Attivo snares advertising heavyweight to drive local growth

Attivo Group has bolstered its management team appointing seasoned advertising executive Anthony Gregorio to helm its growing ANZ business.

Attivo ANZ executive chairman Anthony Gregoriou and Attivo and Mediahub CEO Sue Squillace.

Attivo Group has hired advertising industry heavyweight Anthony Gregorio as executive chairman across the Australian and New Zealand markets as it prepares for growth .

Mr Gregorio is a seasoned ­advertising professional who has served as chief executive at Saatchi & Saatchi and Havas Creative Group, and, most recently, was a partner of Tumbleturn Marketing Advisory.

He joins Attivo and Mediahub CEO Sue Squillace and Attivo Group chief operating officer John Rizoski, to helm the group across Australia and New Zealand. The team will report to global CEO Cam Murchison.

His appointment signals a step-change for the Attivo Group, which has been a quiet player since bursting into the Australian advertising market through its majority stake purchase of 303 MullenLowe and a stake in Mediahub in 2021.

The Attivo Group also includes Perth’s Rhubard Lane and PR business Tonic Communications in Australia. Over the ditch, it boasts agencies Gorilla, Farrimond, Harvey Cameron and Rainmakers. The group has also expanded into the US with the acquisition of the Hill Holiday and DNY agencies last year.

The appointment of Mr ­Gregorio firms up the ANZ management team and enables Mr Murchison to focus on new international markets to further grow the Attivo Group.

The move sees Mr Gregorio reunite with Ms Squillace, after the two previously worked together at Publicis Group. It also highlights the integrated approach that Attivo Group aims to adopt across its mix of services, which includes creative, media, PR, production and shopper marketing.

The structure will see Mr Gregorio focus on driving business growth across the business and ­developing new-market capabilities across the group, while Ms Squillace will manage and lead the agencies, including overseeing ­resources and P&L.

Mr Gregorio told The Australian: “Attivo is an entrepreneurial and independent business that is able to respond to market demand much faster than most of the ­competitors out there. It has all the elements that are required for an agency group to thrive despite the crazy times we live in.”

He admits Attivo has been too quiet, with his first task to bolster awareness of the group across the industry and, in particular, among clients.

“It’s one of my core KPIs moving forward. I want to find a way to lift the total business. I have growth ambitions around financial growth, but I also have growth ambitions around reputation and perception in market. Those are the areas that I’m really going to be focused on.

“There is a lot of latent potential in the group. It’s surprising that the market, particularly clients, don’t know about it more.

“It is a dark horse and I wouldn’t have come on board if I didn’t think that I could help unlock some of that potential. I’m a big believer in that compound effect that occurs across all disciplines when they’re strategically aligned. I aim to help to turbocharge that.”

Mr Gregorio credits his recent experience in the marketing consultancy with providing invaluable insights into the challenges ­businesses and CMOs are currently up against.

“It was a real eye-opener and it really brought a deeper understanding of the breadth of challenges that CMOs face. I’m going to apply that knowledge to how an agency can reorientate itself to be a better partner for growth and stay a step ahead of the competition,” he said. “The reality I saw, generally speaking, was that the more money a business had, the less reliant they are on a really strong strategy to bind everything together, because they had the weight of share of voice. It was surprising that some organisations just didn’t have a strong marketing strategy in place that was connected to the business strategy. If you are small you can’t afford to do that. You really need to galvanise the power of punching above your weight and a business like Attivo is perfectly positioned to take advantage of that.”

Mr Gregorio points to research, which was conducted by Tumbleturn with industry trade title Mi3, that revealed only 34 per cent of marketers believed their teams were equipped for the future.

“I think that’s quite a telling bit of data. It’s a tough environment for CMOs because they have to be smart enough to keep all the balls in the air, but they also have be resilient to flourish.

“Agencies need to understand the breadth of all the problems CMOs are facing and not be blinkered on the one task at hand. Of course you have to execute that task brilliantly, but the more you can understand the breadth of the business issues, the more you can be trusted to help guide CMOs ­towards a more fruitful future.

“I think that’s really the focus for agencies; they need to be ­obsessed with making their clients’ brands invaluable.”

It’s a strategy that is echoed by Mr Murchison, who is focused on positioning the group as partners to assist in business growth.

“[Mr Gregorio’s] client-focused approach, teamed with strong marketing consultancy experience, will bring great benefit to our clients’ business growth, and widen our broader market appeal,” Mr Murchison said.

“Bringing Anthony on board to work side-by-side with Sue and John are part of Attivo’s belief in supporting our individual and respective agency brands to set their own determination, with strong collaboration and sophisticated shared services behind the scenes.

“Having both Sue and Anthony work closely on cross-agency and cross-client opportunities will ­provide focused local leadership while I continue to look to ­develop growth opportunities in new markets.”

Mr Gregorio’s return to an agency role comes at a significant time for the ad industry, as it faces declining marketing budgets, the rise of AI and consolidation within the sector.

“I worked in agency land for close to 30 years and I believe in the transformative power of agencies to create tangible value from creative thinking, and deliver an ­unfair advantage for brands and businesses. In the toolkit that marketers have to generate growth and success, it really is the most ­potent weapon that they have. That power becomes a multiplier when there’s a strategic alignment that drives all the disciplines, and they can collide to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. And that’s a point of view that was only reinforced in my time on the consulting side.”