With last week’s news of Ogilvy’s Paul Manning shifting across to .99 to take up the reins as the agency’s new managing director in early 2016, there were some question marks over what this meant for current managing director Ben Goodale.
After the news broke, Clemenger Group sent out a release saying that JustOne and .99 would become disparate agencies (still within the Clemenger Group), with Goodale and Manning leading them respectively.
“We’re not ripping things apart,” says Goodale.
“We’re actually building a better offer. Where there have been shared clients between JustOne and .99, they will continue to be shared. Both .99 and JustOne also had clients that they both worked with, so that will continue.”
Goodale says JustOne will focus on growing its data, direct and loyalty capabilities and client base across both sides of the Tasman.
“When we started JustOne just over ten years ago, personalisation was always at the heart of the business … JustOne is called JustOne because of that focus on one-to-one and the power of personalised content” says Goodale.
“I’ve been working on data projects for the better part of two decades, and it’s a particular area of passion for me especially as it’s now at the heart of modern advertising. So this really gives me and the team the opportunity to focus on that again.”
Goodale says that because digital technology has made data much bigger, and this means it requires more of his focus.
“Personalisation is now is so much larger because of big data … [And] that requires a broad focus and energy. And I couldn’t do that as well as .99, which is a huge operation.”
The Clemenger Group acquired JustOne in 2013 and paired it with .99, appointing Goodale as the managing director across both organisations.
At the time, Clemenger chief executive Jim Moser pitched the coming together of the agencies as “a new breed of agency approach in New Zealand,” which was developed in response to “a demand for integrated retail solutions that combine retail, brand and production in channels including digital, social media and increasingly loyalty, data and CRM.”
Asked whether the decision to separate the agencies after only two years was indicative of the model not working, Goodale said this wasn’t the case at all.
“It’s [data/direct/loyalty] a big area of growth and it’s an opportunity that we want to capitalise on. It’s also important to point out that this doesn’t mean JustOne and .99 are going to stop working together. It’s just that the management of both is going to be collectively through the group but also have two separate MDs. JustOne can carry on using .99’s skills and production capabilities, but also continue focusing on the growing area.”
Goodale also says that the skill set within JustOne could prove beneficial to clients and agencies across the broader Clemenger Group.
“Loyalty, [in particular], is a unique skill set that requires strategic consultancy, specialist project planning skills, specialist creative and customer journey planning. We want use this skill set Trans-Tasman.”
Goodale has over his career proven himself an adept loyalty and direct marketer, and this has been evident time and time again at the New Zealand Direct Marketing Awards, which has seen .99/JustOne pick up four Grand Prix at the event in the last ten years—and 2015 was no different with the agency winning the coveted award for New World Clubcard’s launch in the South Island.
And with Goodale now in a position where he can focus more of his time on developing one-to-one marketing strategies, JustOne’s clients will be hoping to enjoy more success in this space in the future.
