Creativity needs to be valued more than ever, says departing chief

Clemenger Group chair Robert Morgan may be retiring from the ad industry but he remains a passionate advocate for the power of creativity and the need for great ideas.

Clemenger group executive chairman Robert Morgan.

One of the Australian advertising industry’s longest-serving admen is retiring from his post at the top of a leading and respected agency.

Robert Morgan will step down from his role as the chair of Clemenger Group at the end of the month, 46 years after he first joined the agency as an account executive.

Mr Morgan, who served as CEO from 1998 until 2021, is credited with building a hugely successful business across Australia and New Zealand, producing globally recognised agency brands, fostering some of the industry’s best talent and creating many of the country’s most iconic campaigns. His retirement announcement, which comes two weeks after he stepped down from his post as chair of Australia’s peak arts funding body Creative Australia, serves as a turning point for the business, and comes at a crucial time for the industry.

The arrival of AI and the global push to consolidation is having a seismic impact on the advertising landscape.

However, Mr Morgan is optimistic about the future of the industry.

“I’ve been listening to the demise of advertising since the 70s,” he told The Australian.

“The industry always becomes hysterical at the arrival of something new and we always revert to predicting its collapse and it hasn’t happened yet and I don’t believe it ever will.

“The thing that we do and that no one else can do, and I don’t believe that AI will ever be able to replace, is the brilliant idea.

“As long as we’ve got brilliant ideas, we’ll be able to cut through the noise and the clutter, and we’ll be valued.”

But, he has strong views about the ad industry’s need to improve its ability to sell itself to ensure the strength of its future.

“Creativity, from the economy point of view, has never been more important, and (advertising) is at the very pointy end of it,” Mr Morgan said.

“If we’re going to be a country that isn’t just mining and farming, that’s not to say that’s not important, but we’re going to have to compete in the creative economy as well.

“Part of the problem is that we’ve undervalued or we’ve been remunerated in a way that is not commensurate with the value we add.

“I think it was one of the UK brand gurus that said we’re paid like the cleaners on an hourly basis.

“We should be remunerated for the value we add, not the hours we spent.”

He believes the answer lies in reclaiming the special relationships agencies had with their clients, specifically with the CEOs.

“We were in the CEO’s office and we were as important an adviser as anybody,” he said. “CEOs were very involved and engaged what advertising and marketing did. I don’t see that as anywhere near as much as it used to be. And I think they’re really missing out by not doing that.”

While Mr Morgan cites iconic work such as Clemenger BBDO Melbourne’s iconic Not Happy Jan campaign for Yellow Pages, or the legacy of cult Carlton Draught ads and TAC’s Meet Graham, he’s most proud about the talent nurtured within the agency group.

“We always believed in hiring a lot of young kids and growing them and we always used to get them nicked. But I always took the view that if we didn’t do it there wouldn’t be anybody to choose from later.

“It’s gratifying to see that a lot of the very good agencies out there now have ex-Clemenger people running them.”