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Independent agencies broadly welcome the spread of government and council marketing panels, but say large rosters, repeated pitching and unclear accountability are undermining the model.
Government and council agency panels are opening more doors for independents, but agencies contacted by AdNews say the model is creating new problems around work allocation, repeated pitching and who ultimately owns the result.
The different approaches emerging across government reflect the debate.
Western Australia has moved to a five-agency media panel including independent Longreach Media, while Victoria has explored a rapid-response creative panel. Regional councils have also started to lean into marketing panels.
The logic makes sense to many agencies. Government procurement teams get a pre-qualified pool of suppliers, while departments can access specialist skills without starting the procurement process from scratch.
A 2024 WA Auditor General audit found government entities were sometimes appointing every agency that tendered for a panel, with one panel reaching 11 agencies.
Agencies also reported being asked to pitch for every campaign, with some saying individual pitches could cost up to $60,000.
For independents, panels can also break open work that was previously difficult to reach.
Yango managing partner Luke Povee said the shift was also being driven by governments’ need for greater speed and agility, with panels allowing them to access specialist agencies without relying on a single “master agency” model.
“The ‘master agency’ model is too slow for the modern media landscape,” Povee told AdNews.
Fluro Digital managing director Alexis Papanikitas, who works across federal and state government, said procurement rather than marketing had driven much of the change.
“A panel is a fixed cost of entry rather than a full tender every time, and that maths favours agencies our size,” Papanikitas told AdNews.
He said state and council panels had opened work that was effectively closed to independents five years ago, including regional councils, transport, health and community services.
The model also reflects a market in which specialist capabilities are spread across agencies.
Meerkat executive chair Lee Stephens said panels had become more relevant as media and advertising had become more complex.
“The days of a single holding group to be proficient at all the tasks required has passed,” he told AdNews.
Magic CEO Shah Ghaffurian said panels could allow agencies to compete on the capabilities they actually specialise in rather than claiming to do everything.
“Some of the best work we have been involved in has come from multiple specialist agencies working together, each focused on the thing they are genuinely good at,” Ghaffurian told AdNews.
Pivotus founder Michael Petersen said large panels could turn qualification into another round of competition. When an agency joins a government panel containing 20, 30 or 40 suppliers, he said, winning a place can become “a license to pitch again”.
Petersen cited the Queensland Government Creative Panel, which has more than 40 members, as an example of where he believed the model could lose its purpose.
Soup Agency managing director Katya Vakulenko made the point more directly.
“If you’ve already qualified me, don’t ask me to qualify again,” she told AdNews.
Vakulenko said the initial qualification process should remain rigorous, covering financials, insurance, governance and capability, but smaller opportunities should not trigger another full procurement exercise.
Bonfire general manager, Creative Division, Rene LeMerle said the commercial equation could be particularly difficult for independents, which can invest heavily in joining a panel without any guarantee of meaningful work.
“Getting onto a panel isn’t much of a win if it just earns you the right to keep pitching,” LeMerle told AdNews.
Bang Digital managing director Renae Lunjevich said her agency had experienced both sides of the model, winning government tenders that led to long-term relationships while also joining panels where the subsequent flow of work was limited.
“You can invest a huge amount of time getting onto the panel, only to then have to pitch or quote competitively again for each project,” Lunjevich told AdNews.
Abl Digital Marketing general manager Nicole Wagenecht was more blunt about the economics.
“More often than not, they are not worth the time or resources,” Wagenecht told AdNews.
Panel size is another dividing line. Petersen said governments should consider a smaller group of vetted agencies matched to different campaign types and sizes rather than a single agency or a huge roster.
Lunjevich said five or six agencies offering essentially the same service could be excessive, while Assembled Media managing director Gareth Nicholls called for fewer agencies and longer relationships.
“Fewer agencies, longer terms, and genuine investment in the relationship would deliver better creative and better value for taxpayers than constant re-pitching,” Nicholls said.
There is a counterargument.
Alpha Digital general manager Nathan Frazer said panels could make every project more important to an agency because the next brief was not guaranteed, encouraging fresh thinking rather than a “rinse and repeat” approach.
He also said panels had made government work more accessible to smaller agencies and specialists.
Bench Media client growth director Jess Torstensson said the presence of multiple agencies could also guard against the sameness that can develop in a long-term agency relationship.
“Having several agencies brings different perspectives, capabilities and ways of thinking to the table,” Torstensson told AdNews.
The key, she said, was ensuring competition did not come at the expense of clear roles and accountability.
Q Agency managing director and head of creative Michael Noone said panels could work well when government clients actively managed the roster and used it to create genuine competition.
“A good client manages the panel. A weaker one lets the panel manage them,” Noone told AdNews.
The difference comes down to how governments use the roster. A panel that allows departments to select the right specialist for a particular problem is viewed differently from one where a large number of agencies are repeatedly asked to solve the same brief.
Povee said overly complex panel structures could also undermine the flexibility they were intended to create.
“Genuine integration requires fluid, cross-functional teamwork,” he said.
Ghaffurian said panels work when agencies have clearly defined roles.
“If those lines are not clear, you can quickly end up with duplicated work, different interpretations of the brand and a lot of people learning the same things twice,” he said.
LeMerle said the same issue could undermine the quality of the work itself, saying that a long-term agency relationship can build IP and understanding that's difficult to replicate through constant competition.
“Great work needs ownership. If everyone owns a bit of it, no one really owns the outcome,” he said.
Audience Group partner and head of strategy Casey Greig said multi-agency briefs should have one agency responsible for coordinating the work.
“One primary agency should always be made accountable for orchestrating ‘multi-agency’ briefs so collaboration has one accountable owner and home rather than becoming everyone’s job and therefore no ones job,” Greig told AdNews.
Edge Marketing CEO Rohan Dwyer reached a similar conclusion, arguing the strategic lead should chair the overall project.
“Being good at navigating a tender does not automatically mean an agency will be equally as good at delivering on the marketing challenge and vice versa,” he told AdNews.
Stephens suggested a similar model for media, arguing one agency could hold the “single source of truth” for media investment and performance across agencies.
Independents also question what governments are trying to optimise.
Hatched COO Adrian Roeling said procurement can put too much emphasis on inputs such as agency head hours and media pricing rather than the outcome government is trying to achieve.
“Afterall, what is the true value of reducing the road toll versus saving 5% on media spend?” he told AdNews.
A panel is meant to reduce procurement friction, but if agencies undergo a substantial qualification process and then compete repeatedly for individual projects, the model can begin to resemble the tendering it was intended to replace.
Papanikitas said that agencies should be able to see whether work is being distributed across a panel or concentrated among a small number of incumbents.
Torstensson also called for greater transparency around how panels are established.
“The process shouldn’t feel like a black box,” she said.
Noone also said that transparency over how panels are assembled and how work is allocated would improve outcomes.
“Transparency at the front end and clear decision-making authority at the back end would make the process fairer for agencies and deliver better value for the public,” he said.
Ghaffurian said panels create opportunities for specialist independents, but lengthy compliance and tender requirements can favour larger agencies with more resources.
Wagenecht said restrictive requirements and insurance obligations could prevent smaller agencies from entering in the first place.
Czech Group managing director Kyle Czech, drawing on his previous experience working in federal government, told AdNews procurement requirements designed for other types of government contracts were not always suited to media and communications agencies.
For the IMAA the spread of panels represents a significant change in government procurement.
CEO Sam Buchanan said the WA appointment of an independent agency was an important step for the sector, but warned the structure still matters.
“A panel is only as good as the terms it’s built on,” Buchanan said.
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