Page 18 - AdNews magazine Mar-Apr-May 2023

Howatson+Company
INDEPENDENT AGENCY OF THE YEAR WINNER
SPONSORED BY AMOBEE
Howatson+Company is Independent Agency of the Year, taking the title from a strong field of finalists The Royals, Match & Wood, Emotive and Thinkerbell.
Judges: “They push the bound- aries with their work. Almost per- fect entry. Brilliantly written. Compelling entry. Very profitable already. Great structure and lots of thought into people reward. Great work coming from the business, impressive awards, and results.”
Howatson+Company: “Every independent agency is forged under its own circumstances. We left the protection of a holding company at the top of our game, to create Howatson+Company. To protect people by assessing profit ratios long term, not month by month. To invest in capability before our clients need them. To select clients who reflect our val- ues, and say no to those who don’t. To support our local community with pro bono work and financial support. And to build our agency around the belief that creativity is a team sport.
‘We’re delivering intersectional creativity to the benefit of client growth. We pursue creativity in all its forms and do this through inter- sectional creativity. The bringing together of left and right brain thinking to service inside and out- side our clients’ businesses.” Clients include University of NSW, Petbarn, Allianz.
For Matilda Bay, the task was to sell The Beer That No One Wanted, a delicious, original Golden Ale, at a time when the market was obsess- ing over Pale Ales and Hazy IPAs. Matilda Bay tried for 12 months to shift behaviour to no avail.
The beer category landscape has transformed astronomically, from 19 breweries in the ‘80s to 600+ today. It took 27 batches to create a beer that met Matilda Bay’s standards. This then became a delicious story of rejection.
“The big idea. Rejected Ales: Promoting the perfect beer by launching the almost perfect rejects. 27 compelling stories of rejection. Every one of the 27 Rejected Ales was given a name that spoke to how
close they were to perfection while linking to the story of their rejection. Names like ‘Yeah...nah’, ‘Keep dreaming’ and ‘Ballpark.’
“To write these delicious sto- ries of rejection, we worked closely with Matilda Bay brewers uncov- ering their anecdotes. Written to take people on a flavoursome jour- ney and promote their latest path to perfection: The Original Ale.”
“Creativity is the output, peo- ple are the input. Our people get paid more than holding company equivalent roles. And they get bet- ter benefits.
“For example, we’ve attracted the best female talent in the indus- try. Why? Culturally we believe in trust and allowing people to ‘run their own race’. Financially we pay mums a full-time salary for a part time role. We call it five/four. Five days pay for four days work. We also pay 12 weeks maternity leave, and superannuation payments for the entire 12 months of leave. It’s a small cost for us, but for the recip- ient it’ll add up to an extra $150k when they retire.”
A new type of beer ad