“I believe I can bring a fresh, diverse point of view and a strategic mindset to help accelerate our growth even further,” Gavin Sommer tells Mediaweek.
Sommer joins AFFINITY in the newly created role of general manager, bringing with him more than 25 years of experience to the independent agency following his most recent post at Accenture Song. Before that, he was at Spark44.
“I’m looking forward to nurturing and growing AFFINITY’s talent and helping to grow our clients’ businesses in a sustainable way.”
He said that moving from a large organisation to a mid-size business has many advantages, which attracted him to AFFINITY and its offering in the first place.
“AFFINITY has a diverse client portfolio and a team of talented professionals. Part of the appeal at AFFINITY is the new way of working and the unique structure of the business.”
He said that for many years, AFFINITY co-founders Angela Smith, CBO, and Luke Brown, Group CEO, have had the vision to change how agencies work by removing the account service function and focussing on strategy and delivery teams to drive the client relationship and business.
“Although my career started in account service, I think AFFINITY’s approach is the right model for the times. It’s a proven strategy that I wanted to be part of.”
He said the agency had integrated a genuine advisory service dedicated to driving accelerated growth for businesses into the offering, which he noted was evident by AFFINITY’s ability to read the market and build solutions that clients need.
“AFFINITY is on an upward trajectory, and it’s just the start of great things to come. I’m looking forward to nurturing and growing AFFINITY’s talent and helping to grow our clients’ businesses in a sustainable way,” he added.
Luke Brown, Gavin Sommer and Angela Smith
“The best possible practice in leadership and relationship skills”
Smith said that creating a new general manager role has been the culmination of a three-year business plan – albeit slightly interrupted by COVID – and an eight-month search for Brown and herself to find someone for the executive leader role.
“We don’t create roles and treat people as resources. We wanted to make sure we were ready for this important step. We needed to know that we had someone who was empathic in terms of a similar-sized agency role and had seen growth and success there.”
Smith called Sommer “the full package” for the agency and a “lovely human being.”
“Gavin can control his destiny with us. He’ll be responsible for the day-to-day operations and success of the agency. I think Gavin exemplifies the best possible practice in leadership and relationship skills,” she added.
Brown said Sommer will help expand and drive the agency’s ambitions for business growth.
“We already have those relationships at senior leadership levels within our clients, which is essential to driving genuine business growth. Gavin will help expand on that ambition.”
Sommer said his last three years at Accenture Song gave him “the opportunity to work with some incredible clients, solving their very real business problems. I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had there.”
“Prior to that, at Spark44, the global agency of record for JLR (Jaguar Land Rover), we worked within a unique business model as part of a joint venture. And after being acquired by Accenture Song in 2021, we became part of a new opportunity with Accenture.”
Sommer noted that he will bring to AFFINITY the skills and global experience he learned at Spark44 and Accenture Song.
Gavin Sommer
“I believe we can really change things”
Looking ahead, Sommer said “AFFINITY’s growth acceleration proposition is very appealing indeed. I couldn’t be happier to be here.”
For Brown, he said he’s “never been surer of the vision for the business” and is inspired to work on building that vision.
“Having someone of Gavin’s calibre who’s very like-minded in their vision of growing businesses and not just doing ad campaigns, is for me, genuinely liberating.
Smith shared that in a year, she hopes the agency will have had “interesting conversations” with different businesses at a C-suite level.
“It’s at that level where I fundamentally feel passionate about changing the perception of brand and marketing in terms of leveraging the opportunities that amazingly strong and smart brands have available to them. Working with them to use AI, data and technology and all the levers that they have available is where I believe we can really change things,” she said.
Smith believes “marketing is an under-leveraged, underutilised superpower in Australian business.”
“We want to be a big part of changing that conversation through a focus on business growth and outcomes. Our industry is in a little bit of a self-perpetuating hamster wheel, if you like.
“We’re constantly looking at 30-second TVCs. I have full respect for agencies that do amazing TVCs, and there’s a place for it. But I think we’re a little bit of a victim of our own successes, and we’ve pigeonholed ourselves way too finitely – a mark of our success will be if we start to break out of that paradigm,” she added.
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Top image: Luke Brown, Gavin Sommer and Angela Smith