SMART (advertising agency)
SMART is an Australian advertising agency with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast and Brisbane. SMART is an independently managed and owned Australian business.
 | |
| Type | Independently Owned Creative Agency |
|---|---|
| Industry | Advertising agency Marketing Branding |
| Founded | Sydney, Australia (2000) |
| Founder | Ben Lilley and Paul Findlay |
| Headquarters | , Australia |
Number of locations | 3 |
| Services | Brand Advertising, Communication Strategy, Social Media and Digital Services |
| Website | smart |
Launched in 2000 as a boutique creative agency, SMART was established by a group of ex-multinational agency professionals seeking to create "a strategic and creative alternative to traditional agency thinking".[1] The founding partners were each under thirty when they set up the agency.[2] Marketing magazine B&T named SMART "the New Age ad agency" in its Agency of the Year awards in 2003.[3]
In 2011, McCann Worldgroup acquired SMART and replaced the management of McCann Worldgroup Australia with the management team from SMART.[4] In 2020, SMART was reacquired back from McCann Worldgroup by its original founder, Ben Lilley, who runs it as an independent advertising agency once again today.[5]
Clients and awards
SMART was named B&T Agency of the Year[3] and has featured in the Business Review Weekly Fast100 list of Australia's fastest growing businesses.[6] The agency is known for taking a selective approach to its clients, focusing on "blue-chip" creative advertisers.[1]
SMART was appointed by Australian brand Mambo,[7] a client who had previously refused to work with advertising agencies. It has also undertaken several unconventional stunts, including sending dwarves to the headquarters of Peugeot in an effort to secure a spot on the car maker's agency pitch list.[8] A stunt that involved agency staff disguising themselves as takeaway delivery drivers to post recruitment advertisements inside competing agencies also raised eyebrows.[9]
Agency principals
The agency's founding partners were CEO Ben Lilley and Creative Director Paul Findlay. Lilley is a media commentator, particularly in the area of youth marketing,[10] and was named one of AdNews's forty top industry professionals under forty.[2] The agency's founding leadership team also included creative director John Mescall, writer of Dumb Ways To Die.