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George Patterson Y&R (GPYR) is an Australasian advertising agency with offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Auckland. The agency was formed in 2005 when the international advertising holding conglomerate WPP Group acquired the Australian marketing communications company, The Communications Group (TCG). George Patterson Y&R Misplaced Pages
History
The advertising agency George Patterson was founded on November 11, 1934.
The progeny of a comedian and an actress, the young George Patterson (http://en.wikipedia.org/George_Patterson_(advertiser) had the distinction of becoming the country’s youngest advertising manager at McPherson’s engineering company at age 19. Moving from Melbourne to Sydney he teamed up with Norman Catts to serve with foundation client, Colgate-Palmolive (http://en.wikipedia.org/Colgate-Palmolive). After an acrimonious split with his partner, Patterson took over Griffin Shave Advertising and the legend was born.
Apart from being a shrewd and visionary businessman, Patterson also presided over trailblazing events in Australian advertising: creating the first full page, full colour ad in the Australian Women Weekly (http://en.wikipedia.org/Australian_Women%27s_Weekly) in 1936; establishing the Colgate Palmolive radio production unit whose stars, Roy Rene (http://en.wikipedia.org/Roy_Rene), Jack Davey (http://en.wikipedia.org/Jack_Davey) and Bob Dyer (http://en.wikipedia.org/Bob_Dyer) (went on to become legends in the entertainment business, and launching the Holden (http://www.holden.com.au/home) in 1948.
In 1952 he handed over control of the agency to his son-in-law, Bill Farnsworth. Patts was then the biggest agency in the country with a client roster that boasted leading marketers of its time – Colgate Palmolive, Gillette, Holden, Peek Frean, Kiwi, Ford and Dunlop. Its clients’ sales exceeded 300 million pounds a year.
Farnsworth was a stickler for protocol and doing the right thing. He campaigned strongly against unpaid speculative submissions to prospective clients, fought government regulation and was a key player in addressing problems faced by the industry.
Keith Cousins (http://www.yaffa.com.au/adnewsAOTY/hof/hof_cousins.html) presided over the agency’s greatest period of growth. The former office boy took over as general manager of the agency in 1958 with billings of $7.5 million. When he stepped down from the Chair in 1983 Patts, was a $200 million shop. Cousins forged alliances with the biggest brands in the country and was a staunch defender of the business against government interference, famously taking on the Trade Practices Commission (http://en.wikipedia.org/Australian_Trade_Practices_Commission) with client Colgate Palmolive in a landmark case that recognised advertising as a legitimate cost of manufacturing.
Keith’s stepbrother and successor, Geoffrey Cousins (http://www.intelligencesquared.com/people/c/geoffrey-cousins) shocked the industry by purchasing a stake in creative hotshop, The Campaign Palace (http://www.thecampaignpalace.com/) . The move was described by agency rival, Phillip Adams (http://en.wikipedia.org/Phillip_Adams) , at the time as “tantamount to the Vatican buying equity in the Hare Krishna”.
At age 50 Geoffrey handed over the reins to Alex Hamill (http://www.communicationscouncil.org.au/public/content/ViewCategory.aspx?id=681) in 1992.
The Hamill - Fawcett era saw fundamental changes in the way Patts did business.
The agency relinquished longstanding clients AMP (http://en.wikipedia.org/AMP_Limited) and St George (http://en.wikipedia.org/St.George_Bank) to take on the National Australia bank (http://en.wikipedia.org/National_Australia_Bank) business, following not long after by swapping a chunk of Telstra (http://en.wikipedia.org/Telstra) to launch new market entrant Optus (http://en.wikipedia.org/Optus) .
Patts profits, profile and confidence soared. In 1999 B&T Magazine (http://www.bandt.com.au/) named George Patterson Bates as its Agency of The Century.
In 2011 George Patterson Y&R Melbourne was named Adnews Agency of the Year (http://www.yaffa.com.au/adnewsAOTY/index.html)
Merged businesses
TCG's primary advertising asset was the George Patterson agency which had dominated the Australian advertising market throughout the 2nd half of the 20th century. Known as "Patts" in the industry, the business had been George Patterson Advertising from its formation in 1934 when George Patterson demerged the Sydney & Melbourne business he had started in 1918 from Catts-Patterson; George Patterson Bates from the 1990s, when the agency's long-standing Asian affiliation with Bates Worldwide was formalised with an acquisition by Bates, then one of the two worldwide network holdings of Saatchi & Saatchi PLC; and George Patterson Partners at the time of the WPP acquisition, having been primed for sale under that name by the TCG management-buyout group since 2003.
WPP merged the Australian offices of its worldwide Young & Rubicam brand with George Patterson. WPP had acquired the worldwide Young & Rubicam brand in 2000.
Leadership
George Patterson Y&R offices operated with a system of local office CEOs for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane & Auckland until June 2009 when Russel Howcroft was appointed national CEO. Howcroft is known to Australian television audiences for his regular appearances on The Gruen Transfer. In mid-2010 Howcroft was promoted to CEO Y&R Brands Aust & NZ giving him a responsibility including some other Australasian WPP owned businesses.
References
- Ryan, Rosemary (27 October 2005). "WPP ANNOUNCES WHAT EVERYONE ALREADY KNEW". bandt.com.au. Retrieved 20 May 2011.