30 from 30. The people who have helped shape the industry and Campaign Brief: Steve Pretzel

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.

One of Campaign Brief’s best and most reliable contributors, Steve Pretzel wrote intelligent, prescient columns on media for us for almost eight years, from September 1984.

When he started he was Media Director at the Perth office of multinational D’Arcy MacManus Masius, and had been working in media since 1981. He continued writing his column through a stint as Marketing Services Manager at The Sunday Times for two years, then as Media Director at Johns Ryan Allen and Clemenger before starting his own company in 1992.

Pretzel thought deeply about media matters and many of the predictions he made about the future of the industry were impressively spot-on. He was also in the vanguard of the computer revolution in the local industry, and was amongst the first, if not the first, to use a computer for media planning (a Tandy-TRS80!).

His belief in the potential of computer technology for interactive marketing and communication saw him start his company, Pretzel Logic, in 1992. Unfortunately, that meant we lost him as a columnist soon after, as he devoted more time to developing that business.

And develop it he did – into Perth’s biggest website and online marketing company, employing more than 60 people by 2000. In many respects, Pretzel Logic was ahead of its time particularly in Perth and did a great deal of work pioneering the internet industry here. Many of WA’s largest companies and government agencies used Pretzel Logic for web development and online applications at some stage during the 1990s.

The scaling down and eventual sale of Pretzel Logic to 303 saw Pretzel leave the ‘mainstream’ of the industry but he still consults in the broad marketing and technology field.

Hmm…wonder if he’s got time to write a column for us again.