Part Two: Singo on Harold Mitchell’s 'salesmanship and bullshit', working for both sides of politics and why landing KFC changed everything for the Australian empire (before crumbling)
John Singleton: "The Australianisation, in perpetuity, of Qantas was something we could all be proud of." Pic: Ryan Osland, The Australian
John Singleton, Russell Tate and Mike Connaghan were running the listed STW in joint ventures with London-based WPP and were flying high for 20 years – but now it’s all dust after WPP’s takeover of the listed Australian business in April. Australian and West Indies cricket teams and State of Origin line-ups were all named in the infamous Singleton agency bar. Here’s the second and final podcast episode with the Australian trio that broke the model of how global holding company giants operated in Australia – and the world. As an aside, the lyrics of John Williamson’s True Blue, now an addition to the National Film and Sound Archive, was written by Singleton.
Our attitude towards clients was appalling. We were very bad at pitches – we didn't really pitch.
Ask John Singleton to choose between two old media foes, Harold Mitchell and Dennis Merchant and he’s typically straight but unusually careful.
Mitchell and Merchant were one-time partners – the latter sold his business, Merchant & Partners, to IPG which formed the basis today of the New York-headquartered Mediabrands. Mitchell’s old media firm, Mitchell & Partners, became the Japanese-owned Dentsu business in Australia.
Some argue there’s more than a little rewriting of history in Harold Mitchell’s 2009 autobiography Living Large, particularly around who started the Australian move for independent media buying groups.
In Dennis Merchant’s book Media Man, he’s scathing of Mitchell. Singleton’s view?
“Harold has great skills of salesmanship and bullshit that Dennis can't touch,” he says. “There’s trust, no trust and total no trust. I’d go for Merchant. They started off as partners. I think Harold was far more clever, cunning and certainly made more money than Dennis. Dennis was sturdy, honest, decent. Not saying Harold wasn’t. I’m just saying, to me, Harold came first. In Dennis’s case, you came first, your client came first. He started bulk [media] buying and aggregation.”
The whole world changed when we won KFC. That an Australian agency could win a client that didn't particularly like John, I think changed our whole future.
That brush with Harold Mitchell aside, Singleton, according his top brass in Russell Tate and Mike Connaghan, was useless in business pitches but a weapon at new business, particularly at board and CEO level – what every agency boss still dreams of today.
Singleton’s most fierce and detracting competitors were always spooked when his agency was competing for business because of his ability to engage the biggest names in business and politics.
“John was a [new business] weapon,” says Tate.
Singleton is typically wry: “Our new business program was non-existent. Our attitude towards clients was appalling. We were very bad at pitches - we didn't really pitch. We’d do it sort of half-heartedly and say, look, if you want us, we're available. We’d love to work for these reasons. I think we can achieve this, but we're not going to do any more pitches. And I would say, you're taking up time that we should be spending on the clients.”
Tate says the gamechanger for Singleton’s advertising empire was winning the then Kentucky Fried Chicken account, long welded to a rival global agency Young & Rubicam. Singleton, for the record, was banned from the pitch because of what he says was some history with some franchisees.
Tate says that was standard fare. “We did polarise. There were many, many clients that for whatever reason felt we had a profile. We were proud of the profile we stuck to. There were a lot of potential clients that wouldn't put us on the pitch list for a million dollars. So it tended to be if we were invited to pitch, we were a very, very good chance. But we also understood that, I don't know, 30-40 per cent of the time, we were never going to be asked ever, because we had a profile.
“The whole world changed for our business when we won KFC. The thought that an Australian agency could win a client that didn't particularly like John, that we could win that, I think changed our whole future.
“The wonderful thing about KFC is that Singleton Ogilvy & Mather (now Ogilvy) still has that account. And still doing arguably the best advertising on television. That's a great story.”
Yes, it's a global market but if you can tap the right part of your Australian heritage, as John said with Ampol, that gives people a reason to buy.
Much has been made of the distinctive Australian skew Singleton, Tate and Connaghan instilled in their business and despite many playing down the relevancy of it in today’s market, Connaghan, now at News Corp, says it takes shape in different forms today.
“It's more important than ever,” he says. “I don't want to talk about Covid and all that shit but local – and I'm now in a different sort of area of the industry – but the localisation of your news and your content and your brand is really, really critical. Yes, it's a global market and all that, but if you can tap the right part of your heritage, you know, as John said with Ampol, that gives people a reason to buy.”
The final words go to Singleton on his pick for standout work. “The things we did that made a change in Australia were True-Blue [Australian Made] because it showed a preference people really have for those things Australian. I think I still call Australia Home and the 'Australianisation' in perpetuity of Qantas was something we could all be proud of, as can Peter Allen and Mo (Alan Morris) and Jo (Allan Johnston), who ran it originally (at Mojo). And Geoff Dixon (former Qantas CEO) who had been the ringmaster the whole period. It’s all about results and the successes we had far outweighed the failures.”
Listen to the two Singleton-Tate-Connaghan podcasts here.
