(Todd Sampson, fellow Gruen panelist on ABC television, announced at a live event in Sydney February 23, 2023, Russel Howcroft's induction into the Advertising Hall of Fame.)
Thanks Todd.
You know, 15 years ago, when Gruen was announced in Adnews, and when they asked what I thought of being on a panel with Todd, my response was: “who the fuck is Todd Sampson”.
When I said yes to being on the show, Andrew Denton sent me a professorial text saying nothing will be the same again. That is certainly true of Todd, and somewhat true of me.
Three of the top five shows ever on the ABC belong to Gruen, and the tertiary industry still tell me to this day about what they call the Gruen effect.
And frankly - pre Gruen - how many people like us found themselves on an ASX board such as Qantas and Fairfax. Very few.
Many more of those seats will created for our industry over the coming years. Of that I am sure.
I’m thrilled to be here tonight. And I owe it all to the three wonderful decades I have been lucky enough to spend in this industry.
Thirty years as an advertising agency executive – as a TV executive – as a TV panellist and presenter – as a radio presenter – as an author - as a lobbyist – as chairman of various industry groups – and now a consultant and -moderate - investor in the start-up Good One and, nearly, a Game Show Host.
A couple of years ago, thanks to CJZ and more specifically Polly Connolly, I presented a TV documentary on Mojo.
People loved it. The ratings were - very good. Seeing all those legendary TV ads Mojo produced was more than decent Tele.
Since then, plenty of people have asked, “why don’t you make a documentary about The Campaign Palace or about John Singleton.”
Thing is, in a sense, they’re missing the point.
The doco wasn’t just about Mojo and the story of an advertising agency.
It was about how Mojo’s ads changed the way Australians saw themselves.
It was about the incredible impact advertising can have on people – how it can change our world and how we see ourselves.
We mustn’t forget that the Mojo Tourism Australia campaign took us from #70 on the wish to visit list in the USA to #7.
And, as former Hawke government tourism Minmister John Browne said in the documentary - there should be a stature of Mo and Jo outside every country town in Aust. because they created the Australian Tourism industry.
That’s why I love this business.
On my very first day in the advertising industry I was a work experience kid at McCann Erickson, where – on my first day – I met Ted Horton.
The first words Ted ever uttered to me have stuck with me all this time. I’ll never forget them. I walked into his office, Ted looked me square in the eyes, took a breath and said “Fk off you little private school shit”.
I liked him immediately. We have remained very close since.
That was 1987.
Ted was on over $300k as the ECD (a new title for Ted).
My week’s work experience turned into a full time job – thanks to head of planning, David Chalke – and I was earning $16,500.
The Ted / Russel income gap has remained pretty much at that level ever since.
The first ad I was involved in (with Ted and Chris Dewy) became the campaign of the year in 1988...the launch of VN Commodore – “Like it, I love it”. And from there, I was absolutely hooked for life.
Thirty years later, in October 2021 Ted - and his effectiveness genius - myself with the Sayers Group and Bastion created a vaccination campaign, Million Dollar Vax.
An incredible marketing success story with more entries than the Maccas monoply competition and a 9.8% increase in first dose vaccination. Ads accelerated our exit from the pandemic.
My career has seen me walk the streets of London – thanks to Mike Strauss of SPASM fame – land a job at Lowe Howard Spink - because I was Australian and I liked beer. Simply, I was a casting appointment.
We came back to Melbourne - thanks to Ian Smith and Kevin Mier - in order for me to be a senior account director for George Patterson. Ansett was a joy . . .
I answered a call from Cesare Leonardi that would see us become business partners in Brandhouse, the first business I part-owned and one we had some very big ideas for. Cesare and I even launched a digital agency in 1997 and a mobile marketing business in 1999 – well before that sounded like an obvious choice. Perhaps thats why they failed ?!
Later, another phone call, this time from the AFA CEO Lesley Brydon, kickstarted an even deeper passion for the role of our industry in the broader world.
I became the national AFA chairman and worked hard on building our reputation with clients and governments, taking on the obesity lobby and the AANA. We worked hard on making the ad industry more professional with initiatives like industry training programs. And a 50 years of Television Advertising celebration which saw George Pattersons, OTC, 'Memories ad' win the prize for best ad over 50 years.
I have much to thank Lesley for, she is fearless. She helped me get over that horrible ad man paranoia that can burden us all.
Havas came knocking and we launched a new global creative network called Arnold. We launched 16 offices, worldwide, overnight.
Soon after, Tom Moult, Havas and I got together to create The Furnace along with Anthony Gregorio and Jay Furby.
Around that time, Harold Mitchell called and asked if I would like to share his radio spot with Virginia Trioli. So, every fortnight I was on the ABC talking about ads. Saying blasphemous words in the eyes of the ABC… Like Coca-Cola and Holden.
Andrew Denton heard the show – and some time later he asked me to be part of the pilot episode of a show called The Gruen Transfer – sitting on Wil Anderson’s left hand side – gratefully I’ve been there ever since.
It’s around this time I received a phone call from a friend in Kevin Rudd’s office, she said: “The Prime Minister wants to hold a conference about Australia’s future, what should we call it?”
After some consultation with Kate Burke, I said, “call it Vision 2020”. That night on the news I saw the PM announce Vision 2020, and yet, not one ad person was invited to attend the conference. This dynamic impacted me enormously. And got me more than a little focussed.
The Furnace experience ended when Hamish McLennan came calling and suggested I get myself back to Patts. This was when they were at their very hottest, having just shot Big Ad.
Hamish’s selling skills and the lure of going back to Patts meant I happily took the job – precisely at the time that 9 of the top 10 salary earners and every single client either left, put us on notice or went to pitch.
And, this was the best time of my advertising career. Those who stayed are lifelong friends… Those who left haven't been forgotten.
The worst of these days was when CUB called it a day. After more than 40 years Patts no longer worked on beer. And I haven't had one of their beers, since.
Two years later, thanks to the creative leadership of Ben Coulson, AdNews awarded us national agency of the year. Thank you AdNews. And Ben.
In an interesting plot twist, Lachlan Murdoch, Siobhan McKenna and James Warburton thought I should come and give them a hand at Network Ten. At the time, an anonymous quote in the AFR read “Russel is confusing being in front of the camera with being behind it.” Thanks Mike! Or was it Neil…
It's true I had no idea about running a TV network or life as a TV exec. But, I did have first had experience of the power of television and, what I did know was that stupidly, advertising had become separated from media.
I also knew that I had little to no idea about how media companies worked.
Some weeks into the job at Ten I received a call from the chairman. James would be leaving and Hamish McLennan would be coming in as CEO (yes, I was there first).
In the meantime I had a few weeks as interim CEO. They were perhaps the best few weeks of my business life. Running a TV network is a lot of fun… especially when you know it's only for 21 days.
I became very well acquainted with the media side of our business. I learnt from the best sales people – thank you Lou Barrett and Peta Webster.
Meanwhile Gruen was going from strength to strength. We even won a Logie along the way. It’s all thanks to the very talented Andrew Denton, Jon Casimir, Polly Connolly, CJZ’s Nick Murray, Will Anderson and of course Todd.
It’s around then I had a run as a 3AW presenter doing 6 hour shifts of talkback over summer. I learnt how quickly the money can add up in that game. And the importance of engagement, connection and the occasional Bertocchi ham give away.
It was pretty clear that disruption was everywhere and marketers were feeling very uneasy. Clarity of effort being incredibly difficult to achieve.
Having seen our industry from pretty much every angle - I could see the problems very clearly.
Importantly marketing suppliers were finding it increasingly difficult to connect with CEOs. The CFOs were ruling the roost and the consultants were claiming they knew where the so-called 50% wastage resided.
Perhaps there was an opportunity to fight back – to give clients a hand to provide clarity and growth.
PwC provided that opportunity and gave me the wonderfully subversive title of Chief Creative Officer. Boardrooms were now confronted with the importance of creativity via a PwC business card. Thank you Luke Sayers, Sue Horlin, Sammy Kumar, Laurence Goldstone, Mike McGrath and Justin Papps.
We invested in, and then helped Thinkerbell get up and running. Congratulations Adam, Margie, Cuz and Jim.
The Governor-General appointed me as chair of the Australian Film Television and Radio School, and this led to the opportunity to pursue the idea of a federally funded creativity commission.
A telecast speech at the National Press Club was a bit of a personal highlight for me. But more importantly, political traction has been gained – but not on both sides of the aisle.
The recently announced rebrand of the Australia Council to Creative Australia is a sign, I believe, that Canberra is starting to understand the power and economic importance of creativity.
Since 2020 my time co-hosting Melbourne’s #1 radio program with Ross Stevenson on 3AW has been a truly incredible and humbling experience. I have to thank Ross and the management at Nine for helping us deliver a program that plays on integral part in the lives of so many day in and day out.
Luke Sayers invited me to to help start what has become Australias fastest growing consultancy, and LinkedIn start-up of the year, Sayers.
I’m very proud of the work Sayers has done in a comparatively short time, and must thank the head of Sayers Brand Momentum, Justin Papps, again for his years of support and partnership.
Across three decades, I reckon there has been a constant theme.
Brilliant ideas make the world of difference in every business and every industry.
But they are difficult to find. And even harder to sell. But that is no excuse for not actively and relentlessly pursuing them – and selling the power of what they can do for our clients, for consumers, for our economy and for our society.
My great friend, Amber Collins - here today - has advised me constantly over the past 30 years - is PwC a good idea, should I be a game show host? what do you think of breakfast radio?? Though the best advice I received from Amber was to marry Kate Burke. She made it very clear that I was a much better person with Kate around. Thank you Amber.
Thank you Kate - for everything. Thank you for designer Claudia, musician Charlie and artist Louis.
I have to say it feels a bit odd being inducted into the Hall of Fame, as I don’t feel I’ve even really started yet – and there is still a lot to do.
And Thank you AdNews for this honour and for the opportunity to talk today.
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