BotD: Optus rips up its creative and media roster; ABC radio chief departs; Fiji marketer comes home

Jun 03, 2025

Welcome to Best of the Day on the day Optus reshaped the agency landscape, and the man charged with reshaping the ABC’s city radio strategy walked away

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The Day Today: Optus goes all-in on Accenture; MTV out of Foxtel; Fitzpatrick to leave ABC

Optus ends it with M&C Saatchi and UM

Optus ended one of the most enduring brand-client relationships in the Australian advertising market, dropping M&C Saatchi from its roster. M&C Saatchi has worked for Optus since 2003, albeit with occasional breaks.

Optus gave the creative brief to Accenture Song’s Droga5, while Accenture’s new media division - headed by former Initiative executives Melissa Fein, Sam Geer, and Chris Colter - will be responsible for planning and buying. The media account was previously held by Initiative’s sister agency UM.

Emotive will also be dropped from the roster, while the AI-focused BRX will take on an expanded production remit.

Mike Fitzpatrick out of the ABC

The architect of the ABC’s reworking of its capital city stations radio strategy is to leave the organisation after an extended period of ill health. Mike Fitzpatrick joined the ABC a year ago after leading Triple M’s content strategy with the hope that his commercial background would bring a sharper focus on strategies to build audience numbers.

Brent Hill back to Oz

One of the travel industry’s higher profile marketers is returning to Australia. Brent Hill, CEO of Tourism Fiji, made the announcement today. Hill made his name as a champion of bold creative work for South Australian Tourism Commission.

Trade Me gets Stuffed

Classified platform Trade Me took a 50% stake in Stuff’s digital arm, in a major move for the NZ media industry. CEO Sinead Boucher took ownership of Stuff from Nine in 2020.

I (don’t) want my MTV

Foxtel is dropping its music channels, Rolling Stone Australia revealed. MTV Hits, Nick Music, MTV Club, MTV 80s and CMT wil leave the platform at the end of the month. However, Foxtel will continue to make Vevo channels available via streaming.

Vinyl Group gets a court date

Vinyl Group told the ASX it hopes to be able to resume trading by the end of the week. A bureaucratic blunder led to its suspension while it fixes how it issued new shares in the company. It will ask the Federal Court to untangle the mess in a hearing scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Vinyl shares have not been trading since last week.

The court hearing is unrelated to the legal case involving former publishing boss Luke Girgis who claims he was wrongly fired by Vinyl Group.