Niche work if you can get it

James Hall, Kim Thorp, Howard Greive and Peter Cullinane, the quartet behind Assignment. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

There was a joke going around advertising circles following Labour's election advertising campaign.

The campaign, widely compared poorly against the National Party's much lauded red-and-blue billboards and "Thank You Very Much For Your High Taxation" Telethon rip-off, was the work of a new kind of advertising agency started by four prominent former Saatchi & Saatchi admen.

The joke went: "Why would four multi-millionaires want Labour to win?"

It was an inauspicious sign for the fledgling agency, Assignment, whose first year has contained several bad omens. But last month's surprise win of the prestigious Tourism New Zealand "100% Pure New Zealand" account saw the four beat their previous employer, Saatchi, through a joint pitch with J Walter Thompson (JWT). It hands Assignment creative control of a globally recognised campaign - and may prove a turning point for its reputation.

When Assignment debuted last year, there was talk its business model could shake up advertising in New Zealand. Australian advertising magazine B&T Weekly tagged them a "powerhouse of talent" whose presence and worldwide contacts would send shivers through local agencies.

Four of Saatchi's finest, Peter Cullinane, Kim Thorp, Howard Greive and James Hall, worked together during a golden era when the work of Saatchi & Saatchi's Wellington office was drawing international plaudits. In 1997, US industry newspaper Ad Age ranked Saatchi Wellington among the top 10 agencies in the world.

Their fingerprints were on several of the most well known ads of the time - the "Bugger" ad for Toyota Hilux among them. Thorpe is even held to have made the suggestion, above and beyond the call of duty, that key client Telecom introduce flat rate $5 calls on weekends.

But with Assignment, they planned to do things differently. Giving just two local interviews in April last year - one to the Herald, one to the National Business Review - the four have since rejected more requests to go on record.

"We'd rather be a merchant bank than a retail bank so clients can come to us without the glare of publicity. Discretion should be our middle name in everything we do," Cullinane, a former chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi in New Zealand and chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi Australasia, said in the Herald interview.

Discretion is the antithesis of advertising's loud, brash image. Assignment would not name clients, it would not enter awards and the four would not even discuss work they had done. It was reportedly against the new company's policy to pitch for work; it was thought to only want a few top-drawer clients.

Critics say the attitude has turned out to mask just another advertising agency. Assignment has, after all, already turned up on pitch lists: Tourism New Zealand's business was an open contest with Saatchi & Saatchi, Colenso BBDO, DDB and Whybin TBWA.

"If the model was so good, how come they have not won any significant business until Tourism New Zealand?" said one detractor. "If what they did was the Labour Party [campaign] then that was appalling. If what they did was TelstraClear, then that was equally appalling ... I don't think they're going to seriously shake up the landscape at all."

Supporters say pitches for Government business have to be an exception to the rule, because the requirement for transparency means that's the only way such accounts can be approached.

The four are understood to reject the "agency" tag. Consultancy might be closer to the truth, although they continue to create advertising. But their presence on a job doesn't necessarily mean traditional advertising will be the result, if they judge it is not in the client's best interests. They aim to meet chief executives, not marketing managers.

It's a model dreamed up as an antidote to the distance some believe grows between client and the core business of advertising as management tasks and an agency's own interests tie up the best talents on their rise to seniority. Hall, in his time at Saatchi, presided over a decision to drop $16 million of business from mainly Government clients, including the LTSA. The Wellington agency had feared its creative success would be stifled by its rapid growth.

But the quartet are not believed to want to turn the industry on its head. Rather they see themselves filling an unmet need for niche, strategic business.

Despite having a reputation as very expensive, standing out even in an industry where the best are well-rewarded, their straightforward pricing rejects the hidden costs that can sometimes bolster lower upfront fees.

Assignment's model relies on outsourcing where required. The four do not even have a PA.

Businesspeople who know Assignment compare the company to specialised legal adviser Harmos Horton Lusk, whose small team has won some of billionaire Graeme Hart's business and has carved out a space among much bigger firms.

The Assignment four are businessmen themselves: Cullinane, Thorp and Greive are shareholders and directors of the Antipodes Water Co. It was set up with former restaurateur and Metropole founder Simon Woolly to take on premium water brands like Perrier and is thought to have offered them insight into clients' concerns.

Until recently Assignment were operating well under the radar. With few visible clients, some in the industry had already tagged them "has-beens".

Assignment was known to have wanted to represent a telco - but the team responsible for the "Spot the Dog" ads is thought to have made a play for Telecom and missed out. They got TelstraClear instead.

TVNZ insiders say they also made a strong play for the state broadcaster's business - having initiated the successful "Ten fingers and ten toes" campaign for TV One while at Saatchi. "They wanted it but they were told in no uncertain terms they couldn't have it," said one insider.

Sue Brewster, TVNZ's general manager of marketing, says the business went to Saatchi & Saatchi because they could fulfil all the business criteria for TVNZ's work. "Assignment were a strong contender," she said. "What you have is four senior people that worked more at a strategic level ... they're selective as to what process they work on. The implementation of tactical advertising - that's not their gig. It counted against them in the end."

Brewster believes Assignment is part of a wider rethink of advertising agency models, with alternatives to traditional structures on the rise.

The Pure NZ win gave them a vital boost. It is an account which channels the bulk of Tourism New Zealand's $30 million yearly marketing budget - about $25 million a year. Assignment got the creative element, while JWT was to handle the daily account work and ad distribution globally.

"I was flabbergasted by that result," a senior advertising figure said, calling it a " political piece of business". Tourism New Zealand boss George Hickton said the deal had been won on the quality of Assignment's creative work, aimed at keeping the six-year-old "Pure NZ" campaign fresh.

In this case Assignment's size: just two creatives and two "suits" (advertising executives) counted in their favour.

"We're certainly pleased to be their biggest account. It wasn't the gamebreaker, but it means we get the attention of some pretty experienced people - and we quite like that," said Hickton.

In many ways the tourism win is also significant because of its history.

A bid for a $50 million global marketing strategy for the then Tourism Board in 1999 threw Saatchi & Saatchi into a political storm with Saatchi's global boss Kevin Roberts - a champion of expatriate Kiwis - at its epicentre. The board dumped the agency and rival M&C Saatchi stepped up to the plate with 100% Pure NZ. Assignment and Saatchi got to grapple for the business only after M&C's New Zealand arm was forced to step back when its Australian office took up with Tourism Australia.

Did the Assignment quartet want to win one over their former boss? Sources close to the four say in some ways Assignment - and its reticence - is a reaction to the cult of personality personified Roberts, a former Lion Nathan executive appointed as global head of the agency in 1998.

They say Saatchi's creative capital was built up through the 80s and 90s by a team. "With the advent of Kevin, it became personalised. He used up all the collective brownie points for personal gain," one source said.

Now Assignment, too, has the potential to go international, sources say, eyeing similar people in other markets who might appreciate the Assignment model. An expansion that could, in its way, change the industry.

Win some, lose some

* Hits

Tourism NZ

Labour Party

Telstra Clear

* Misses

TVNZ

Sealord