Treasury Wine Estates’ in-house agency Splash celebrates solid first year

The merits of the in-house model can be divisive but in just one year, Treasury Wine Estates’ in-house agency ‘Splash’ is making a solid case that world-class work and a creative culture to match, can thrive from within.

Led by director Elsa Beaumont, the agency’s vision has always been to challenge the ingrained beliefs that in-house agencies play a purely executional role and don’t provide the opportunity to do best-in-class work.

Says Beaumont: “We have had a huge first year. I came in with a desire to build an agency that could produce work that sat alongside great external agencies. The thing we didn’t quite expect is the impact of being in-house. The depth of business, commercial, brand and category knowledge we now have has been a game changer to the quality of the work we produce.”

The leadership team includes a wealth of global experience, with creative directors, Phil van Bruchem and Tom Opie, head of media, Ben Oliver and head of operations, Faye Collay. The team is currently 20 strong, including art directors, copywriters, designers, motion, media traders, producers and more. Splash has already delivered over 500 projects across innovation, branding, campaigns, packaging and design. As their remit continues to grow, they’re currently looking to expand their design offering in hiring a mid weight designer.

Proof that the in-house agency model can mix it with the best, Splash has created a string of impressive work, entirely concepted in-house and brought to life with production partners such as Glue Society, The Producers, and Content Hustlers. In addition, it’s also been collaborating with Nigo’s ‘Human Made’ team to deliver the new curated collection of wines, One by Penfolds.

Splash has some early runs on the board with its campaign for Squealing Pig’s Summer of Love, picking up a Silver at the 2023 Clio in Sport Awards, an Effie Finalist, as well as Best Integrated Campaign and Best Creative Work in Australia’s In-House Agency Council Awards (IHAC).

Says van Bruchem: “It’s been great to hit the ground running and receive early recognition for some of our work. It’s really helped grow our faith in what we’re building here at Splash TWE.”

Off the back of ‘Summer of Love’, its campaign for St Hubert’s The Stag received great praise for bringing to life a world-first. Teaming up with Glue Society, Splash promoted The Stag’s partnership with AirSeed (a tree planting drone tech business) via a world first – biodegradable, tree-planting billboards.

More recently, the team was behind work for Pepperjack’s new mid strength shiraz, where they put Australia’s unlikely shiraz experts to the test – dads. Through a unique influencer play, the likes of Brittany Hockley, Max Gawn and more put their dads to the ‘dad test’ helping challenge misconceptions about the taste of mid strength wine.

Says Opie: “The work is really benefiting from great relationships and trust between Splash and the wider TWE team. We’re looking forward to the growing opportunities ahead.”

As Splash grows, so too does the in-house media offering. Starting with social media in July, the team has evolved their media buying capabilities across all walled gardens, BVOD, streaming audio, podcasts, in-app, display and pOOH. In 2024, the team is planning to expand into video game environments, and attention based planning and measurement.

To apply for the new Mid Weight Designer role at Splash TWE, contact leah.costanzo@tweglobal.com