Yango agency was established in 2013, with the purpose of helping businesses identify growth opportunities, and design and deliver technology, content, and media solutions.
Yango general manager Luke Povee spoke to Mediaweek about being a people-focused leader, the agency’s recent wins, specialisations, and exciting plans for the year ahead.
Agency history
The Sydney-based digital agency began as an independent programmatic trading desk, with its clients including big group agencies, indie agencies, and direct work with brands.
Povee explained the agency evolved over the years to bring in other digital channels in addition to programmatic with search, marketing, SEO, social, and digital media consulting.
Povee, who had a brief stint in outdoor media, founded the agency with his two business partners whose backgrounds were in offline media, print, TV, and digital media.
“When we started, we got very niche into programmatic and learned channel, which was pretty brand new in this market,” he said.
Yango specialises in programmatic, noting that they’re focused on digital performance in delivering growth and return of investment for clients. “Whatever the client’s objective is, we use whatever digital media channel we can to drive results for them,” he said.
As the agency’s general manager, Povee noted that he is people-focused in his role with training and mentoring teams and ensuring their staff grow within the agency and move forward.
In addition to caring for their team of 20, he also oversees the business, particularly high-level client relationships.
Key clients and new additions
The key clients who have been with the agency since the start include Wahu and Brickworks. For about six years, the University of Sydney has been a client of the agency.
Povee also spoke about the agency’s Orchestra partnership, which sees Yango as the digital agency working with Love Media as the media agency, and optimisation tech company Rubii. Many of Yango’s new client wins come under this partnership, including financial company Spaceship, Surf Lifesaving Foundation Lottery, and Doctors On Demand.
The impact of the pandemic
Povee noted that it had been a couple of tough years for the agency following the pandemic.
“A lot of our clients really pulled back hard on their budgets as soon as we went into COVID. It was a really challenging time, and we really had to scale a business back to keep moving forward.
“But it’s been a bit of a blessing in disguise for us because we’re now in a much better place than we’ve ever been before.
“It really forced us to go back to the basics of the business and concentrate on what we do best, which is doing great work for clients. Since the last year or so, we’ve been back in a real growth phase,” he added.
Looking to the year ahead, Povee said that the agency has had an influx of client wins, plenty of work and pitching happening.
The GM also noted that they are working on growing the team and bringing in new channels to build on what they do with clients.
“There is a big focus on eCommerce clients moving forward into this year because that’s essentially where the world’s going,” he said.
On the IMAA
Yango joined IMAA more than a year ago, a partnership that Povee said has been a helpful resource to the agency, particularly the bulk credit insurance.
Povee also praised the IMAA for running networking and publishing events and industry insights, which he noted helps companies become better agents and better with their clients.
