PHD opens in Oz

Regional  – Global strategic media agency PHD has finally confirmed its launch in Australia with a rebranding of local media shop Total Advertising & Communications.

After more than a year of negotiations Omnicom Media Group (OMG) has purchased 50% of Total from the Clemenger Group, which will become PHD Australia as a venture jointly owned by Clemenger and DDB.

Despite the delayed announcement, PHD Australia has already been involved in several local pitches and is currently in the final stages of the Vodafone account review. PHD is a global agency partner of Vodafone

The agency’s management team includes Total’s CEO Barry O’Brien, Total managing partners Martin Hadley and Matt Chapman, and fellow managing partner Mark Holden who was previously with PHD London. Its client base ranges from Bing Lee, Citroen, Air New Zealand, eBay and Eithad Airlines, and has annual billings of around AUS$150 million. PHD Australia moves into its new Sydney office on 17 December.

PHD enters a very competitive market which already boasts strategic communications agencies such as Naked, bellamy hayden and Ikon Communications.

Barry Cupples, OMG chief executive of Asia Pacific, was confident about PHD’s prospects in Australia and described the operation as having “a great set of people”.

“PHD will bring to the Australian market the pioneering approach it’s already become renowned for in every other country where it operates. With a very strong OMD brand already in place, PHD launching will  allow us to compete across a wider scope of client assignments  as we do everywhere else in the world,” he said in a statement.

Barry O’Brien, who jointly founded Total 15 years ago, said the merger with PHD “brings together two great cultures to form a new generation media agency with access to world class people and resources throughout the PHD global network”.