Anonymous @:3:32 says to Anon @ 4:24 Really? Oh dear, that elephant keeps popping up doesn’t it?
“15 to 20, headed by then digital creative director, Joel Thomson”…how about max 10 people?
where do you get this info from?
Hmmmm…..
Having been around for a while, I’ve seen this kind of thing before from those who cream the top off an agency brand.
It’s usually when there’s a buyer in the wings and they need to cut costs, look great and bolster their bottom line, so they appear profitable on a spreadsheet somewhere.
What do you guys think?
Then you are a complete idiot 7:47. Hopefully your stint will last the full 5 minutes that it will take them to merge with Burnetts. Ouch.
Those criticising CB for reporting this story need to start living in the real world. There’s far too few of these exposes on the Blog. Let’s hear it for a bit of actual journalism, not just regurgitated press releases. Well done, CB.
I am a recruiter.
I hate you ad people.
Your such self absorbed wankers.
Melbourne is hiring.
Sydney is hiring.
Brisbane is hiring.
Get over it.
There is no denying that what was Mojo has slid into a shadow of its great days. The current Melbourne management have forgotten what makes a successful agency. At the end of the day without amazing people you are just another empty space. And a name plate swingin in the wind with the tumbleweeds.
Treat people well, respect them – put away the knives that you have so successfully wielded, stop publicly demeaning people within the office enviroment, and stop writing notes here abusing CB of being inaccurate. It makes u look stupid. They are right, you know, we all know it….after all a fish rots from the head down!!!
Rebuild this agency…respect what you have, and get your head out of ur arses and get on with it.
@(Ex)hausted Mojo insider
Seriously who doesn’t work hard? Tell me one agency that doesn’t do overtime.
I work at mojo. I like it.
8:14 Anonymous, management, designer leaves, that’s Pete Bakacs, account service leaves 8:14 there are virtually no full time account service left, they come and go – you get your facts right I work there…. CB have their facts dead straight.
This once great agency, is one now managed creatively and account wise by aggressive, territorial types. CB’s facts are right, the jibes at staff who have left are weak and from the aforementioned Lemons. The talent has left the room, the few good people remaining are at the door. Goodnight Mofo.
Mojo = sad. Melbourne management, stop pointing the finger and take some responsibility. You sunk the ship.
This is a low article. Why post it? There’s no news in it, just a re-hashing of information we already knew.
This blog has become a tabloid. Less work is being posted and most of the articles are about who’s doing what/going where and knick-knack gossip.
Why do people think Mojo will merge with Leo’s it’s NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, why would they weaken their offer? That said it would save the agency the pointless expense of it’s management and cd, oops no agency left!
Actually 11.04 – it’s not a low article…it is news!! One of the great agencies in Melbourne has been torn asunder and people want to know why. They deserve to know why. They are sad for it. And it has been at the expense of many great people….when was the last time Mojo won a new account, or forged the front pages of the press with great and exciting stories. Current accolades come from campaign ideas forged long ago by creatives no longer there. The industry of all who work for Mojo now, and those from the past who worked to make it great, and sustain its culture are saddened to see that a few people who rely on personal vendettas rather than personal development are pretty much responsible.
People only resort to these sites when they have no other recourse.
Hey Lynchy,
I see you’ve snipped my comment which took aim at you questioning if you ever worked in advertising. I think it is hypocritical of you to post stories about the state of agencies while protecting yourself from criticism. I have no idea if you used to work in the industry , frankly it doesn’t bother me if you did or did not, but your censorship leads me to believe I struck a nerve. I stand by my comment – this was unnecessary tabloid rubbish. Just have a think about what you want this blog to be.
John (non-mojo employee)
the fact is that management in Mojo Melbourne needs to go in order for respect and a big name ECD to return.
Ha ha last comment Franklin Tipton and on San Fran time, nice one doh!
That said he’s half right, insomuch as the management needs to go, half wrong, a serious ECD and CD needed, not a big name, just some competence that’s currently sorely lacking.
I lost your mojo… sorry.
Think it may be hiding under the stairs
It’s Friday, let’s just go to the pub.
I’m with ladybug ^
no matter which way you cut it a great agency is no more
and that’s a sad day for all of us … I just want to know why?
Was the deal done many moons ago and this is just the wind
down? We know who prospers in the end…
Nasty haters,
Don’t you know that for every negative comment about Mojo management posted here, an Aston Martin somewhere dies?
Haha, love this.
Nothing gets people riled up like a dig at Mojo (for some reason). Not long after CB’s post on how they’re the most commented on trade website too.
Stop biting, and this stuff will probably disappear.
Hello.
Thanks CB for exposing the tip of the iceberg. Pity you didn’t get Mojo management and ex-staff POV’s. We need good investigative, balanced journalism, unfortunately all your article has done is to state the bleeding obvious.
So as a Mojo person, here’s my take on the story.
Melbourne has been bleeding for a while now – even before Spiller left, the unrest started. It is now just a facade of an agency with all creative done in Sydney. Same applies to Auckland.
Try as you will to be a great creative agency there are certain bread and butter clients (ie, mainly the big globally aligned business) that pay the salaries. Mojo as a company (and this excludes Brisbane) have seriously dropped the ball with these big global clients over. Just look at which big ones have left the agency:
Coke: Sydney lost Mother & Mount Franklin due to creative arrogance.
Qantas/Jetset Holidays: Mgt refused to resource according to retainer.
P&G – Vicks/Oral-B/Metamucil: a massive loss to Sydney last month, local mgt decided to get rid of the staff that held this business together and so the client moved the business back to Publicis Singapore.
Citibank: Again, local mgt put their foot in it and the client walked.
HP – Barely alive again due to mismanagement
Nestle – Creative arrogance again saw billings dramatically cut
Cadbury – Saatchi outsmarted Mojo and walked away with the business.
Toyota – Again, Saatchi snatched Camry from under their noses.
Sure the GFC had a dramatic effect on all agencies, but most are nearly back to where they were pre-GFC. Alas, Mojo have just been cutting staff across the board left, right and centre. They are suffering from too many chiefs and not enough indians. Instead of getting rid of management that are well past their used by date, who earn massive salaries, they get rid of good people who have kept the business in tact. P&G is a good example. It’s virtually impossible to be fired off the P&G business, yet Mojo have managed it. How any agency can let a client of this stature walk out the door is beyond belief. Two years ago they were the second most profitable account in the group after Qantas. Qantas Holidays, another classic example of a bread & butter account which Mojo have managed to lose. Guys it’s not that hard to service Qantas Holidays – if you’d had resourced the studio as promised you’d still have them as a client. The list goes on and on.
Here’s my forecast:
Top creative will leave. I think they’re sorely regretting being sold the big Mojo pipe-dream. They spend their time trying to talk up the company whilst Rome burns around them. The Mojo Old Boys Club will soon sell their shares back to Publicis and retire happily. The agency will then undergo a massive restructure.
To end this sorry story here’s a classic point of management insensitivity. Last year on the very day a few people were made redundant, one of the partners parked his gleaming, new supercar right outside the front entrance.
Mojo have quietly being shedding staff over the past 12 months. It’s done in one’s and two’s – normally on a Friday afternoon. This way they avoid the headlines of mass redundancies. Sly and gutless. Management talk of the “Mojo family” but the only family I’m part of is an abusive dysfunctional one, where the parents don’t really care.
I like to end on a positive. Mojo has produced some great work. The awards in the past year have mainly been on two pieces of business: Lion Nathan – Boags and P&G – Vicks. Mojo Brisbane is a shining example of an agency quietly getting on with the job – well done Rob & Co.
Has anybody got a job for me please?
Sad Mojo person.
The Sydney office is so bad, people are leaving left right and centre. Yeah someone said they’re hiring, yeah they are to keep up with the amount of people leaving!!! Staff get treated so badly, everyone is a freelancer, people are just there one day and gone the next. High churn and burn, souless agency.
Quite the airing of dirty laundry, but unfortunately all true.
Toss in passive aggressive management with a bit of bullying and the story is pretty much complete.
And by the way, there was a ‘deal’ on the motor.
10:45 PM – you work there…what are you still doing there then?
The fact that they pissed off Richard Pinder and now report to Asia points to an imminent changing of the guard. I think Mojo (not Brisbane) is about to change.
No matter how you throw this sad tale in the air…No matter how hard you keep trying to keep convincing each other that each other are great, intelligent, and keeping the agency on track.STOP….. You can put your notes here asking – what r us till doing here – that is not the point…Management are meant to manage,guide and show leadership.
There are several very well respected senior staff who you worked tirelessly to undermine…and also at least 2 of you demonstrated, in public, inordinate disrespect to the Melbourne Chairman.
This comment board, demonstrates clearly staff frustration that there is no one who they can trust within the local organisation.
This is a tale where the brand becomes tarnished by the people who are put in place to look after it.
The trail begins in Sydney – trailing through to giving ‘permission’ for this behaviour to continue.
Who ever posted the original story was a brave, person, showing frustration… management must take note and learn something.
Shit. this is all news to me. And I thought mojo was great agency…. What’s craig doing?
What a load of nonsense, clearly somebody has an agenda here that’s been poorly disguised. Maternity leave and resignation are two very different things. As is somebody leaving to take a new challenge after a long-service (houltham) and an unsetlled American going home (tipton). Amazing how this industry is populated by self-conscious, insecure individuals who have nothing better to do than pull apart their competition. Grow up lads
Poor, innacurate journalism again. Bored Now.
1.18
Franklin got pushed out after being isolated and undermined by the rusted-on clique from the day he started.
Matt is a good guy who got tired of having the promises he made to the people who worked for him broken by the people he worked for.
The insecurity you refer to resides mostly in corner offices in Walsh Bay and Southbank, where people have nothing better to do than pull apart their colleagues.
The journalism is fine.
1:18 PM – You’ve obviously never set place in one of their offices, let alone worked there. There is so much truth stated by people on this post about the agency… don’t comment on an agency you clearly have no experience with. The morale in the offices is at an all time low… it’s THE worst place to work at… who are you kidding?!?!
All agencies have ups and downs. My sense as a client is that it was the right time for people like Matt and Joel to move on in their careers after a great contribution at Mojo. I was at Matt’s farewell drinks, Joel was there too – former and current employees were friendly and happy. No ill will was apparent – far from it. Now there is the opportunity for new talent – can’t wait to see how the new team goes!
Ha ha -exactly, you’re a client. Agencies are masters at hiding what’s really going on from you. Bless.
Here’s a tip…just shut the fuck up all of you!!! It’s obvious there are serious problems…the managers DO NOT own the agency…so if you all don’t like them it’s time they moved, and perhaps you can help them find a job…elsewhere.
So with respect to Advertising, and our clients….this is done….& client…nice to add yur 2 cents worth…but please MAKE THIS THE LAST..IT’S BORING, AND QUITE FRANKLY EMBARRASSING FOR ALL IN THIS GAME.
@blahblahblah ^ 8:08
you’re too nasty to have the last say, and frankly, have never deserved it
I think Craig walks on water. The guy is seriously working hard at changing the culture and the fact that we have a bunch of disgruntled creatives, and seriously they’ll whine about anything, is of no consequence.
Too many people have stayed here too long (mostly in creative). Get them out. Let the change happen ’cause the rest of us who work hard and do great work ARE rewarded. If you’re feeling unloved maybe it’s because you’re not loved.
Just in case you ask I’m not management.
I’m just a person who works here, enjoys the environment and thinks that once a broom sweeps through here it’ll do the place a world of good.
@ Sydney. F*** YEAH!
You obviously are out of touch with the facts, which means you probably are part of Mojo management. To my knowledge, and I work at Mojo, the longest serving creative is Micah, who has been here 3+ years – hardly a long tenure. The people who have been here too long are the management – all are 15+ years. With Kevin Ramsay here, I hope we soon hear some good news on this front.
Message to Kevin – if only half of what’s been commented on were true, you HAVE to make some URGENT changes, otherwise you won’t have an agency left in the Pacific. (Maybe that’s part of your plan – to buy back the partners at a drastically reduced price.)
3:23… is that the Kevin Ramsay ex All Black and ex-JWT??
@Sydney F*** you must be in Account Service…………….no grip on reality, prepared to do anything for promotion and unable to see that Craig may be walking on something else, with a thin veneer of water over it. Anyone working to change the culture is taking a very long term view since the place has been decomposing for about 2 years now.
Hey Groucho – would YOU be a member of a club that would have you as a member?
Anonymous @ 6:31 pm: well, I would join the fans of Mojo club because I enjoy loneliness.
Management, what a joke.
The great thing about Mojo is that it thickens your skin. When you finally get the hell out of there you are invincible.
Mojo staff that are there now… my advice.. the grass IS greener… get out before you go down the drain with the whole office.
Groucho – are you CD or what???
Quite the public airing! Not sure if it’s a good thing or not, but with so many people clearly unhappy i would hope that the end result is a refreshing, lasting attitude of change within Mojo.
I have had the pleasure of dealing indirectly with many Mojo staffers, and they are some of the kindest, most generous individuals you could ever wish for! Sure, we all have disagreements and adverse opinions with management and others from time to time. If it’s having a lasting effect on you, maybe consider your options somewhere else that will make you happier. Life is too short to be stressed at work, god knows you can get that at home most days! 🙂
While it is sad to see a great agency like Mojo on the decline, what i think is sadder is the way that decline is effecting the people who work there. At the end of the day, your happiness and health are worth far more than an agency. Take the memories, relish the good ones, learn from the bad ones and move forward; tomorrow is a brand new day full of untold possibilty! 🙂