Avenue C is an independent Australian-owned agency established in 2017 by founding partners Hugo Cutrone, Will Chapman and Daniel Cutrone.
Over the years, the agency has stayed true to this original goal. It now has a team of 27 highly experienced media specialists who manage the investment of $90m annually in media billings.
Melissa Mullins, chief strategy officer of Avenue C, oversees the creation of the strategy and planning principles for the agency’s clients and the ongoing development of our strategic product.
Mullins spoke to Mediaweek about being the best-in-market at paid media, the agency’s performance over the last year and what sets them apart from other agencies.
As chief strategy officer, Mullins said that in the role, she is increasingly finding that clients are interested in developing a long-term communications strategy spanning more than two years rather than one campaign burst.
“It means that I am involved in the conversations marketers are having to shape their long-term brand plans, something I love,” she said.
Mullins added that beyond her strategic role, she also sits on the Avenue C leadership team and is involved in shaping the business direction.
Avenue C on having a laser focus and proudly swimming in their own lane
Mullins noted that Avenue C specialises in paid media. She said: “Unlike some, we are not a jack of all trades and, as such, do not stretch into diversified services.”
Avenue C keeps it simple by planning, buying, optimising, and measuring paid media.
“This laser focus allows us to be the best-in-market at paid media. You won’t see Avenue C building a website, copywriting or designing wireframes. We proudly swim in our lane,” she said.
“This has meant we are not stepping on toes but working collaboratively and seamlessly with PR and creative partners as our roles and responsibilities are clear with zero land grabbing. Just experts doing good work together,” Mullins added.
Avenue C’s trust in experienced professionals
Among the factors that set Avenue C apart from other agencies is that they only hire professionals with over ten years of experience and are leaders in their craft who can run a client’s day-to-day business from start to end.
This structure has meant moving away from the typical layered agency structure and establishing a flat structure where everyone is at the director level.
Mullins said: “Many of the people who work at Avenue C found that in previous roles, as they became more senior, they were spending less time on the craft they loved and more time sitting in boardrooms or managing people.
“That’s why at Avenue C, our purpose is to bring big-brain thinking out of the boardroom and back onto the client’s business.
Mullins added that the agency believes that with the help of an experienced team, their clients can achieve an unfair advantage.
“Experience means we are obsessed with business results rather than the media metrics. We focus on details because time is currency for our clients, and we know when to trust our gut. Everyone can look at the data and use the available tools and tech. However, it’s knowing when to harness your intuition that only experience can provide,” she said.
Mullins noted that their experienced team love their craft, which also gives them a unique agency culture, and is “unapologetically” passionate about making businesses grow through smart media choices and execution.
“As such, we naturally have a culture where we challenge each other to deliver the very best for our clients,” she said.
“We are also at a stage in our careers and lives where we are good with being ourselves, confident enough to be the person in the room who speaks a lot or the one who prefers to follow up with a detailed email. There is zero pretences and no pressure to be anything but authentically you,” Mullins added.
Working closely with foundation clients
Avenue C’s foundation client is Primo Foods, who are still the agency’s client and continue to work closely with the agency.
“With an extremely collaborative and strategically driven partnership, we have become the market leader in awareness metrics (versus a previously dominant competitor) and also launched products which have become the number one selling product in their category – specifically cheese snacks,” Mullins said.
Mullins added that in addition to Primo, Avenue C is fortunate that all of their “foundation” clients are still working with them today. She said: “The great thing about this is that as our relationships grow, so does our expertise and ability to drive market-leading results for them.”
A look back at Avenue C’s performance in 2022
Reflecting on Avenue C’s performance in 2022, Mullins shared that the agency grew its billings by just over 20%, including Brown Forman, Cranky Health, Deloitte, Turo, Manscaped and amaysim.
Mullins explained that 2022 was an “interesting time” for the agency, largely driven by the great global tech crunch and saw several of their clients either reduced or removed media investment.
“This was driven by investors turning off the money tap for pre-profit technology companies, which in turn drastically influenced our business.
“Even though our business is less than seven years old, this wasn’t our first financial downturn, and with the support of our people and partners, we maintained a healthy profit margin and were able to grow our team by 15%,” she added.
Continuing to offer clients the best in the year ahead
Looking ahead, Mullins noted the team is focused on how they continue to offer the very best service to their clients and media partners, in addition to continued impressive growth numbers growth.
“We know that in today’s economic climate, Marketers require safe and wise investments with their media budgets, so we are continuing to enhance our capabilities to ensure that they have the rationale and confidence in every dollar that we are spending on their behalf,” she said.
“What that looks like for us is increased Marketing training for our team, increased investment in data analytics and a relentless pursuit of business outcomes from our team,” she added.
Benefits of the IMAA
Avenue C was among the inaugural members of the IMAA. Mullins noted that while there have been many benefits of being part of the industry body, what has stood out for the agency has been the connections they’ve made with the other agencies and the collaborative spirit that goes along with it.
“We were one of the inaugural members of the IMAA, and while there are many benefits to being part of the IMAA, which have been written about in previous issues, the element we have loved most is the friends we have made at other agencies and the collaborative spirit between independent agencies.
“We have many friends who run other independent agencies, and although we pitch against one another and in those pitches, we all want to win, there is a sense of camaraderie and industry sharing that takes place within the independent network, which doesn’t occur at a multi-national group level. This, of course, was enabled and is largely driven by the existence of the IMAA,” Mullins added.
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Top image: Melissa Mullins
