30 from 30. The people who have helped shape the industry and Campaign Brief: Michelle Blakeley
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.
The lack of female senior creatives has often come up as an industry discussion point over the past 15 years. But many followers of Campaign Brief today wouldn’t realise that in the 1980s and early 1990s our industry did have a female creative director – and she was one of the best that Perth has seen.
Michelle Blakeley teamed up with the fledgling J&B Advertising’s Mark Johnson and Brian Bowley (pictured below) to form Johnson Bowley and Blakeley in 1984 – the year Campaign Brief launched. Very quickly the agency gathered momentum and grew from a tiny start up with six people into one of Perth most exciting agencies with a staff of 30.
In 1988 JB&B were Perth’s top agency having cleaned up at the Golden Key television awards (Perth’s most prestigious awards at the time). And this was despite the agency having a largely retail based client list that included Metro Brick, IKEA, Beaurepairs, All Seasons Resorts and two heavy retail accounts called Bunnings Retail, and Bunnings Forest Products.
This was the heyday of big brands and big brand campaigns in Perth so it was a great credit to Blakeley that the agency dominated the Golden Key awards with great work on these largely retail accounts.
That same year the agency took out the inaugural Campaign Brief Agency of the Year award against very strong competition from Perth’s more established agencies the likes of Marketforce, Jenkin Morgan Aitken, DMB&B, FCB Shorter, Mojo MDA, Ogilvy & Mather, Clemenger, McCann Erickson and Baynham.
At MJB&B Blakeley built a great creative department filled with experience – Jana Benjafield, Ian Whyte – and youth – Neil Weeks, Elizabeth Lucke, Wayne Henderson, Phillip Rowell – plus others. The work ethic open, free and fun. The whole creative department got a look at every brief and Blakeley was always encouraging, accessible and would fight for the creative department and disciplined in her love for the creative product.
Blakeley’s strength was she was a great creative thinker who wouldn’t compromise if she thought the campaign was on strategy for the client. She had a great rapport with clients and often would reject client approaches if they didn’t fit the philosophy of the agency… And as far as CB can remember she’s been the only person ever to convince Bunnings to do a brand campaign! And it was a great one.
As an agency JB&B was the place to go for Friday night drinks. The three partners bought the old run-down Maltings Theatre in Stuart Street Northbridge and totally renovated it into a fun, funky agency. It was Perth’s first ad agency to look like an ad agency when every other resembled accountancy firms. The big photographic studio out back of the agency hosted many debauched parties.
Blakeley also was a huge contributor to the industry and Campaign Brief. She loved seeing great work come out of other Perth agencies and worked tirelessly on establishing the PADC (Perth Art Directors Club) and kicking off the first awards show. She was to take on the PADC presidency for a few years before leaving JB&B just before the merger with Martin Billings to form MJB&B.
Following 5 years working in Sydney at large agencies like Lintas, Blakeley returned to Perth and went back to university studied to be an architect. A career change probably inspired by her involvement in the design of the JB&B office. She is now a senior architect at a top Fremantle-based firm.
Campaign Brief’s greatest memories of Blakeley is a three year period of fantastic Friday long lunches in various hotspots in Northbridge and West Perth. It started as a Michelle Blakeley, Terry Stone, Kim Shaw and Matt Eastwood gathering, which then extended to include Ronnie Samuel and Dale Simmonds over time. Great days!
As a friend so eloquently put it to Campaign Brief recently in a discussion on Blakeley’s career in Perth: “Michelle was a ballsy, sexy chick who really knew her stuff”.
3 Comments
The year that MJB&B dominated the Golden Keys was memorable for Michelle’s many acceptance speeches on the night. It seemed she was not expecting so many awards, and each time she took the podium she was significantly more refreshed than the previous time. By the final award of the night Michelle was, as the saying goes, ‘tired and emotional’ but never lost her dignity or her good humour. Good times.
In 1987 I entered the industry landing my first job at JB&B as a meek 17 year-old accounts clerk. I was inspired by Michelle’s passion and professionalism from day one. I remember asking Bols that if I finished my job early could I work in the art room and he agreed. I would get into work early to finish everything and race upstairs to work in the art room and creative department. Michelle was an incredible leader and an inspirational role model to young women in the industry. She is one of the reasons to why I made a career in this industry.
I had the pleasure of working with Michelle in the 70,s and felt an early whisper of a driven, restless person wanting to achieve but not yet sure of where and how. It is a delight to read she has reached great heights in the most competitive ad market and that her talent and drive have combined to stimulate and inspire some such as those who have posted.