30 from 30. The people who have helped shape the industry and Campaign Brief: Stephen Wells

For Campaign Brief WA’s 30th anniversary, over the thirty days of June we’re looking back on 30 people who helped shape the industry and us.

Smart, ambitious, combative and hugely confident, Stephen Wells’ rise was meteoric. In four years he went from being just another name at Marketforce to one of the industry’s outstanding leaders.

Wells joined Marketforce from Channel Nine and was Media Director at the agency when it won the WA Government Master Media Contract – the most contentious episode in the industry in the mid 80s.

But Wells really hit the headlines at the beginning of 1990, when he and colleagues Ray Van Kempen and Lindsay Medalia left their senior roles at Marketforce to start 303. They had no clients and Australia was in the middle of its most severe economic downturn for more than a decade. That’s confidence.

A year later, 303 was our Agency of the Year, repeating that success in 1992 and again in 1995 – three times in its first five years.

As head of the AFA in WA from the mid 90s, Wells was a passionate advocate for the local industry and never dodged an issue – that wasn’t his style.

Unfortunately, that forthrightness was also his undoing. 303 started to lose clients and in May 2002 he left the agency after a disagreement with his fellow directors.

CB had a somewhat tempestuous relationship with Wells. We weren’t immune from his criticism, but we appreciated his willingness to go on the record with his forthright views. ‘Wellsy’ certainly wasn’t afraid to stand up and be counted – and we miss that.