ADELAIDE: Advertising agencies operating in a tight market need to think beyond their home state when looking for new business, according to an Adelaide advertising agency.
Peter Withy, partner of kwp! Advertising, believes the agency’s success can be partly attributed to its ability to look beyond the South Australian border.
“We try not to think of ourselves as being an Adelaide agency. You have to make yourself portable if you’re going to have any real success,” Withy said.
His comments come after fellow Adelaide advertising agency O’Brien McGrath Advertising (OBM), which more recently traded as Crowded House, announced its intention to close its doors on 15 August.
OBM managing director Gerald McGrath said business had continued to drift out of Adelaide to Sydney and Melbourne and advertising accounts had followed in what had ultimately forced the agency’s closure.
“Our agency has become disillusioned with local company buy-outs by Sydney-centric multinationals; and an ever-increasing acceptance of spineless marketing attitudes and penny-pinching creative standards,” McGrath said.
He said the agency had been forced to shut up shop after Wattyl recently shifted its $8 million Solver Paints account to a Sydney agency.
But Withy said Adelaide remained a vibrant advertising community with enough work to go around.
kwp! has a staff of 43 people, making it one of the biggest agencies in the state.
“You can get limited by your own borders if you aren’t careful, and why should you when in this modern age you can offer a premium product no matter where you are based?” Withy said.
kwp! manages the national Bottlemart account, which is managed out of Sydney. It also works closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade in Canberra. And the agency also recently landed an account in Melbourne after pitching against two Victorian agencies, but Withy said details of the account cannot be divulged just yet.
And Withy said he isn’t undercutting the competition to land the interstate business.
“If we are in a pitch and we can see that the decision just comes down to price for the client, they we just withdraw from the process. We only want to work with people who love creating ads as much as we do,” Withy said.
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