Credit: Innocean
Innocean Australia has relaunched as a fully integrated agency with a new leadership structure that unites media and creative under one roof.
CEO Jasmin Bedir told AdNews the move was driven by the growing frustration of marketers with traditional media agency models.
She said clients want deeper relationships and broader answers and solutions to marketing problems, rather than reach-and-frequency-driven media outputs.
The move sees two general managers, Adam Hosfal as GM of Advertising and Tom Cumberworth as GM of Media, reporting to CSO Giorgia Butler, ECD Brendan Willenberg and Bedir.
The new model reflects the agency’s belief in media "without fear or favour", one culture, one way of working and shared values across the organisation.
This also includes transparent supply chains designed to increase working media dollars and ensure clients retain control of their data.
The structure also eliminates P&L divisions between disciplines.
Bedir said this unified operating system is designed to remove internal barriers, allow faster decision-making and build transparency and accountability into the heart of the business.
She said the agency added media to its offering last year to address marketers’ increased dissatisfaction with the traditional media agency model's lack of transparency, flexibility, speed and alignment with modern business results.
"We believe that legacy media needs a knock down rebuild," Bedir said.
She said no one in the market had successfully merged world-class creative and world-class media strategy under one structure, which meant the agency had to design its own leadership model from scratch.
The integration model is already delivering results.
In the first six months, the agency's work cost 24% less but achieved 15% more in business outcomes for clients.
Bedir said the agency rejected the idea of building a standalone media offering.
"Most challenges require more than media solutions to media problems. Our clients like solutions to marketing problems," she said.
Bedir said the new process gives clients one strategy that straddles message and medium, allowing the agency to break conventions and connect business goals directly to the right audiences.
The leadership structure is built around what Innocean calls "fearless creativity" underpinned by psychological safety.
Bedir said different disciplines work on their own frequencies, retaining the depth of their craft, but unite at key sync points where collaboration amplifies the work.
This approach, she said, has already driven early success for the agency’s auto client.
"We didn't want to waste our energy trying to fit square pegs in round holes," Bedir said.
"Media minds and creative minds are different."
Bedir said the best performers are those most curious about other craft areas, noting that creatives are increasingly leaning into data-led insights while media thinkers are energised by involvement in creative development to sharpen publisher briefs and shape high-impact moments.
"Our most interesting creative thinkers were all about getting into the data-led insights only the media team could bring,” she said.
“Our most animated media thinkers loved to be part of the creative process."
Bedir said this curiosity and psychological safety ensures people feel free to bring their true selves while staying open to other perspectives, a dynamic she considers central to how the agency now works.
Clients get the agency to break all the rules and conventions and get the very best thinking all the way through from business problem to implementation.
The approach connects business goals to tailored audiences, unlocking both current and future demand and helping clients identify buyers who might not yet have considered their brands.
Market conditions are driving the shift.
Bedir said only 11% of major multinational brands believe their current agency model fits their future needs, while 87% of brands believe agencies resist adopting models requiring greater transparency in how they make money.
"We're also seeing decreasing budgets, media cost inflation as well as a softening consumer demand," she said.
Bedir said that clients also face rising media fragmentation, which increases complexity and the need for integrated solutions.
Bedir said that while many agencies use the same tech and data tools, Innocean’s difference lies in how its teams apply them in unison, media, strategy and creative using shared insights with a “curious and fearless mindset”.
Bedir acknowledged integration risks diluting critical craft expertise.
She said this balance protects specialist quality while still unlocking the benefits of integration.
The agency has added multiple clients across different categories since launching media.
Bedir said the new structure means the leadership team can share the load.
"After everything I've seen, I'm no longer surprised about the success of indie agencies, it's been a real demystification process," she said.
"The goal is sustainable growth, but not at all cost. I'm looking for clients that share our values and world view and are ready to do things differently."
She said her role now spans the entire media supply chain “warts and all”, and that the new structure gives her and the team more space, support and the ability to have fun while doing the work.
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