Innocean Australia executive creative director Steve Jackson departs as agency restructures
Campaign Brief can reveal that Innocean Australia has announced a restructure of the agency, which will see the departure of executive creative director, Steve Jackson.
Says Jasmin Bedir, CEO, Innocean Australia: “These decisions are difficult at the best of times and even more so in the current rapidly evolving consumer and business environment.”
Bedir, who joined Innocean as its new CEO last month, said that as part of the agency’s global Digital Acceleration ambitions, she planned to transform Innocean into a 21st century agency model and further drive social and digital capabilities and their important role in the customer journey.
Says Bedir: “I’ve been appointed with a mandate for change to transform Innocean to be both future fit and client led. We will be further restructuring Innocean and details of what the agency will look like will be announced in coming weeks. It’s part of our plan to take Innocean from good to great.
“I speak on behalf of the entire agency when I say we would like to sincerely thank Steve for his commitment, passion and great work during his time at Innocean. We wish Steve nothing but the very best for his future endeavours.”
Throughout his career, Jackson has picked-up awards at all the major local and international shows, including D&AD, Cannes and One Show and One Show Entertainment.
A judge at major international shows, including Social Media at this year’s prestigious One Show, Jackson is also co-author of some of Australia’s most memorable campaigns.
Jackson worked at Cape Town’s Jupiter Drawing Room before landing in Australia at Publicis Mojo in Melbourne. He then moved to Sydney where he was promoted to creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi, before heading down the road to Droga5 in March 2011. In 2013 he moved to DDB Sydney as CD on the McDonald’s account and three years later to moved to the CD role at Innocean.
He’s credited on three of Campaign Brief’s top 30 Australian commercials of the first decade of the 21st Century including Toyota’s ‘Border Security’ while at Saatchi’s, Nike’s ‘Reincarnate Now Squirrel’, and Tourism Victoria’s ‘Run Rabbit Run’ from Publicis Mojo, where he also kicked off Toyota’s ‘AFL Legendary Moments’. The Toyota Border Security campaign alone received five Gold Lions at Cannes, another three at Spikes and D&AD and is Saatchi’s most awarded campaign ever.
63 Comments
That’s a great loss for Innocean, I know Jacko will land on his feet as he’s super talented & a lovely bloke.
When management changes, don’t be surprised if f heads roll, no matter how worthy or awarded you are. And the more senior you are, the more political it becomes. Change has to be seen to be happening. It might be personal, or it might not be. I make no judgement on Steve. Unfortunately, no one is indispensable.
Sad to see you go mate. An amazingly talented creative and lovely fellow.
Innocean has charged the last 5 or so CEO/MD’s to make change. The fact of the matter is the real management will let you shuffle the cards but never let you hold the pack. Jacko did more for the work and the values of those brands than any ECD before him. Dumb move.
ECDs and CCOs are the most endangered species on the planet right now. It is really getting scary how many have been turned over lately.
Clearly Innocean don’t value creative. Onwards and upwards Jacko.
New CEO waltzes in, and gets rid of the key figure that has helped make the best work since Innocean’s inception?
Makes heaps of sense.
Why is it that MDs/Managing Partners/pencil pushers weather the storms, but the ones that actually do the work and bring in the new business cheques end up on the chopping block? Serious question.
didn’t you read…the last CEO was let go earlier in the year
also, you’ll find out that two of the senior suits got pushed too.
“We will be further restructuring Innocean” great way to build staff morale in your first month of the job. Massive loss for Innocean – Steve is such a great talent.
‘Digital Acceleration’. What a meaningless bullshit marketing term. How many times have we heard CEO’s spout similar epithets to please the board, like ‘Digital’ is the holy grail? Digital is the medium, not the message. Plus you’re about ten years behind the curve.
Totally man. Case in point, how old is this clip now???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuTSAeFhdZU
Jacko’s a creative force and a warm, lively beacon for agency culture. Snap him up.
One of the worst PR releases I’ve seen when announcing the loss of someone who’s done so much for an agency that had previously done nothing. And judging by the buzzword bingo, it won’t be doing much in the future either. Hold your head high Jacko, you’re better than that place mate.
Just once I would love to read about a restructure of an agency where a new CCO/ECD has been appointed with a mandate for change to transform the agency and has decided that the CEO/MD was not part of those future plans. For a ‘creative’ industry creatives never make the calls.
maybe because they’re children?
https://youtu.be/KuTSAeFhdZU
@Digital
Wait… I’ve actually seen that guy speak. Not the Better Call Saul dude. There’s a real life digital soothsayer going to marketing conferences who looks exactly like that bloke.
Yes, it’s a parody of ‘Digital Prophet’ Shingy.
Sorry to hear this. You’ll bounce back mate. Clever people always do.
I’m surprised that a restructure didn’t happen sooner. The downturn in production and BTL that the business lives off would have made a big impact in this business. This aside, it’s a shame to see Innocean not valuing a creative leader for the sake to clearing a valuable leadership salary.
What thinly veiled BS. You can’t “restructure” an agency and not keep an ECD. Call it what it is but that’s not a restructure. Seems there is bad blood and agenda.
I never thought I’d say this but ECD’s and CCO’s should be worried.
Oh, woe is me. For every CD, ECD and CCO, there are at least a dozen senior and mid-weight creative teams who have been axed already in the effort to save them. They’ve gone because there is no one left to chop. We’re just going back to what it was, and how it should be really. With an ECD or CCO running regional agencies and not all under one roof just because they wanted a title or they’d leave.
@bobthebuilder and @change my mind
[i]Expensive[/i] CCOs and ECDs should be worried. Plenty of cheap meat with enough awards and experience to hold the flag, been happening in a lot of places. And this new generation listen, collaborate and get people to lean in and pay attention in a respectful way.
That said, this isn’t the place for that kind of conversation. Good luck Jacko, you’re a true creative force to be reckoned with.
You used ‘lean in’.
Which makes you as bad as the jargon.
Good luck Steve you were always a pleasure to work with many moons ago. Excited to see what’s next
The ambition is to be client led…. client led? In other words, just do what the client says. The writing’s on the wall.
This is the absolutely worst PR release I have ever seen. Times are tough but this shows absolutely no respect for someone who has changed this agency into something half decent. Definitely not going to attract any decent creatives and clients stay the hell away from an agency who treat people this way and can’t even communicate with any empathy through a public press release.
Jacko is a great bloke and super talent.
If Innocean can’t see it, smarter people will.
Innoceans loss will be another agency’s massive gain… onya Steve
Look, I’m sure Innocean means well but before sending out anything like this please learn how to write a press release, please don’t use advertising jargon, please be genuine, please stop talking about digital like its a new thing.
This email says more about the agency than it does Steve. He turned the place around. All eyes on the CEO now.
All the best Steve. A great guy and great creative.
I think you are forgetting the award winning work that Scott Lambert did at the agency…
This all sounds like a great agency to work for.
Oh dear. What a lame attempt to manage the message which instead reads,
‘Welcome to our new agency model where clients lead, ideas are optional and integrity has left the building’.
This release is an awful display on so many levels.
Agencies take note, this is not how it’s done.
The really good work done at Innocean was done years ago under the watch of Wheels and Scott. Everything since has been solid but not highly awarded. It’s the problem of the client owning the agency. And this press release stating they want to become more ‘client led’ should warn off any self-respecting ECD.
Looking forward to Innocean joining the illustrious ranks of other great client led agencies
Thank you to those who have taken the time to leave nice comments or reached out to me personally. It means a lot. I’ve always tried to let the work do the talking and hopefully that’s shown over the last few years. I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who I had the pleasure of working with during my time at Innocean. Firstly, to the legends who are Jeremy Craigen and Bob Isherwood, thank you for the opportunity (I think!), to the great crew we put together over that time, thank you for taking a chance on us and me. Did we get all the braver ideas up we wanted to? No, of course not (only DDB NZ does that!), but I’m super proud of what we did achieve together knowing our starting point and you should be too. I’ll miss you all dearly. Btw, personally I’d never try to compare the work we did to what Wheelie (who’s a good friend) and Scott did, like them, we just did what we could to get great ideas through with the collective ambition of the agency and the clients at the time. Hopefully, we left a positive mark on the place too. Of course, thank you to the Hyundai and Kia clients who backed the ideas and finally thank you to the wonderful production and post-production teams, digital wizards, social friends, AR gurus, media people and sound partners who all helped us make those ideas come to life in such fine style. We truly have some of the best right here in our region. I’ll see you lovely, lovely people as soon as I’ve restructured 😉 To the people who now call Innocean home, I wish you well. Lynchy, we need to talk about that picture! Jacko x
I’d suggest that Ben and DDB Sydney are also getting their best ideas up.
There has been more stability in creative leadership at Innocean over the past decade than in business leadership and yet it is the creative leadership who have appeared to be treated poorly. Steve Jackson has done well, however the work at Innocean hit its zenith under inaugural CD Scott lambert. If you go back to the release on his crude ousting on CB, the facts are there. He helped make Kia the number one client on CB’s rankings. The agency was consistently ranking highly too, mostly in the nation’s top 20.
Innocean from global level down would be well advised to better understand the role of creativity and creative leadership and to therefore take their counsel too, from matters of state to the state of the local business.
The records of Steve Jackson and Scott Lambert speak for themselves. Not the calibre of talent you want to be letting go of lightly.
That’s better Lynchy haha
Steve has always been great, as a talent and a person. Always. And I’ve known the dude since college. What a dumb, dumb move, Innocean. But you go ahead and transform the agency to a 21st century model, whatever that means. At some stage you’ll discover that the model don’t mean shit without the talent. All the best, Steve.
I was made redundant by Cummins&partners. There are no jobs. It is not easy to find work. Some of the above comments make it sound like there are a lot of open roles.
@No recruiting So sorry for your predicament. And you’re not alone. We’re in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Agencies and businesses across the board have cut and let go many good people. The marketing and advertising industry has taken a hit that’s unprecendented. And who knows if it will ever recover to pre-Covid levels? Recent reports say the virus could well remain in the community even well after a vaccine is discovered, whenever that may be. As a freelancer my bookings have dried up, as now the market is flooded with recently retrenched hopefuls all vying for the limited scraps of work that are trickling out. Tough times indeed.
This release is written with the sensitivity of a 3 year old. At least be gracious, Steve is so respected in the industry and deserves that back.
I find it fascinating that Innocean (or Bedir) wishes to be more ‘client-led’. They are owned by their only client. How much more client-led can you be?
innocean drowns its own.
dumb move- steve and team have turned out great work , he is one of nicest in the biz and did not deserve to be discarded or disrespected like this .
Try being customer led…
is it possible that clients are actually their agency’s customers??
nobody is reading through the lines here – do you think an agency moves on from it’s ECD (or CEO) without talking to their clients about it? Both Steve and Fitzy were moved on from and the clients either pushed them or didn’t fight them being pushed
In this instance the clients are their agency’s owners as well as customers. So yes, you’re right that the client was across these decisions if not directly behind them.
What’s happening industry-wide is very sad, but not without precedent. During the years following the GFC anyone over a magical number, be it their age or salary, was cut for the current crop to come through. Now the same crop who undercut then-called CDs are being shed for younger, presumably even cheaper talent. Unfortunately most agencies the new generation will inherit are a mess. New to management and with no real experience other than awards, the previous generation, guided by people running account service and strategy, oversaw a massive cull of creative talent as their budgets were ‘magically’ halved. Lacking the knowledge to fight for budget, they ignored the rise-and-rise of planning and accounts departments putting financial pressure on the rest of the business. Creative and production lost out. Now most agencies have a ratio of 4-5 suits, 1-2 planners and one team per job. That is not a ratio for good work and means the poor ECD will likely have to ‘save’ each job. When we had 2-3 teams (one senior, two junior) 1-2 suits (junior & senior) and 1 planner per job, the work was better. Now with the myriad of consultancies popping up, I can only assume that advertising agencies, in a quest to ‘over-service’ their clients, will eat themselves.
The GFC fucked advertising up in unimaginable ways, and it never recovered. Timelines got shorter, budgets got smaller, margins became paper-thin, clients became less focussed on brand and more focussed on immediate sugar-hits, and it set the tone for the future of the business. I can see exactly the same thing happening at the moment. Timelines are just insane now. We’re doing more work in a fraction of the time for far less money, and it’s not like it’ll go back to how it was, if and when this thing eventully blows over. The problem, of course, is that under extreme time pressure, we all default to tried and tested ideas. We have no choice. No one can habitually come up with fresh ideas without time to dig and explore. So every ad becomes ‘Saves you time/money so you have more time/money for the things you really love’, ‘We’re experts at this, but no good at that’, ‘From x to y, and everything inbetween’ etc. Advertising stopped being a creaive industry some time ago. I reckon it’s all going to go the way of radio ads now, and just become totally formulaic.
Christ, that paints a grim picture. What do you say to juniors who are just starting out?
I think very sad has a point however, how many suits do you see in a meeting or on a zoom call who are just there to take notes or get coffees? How many planners does it take to misinterpret a brief from a client, giving creatives even less time and how useful are their ‘strategies’ anyway? Good planners are very few and far between, good suits even rarer. There has been amazing world-class work since the GFC, it’s only really the last 5 or so years the foxes have taken over the henhouse and the standard of work is fucking shit house. Agencies that get it right, for example Glue Society, reap the rewards.
@errr
Of course clients are the agency’s ‘customers’ but you seem to miss the point that, to be effective, advertising needs to be created for the end customer, the audience out there in the real world. Otherwise you get ads where the client bangs on about themselves, or that make the CEO or the board feel good, instead of messages that are designed to speak to a customer’s needs and evoke sales.
Reading this awful press release, I would suggest: “Client led” + digital jargon = run for the hills.
The agency is owned by a car company, whose sales were flagging even before COVID. Head of sales will blame head of marketing who will blame head of agency. Hence CEO ‘resigned’ a few months back. COVID strikes and sales plummet further, head of marketing calls for the heads of agency, including Mr Jackson to be beheaded. That’s what they mean by ‘client-led’.
This is already the most client-led agency I’ve ever worked at.
This ‘press release’ is akin to a paint by numbers canvas from the Helen Keller Collection – All over the shop. From what I can see so far, is that this move to being ‘Client led’ seems almost complete as the New CEO and New Head of Marketing are swinging the hammer together. Steve you should hold your head up high for all that you have done. Those Clients are tough, stubborn and some not very experienced, but you kept showing up and backing the work, even the incredibly big, bold work they were just too scared to buy. I can only echo the above sentiment: Innocean’s loss. Onwards and upwards.
Whilst marketing obviously plays a role, Hyundai’s problems go far beyond the advertising. There are two Korean car companies. The larger one’s cars are better than they were but still can’t command the price increases and Kia, which is doing rather well despite the current situation. One obvious reason is they’re robbing Hyundai of their sales because they’ve got a similar product but for less $. A small part of that might also be because Innocean’s done the advertising for the brand that’s doing better too.
Big miss by Innocean letting Steve go… His Kia Seltos D’uh! campaign was genius!! imo
One of the best I’ve ever worked with. On to new adventures Jacko, hope to catch up soon.
Good luck Jacko!