Initiative Perth comings and goings
The media rollercoaster has really picked up speed in Perth over recent months with several agencies on a hiring spree in a market where demand is outstripping supply. Most industry seniors agree that it’s a very tough market to recruit. There is great local talent but due to the closed borders internationally and within Australia there are less expats returning to Perth to fill positions in the local industry.
Media planning and buying shop Initiative is a recent case in point having experienced several recent departures and hires over the past two months.
Caroline Mitchell, Communications Design Associate Director at Initiative is set to join the client team at Bankwest in a senior marketing executive role. Mitchell joined Initiative at the end of 2019 after nearly three years in London working for PHD as a media manager on flagship client, Sainsbury’s.
Mitchell began her media career in Perth at Mitchell & Partners and Vizeum. Prior to her stint in London, Mitchell worked as Amplification & Trading Manager at Ikon Communications Perth on the Bankwest account.
Gemma Brandley also left Initiative and soon after joined Channel 9’s TV agency sales team. For the past 3 years Brandley was Office Manager at Initiative after joining from OMD WA. She had previously worked at NewsCorp and Mitchell & Partners. She replaces Jaimi-Lee Chatley, who has been promoted to the position of Radio Group Business Manager with Nine Radio. She has been with Nine for over 5 and half years.
Recently Initiative has also lost Ashleigh Idle and Sam Enshaw to Match & Wood and two months ago Stuart MacDougall resigned to also join Match & Wood. Initiative also saw Ashton Wills join Carat.
On the plus side Initiative has recently made four key appointments:
Molly Trumble (pictured above left), who joined from Hearts & Science WA as Associate Director working across Lotterywest, Dept of Transport & Tourism WA.
Lauren Corner (pictured above right) has joined from Mindshare Melbourne takes up the role of Partnerships Manager working on Lotterywest & P&N Bank.
Ricardo Abrahao (pictured below right) also has joined from Hearts and Science and is working as Partnerships Executive working on Lotterywest & P&N Bank.
And Koshina Yong (pictured below left) has joined from NeonLogic as Partnerships Executive working on RAC.
Initiative has also recently promoted four staff with Paige English promoted to Communications Design Associate Director and Jemma McFarland promoted to Investment Partnerships Manager. Tyler Worth and Shabrina Devi are also elevated to Partnerships Executives.
In addition Dixie-Rei Emmerson, Matthew Hollins and Sam Elliot have all joined Initiative’s Investment Partnerships Associates.
Sister company Reprise, Mediabrand’s dedicated performance agency within the Initiative Perth office, has also recently added staff with Sam Marx (pictured above middle) and Stuart Walker joining.
Marx joins as Performance Director for Western Australia. She was previously digital director at OMD Perth for more than four years and before that the agency’s head of search. Walker joins as a Performance Co-Ordinator.
The Managing Director of Initiative, Luke O’Sullivan, also resigned in June, however he has agreed to stay a little longer while the company finds his replacement.
5 Comments
Reinforces the importance of companies paying people at the leading edge and providing them with working conditions, culture and environment that they enjoy. There’s a price to pay for all this movement, by the companies, staff and clients. If a media company is charging clients around 3% as a fee then it isn’t viable to deliver the service and people needed to do the job properly without high staff turnover. $30,000 for every $1,000,000 isn’t enough to do the job well in a booming market where people are in demand.
Good thing this article is only the last two months and not the full year! Would have had to write a novel.
Happening at all holding group agencies both locally and on the east coast. Serious talent shortage happening in our industry – losing far more than we are gaining. Good on Initiative for attracting and promoting talent – still head and shoulders ahead of the pack
Huge amount of movement in the industry at Initiative. They’ve been the number one growth media agency for a while so all their people have become targets.
Of course everyone wants to recruit from Initiative. They have been leading the way for years. There is a big demand for experienced media people so anyone hiring will look here first.