Troy Ruhanen Argues OAG Will Flex to Solve Business Problems, As Competitor “Agencies Have Gotten Weak”

Omnicom agencies are willing to relinquish territorialism to better solve clients’ business problems, Omnicom Advertising Group (OAG) boss Troy Ruhanen promises. In contrast, he believes rival holdcos remain inflexible in their models, and their agency brands "have gotten weak ... or they've collapsed" as a result.

An example of Omnicom parking ego is Telstra’s +61 model, which he told LBB he has already replicated in another active pitch. The model features Omnicom’s TBWA and OMD, plus indie Bear Meets Eagle on Fire (BMEOF), delivering CMO Brent Smart the creative pedigree he wanted, at scale. 

“Am I going to do that 50 times over? No,” Troy said in the interview during a visit to his native Australia. But he’ll roll out that model if he’s convinced it will match the client’s need. 

During his SXSW appearance alongside Brent, Troy argued, “Most people, when they get down to operating models, say, well, it's all or nothing. It's like the Power of One or it's the power of disjointed agencies. We decided to do something different.”

Not every agency would allow an indie hot shop to act as the creative frontman, like BMEOF has become for +61. Troy believes working with indies, not against them, is a more interesting narrative than one of competition. 

“When agencies get greedy and they overpromise and underdeliver, that's when we're vulnerable,” he told LBB. 

“I don't like making promises I can't keep, and so I'd rather be with other people that can help deliver on certain things. Then we're going to have success, and we'll grow organically over time. That's where real growth comes from. 

“65% of my growth comes from organic. It doesn't come from a lot of new business. I've grown really over the years because of Apple, because of Nissan, because of McDonald's, because of Henkel.”

Of the pitch process, he said, “we're more motivated by that [organic growth] than going out and kissing a whole bunch of different frogs.” There’s been a rise in holding company-level pitches, he added, “because the competitors don’t have strong agencies.”

“The reason why I really believe in Omnicom and its proposition is we're built for choice more than the others.

“The others, either their agencies have gotten weak and they therefore have become one, or they've collapsed so much that it's a lot of holding company solutions all the time.”

Preserving Omnicom’s storied agency brands - including TBWA, DDB, BBDO, and CHEP Network across Australia and New Zealand - is a key focus as Troy steps into the OAG CEO role.

Practically, the TBWA global boss has already assumed the position. Officially, he doesn’t start until 1 January. By then, he’ll have already decided how the model will take effect across AUNZ and the world. “We'll have our roles and responsibilities and regional set-ups all clarified by hopefully no later than January 2.”

He already has “strong thoughts” about how it might operate.

“The goal isn't to make OAG the answer. The goal is to make the brands really thrive, but be able to be more connected, more collaborative, and to be able to leverage the collective intelligence that we have. 

“Could there be discipline leads in some areas? Potentially.

“There'll be things that will be centralised in an innovation and platform way. Does it mean that, locally, you have to have that presence of an OAG there? No.”

In some markets, OAG has consolidated its creative agencies and opted for the strongest brand, “with OAG being there to be able to launch the other ones if there's a global need for a client.”

“If you've got one [brand] that's crazy dominant and one that's really not and struggling, well, what's the reason? If there's no multinational reason for it, you're like, 'Okay, is there a better way to service that, or to power that, or to inject something into that?' You have to really go market by market.

“We've got flexibility in the model.”

Troy wants his agencies to be on the front foot. While “we really turn up to pitch consultants incredibly prepared and with a compelling proposition”, he said, “we've got to treat ourselves as B2B marketers” and avoid the “beauty parade” of a pitch where possible. 

He’d like clients to trial agencies on a project basis, and OAG agencies to “play offence.” Other agencies “wait for the phone to ring.”

“How about we just go directly to a client? We've got a lot of intelligence. We know a lot about certain categories. We know a lot about the consumer ... We can go with a point of view to someone. NDA it, keep your intelligence. I'm much more about controlling our destiny than I am having it handed to me.”

Cultural authority allows an agency to take a “much more confident, proactive [point of view] to your client”. He's in the business of building brands people desire, versus brands which sell to people. In the same way, he believes agencies should do more to build marketers’ desire. 

“Eight years ago, I banned the word client service from our company because I don't believe in a service culture. I believe in a product culture. How do you become the most proactive business partner that you could be?

“If you're smart and you can use your collective intelligence and you can use your collective capabilities, the solution just doesn't have to be advertising.”

That “collective intelligence” includes TBWA’s Backslash. Recently, Brent wanted access to “big customer trends” for the Telstra board’s 2030 strategy discussions. TBWA’s insights “impress[ed] the hell out of the management team,” Brent said.

With the onset of OAG, those “knowledge systems” will be democratised, Troy explained, so “if I'm in France, I could be looking at how someone solved that problem in Australia, and I could be using the tools that have been developed in Singapore.”

“I've told everyone that everything we have at TBWA is available to everyone at BBDO or DDB or Goodby. And I am likewise telling everyone that's the same that they have to offer back,” Troy said.

“We rarely compete against each other. We rarely pitch up against each other. At the end of the day, we need to be able to have all of us operating at the very best capabilities that we can provide to clients. We're going to win more often when Omnicom is a stronger company.”

Brent took a chance on +61. As he described it, he “had the privilege in this job of sitting down with a clean sheet of paper and saying, 'What do I think an agency model should look like today?”

He wanted a small independent agency - he called BMEOF the “best creative agency in the country” - that Telstra would “crush” without the necessary scaffolding. And he wanted media and creative together.

“The smartest thing we've done, the most impactful thing we've done, is put creative and media back together.

“The difference that's made to the output is extraordinary. We should never have separated creative and media.”

Asked whether many clients could, or would have the appetite to, ‘sit down with a clean sheet of paper’ as Brent did, Troy is optimistic. He “fundamentally believe[s] there are more people like Brent out there in this marketplace.”

“I believe in human potential, so I just don't think they've asked the question. He's showing a way that should inspire other clients to think differently.”

Equally, he hopes marketers will be more forthcoming in asking their agencies for help, before they go to pitch or question costs.

“When clients and consultants outside want to come in and tell us the rates … We have thousands of clients. We know exactly the rate of everything,” he said.

“I just wish clients would be willing to say, 'Can I come talk to you about a need I have? ... I'm really trying to get this level of efficiency, because I've got to demonstrate this to the board.

“They just don't do that enough. You're only a phone call away from potentially having a really great solution that can drive your future for the next five years. So make the call.”