Australian advertising agency
SMART![]() |
| Company type | Independently Owned Creative Agency |
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| Industry | Advertising agency
Marketing
Branding |
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| Founded | Sydney, Australia (2000) |
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| Founders | Ben Lilley, Paul Findlay and John Mescall |
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| Headquarters | |
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Number of locations | 3 |
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| Services | Brand Advertising, Communication Strategy, Social Media and Digital Services |
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SMART is an independent Australian advertising agency with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. SMART was launched in 2000 as a boutique creative agency. Over the next decade the business grew to become Australia's largest independent agency [1] and was described by AdNews Magazine as "one of the best known independent advertising agency success stories in the country".[2] SMART's founders created the most awarded campaign in the history of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity,[3] Dumb Ways to Die.
Agency principals
SMART was established by a group of ex-multinational agency professionals seeking to create "a strategic and creative alternative to traditional agency thinking".[2] The agency's founding partners were Creative Directors Ben Lilley, Paul Findlay and John Mescall. Lilley is a media commentator, particularly in the area of youth marketing,.[4] He was named one of AdNews's forty top industry professionals under forty and his agency became the most awarded in the world.[5]
The founding partners were each under thirty when they set up the agency. Marketing magazine B&T named SMART "the New Age ad agency" in its Agency of the Year awards.[6]
In 2011, McCann Worldgroup acquired SMART and replaced the management of McCann Worldgroup Australia with the management team from SMART.[7] In 2020, SMART was reacquired back from McCann Worldgroup by Ben Lilley, who runs it as an independent advertising agency once again today.[8]
Clients and awards
SMART was named B&T Agency of the Year[6] and has featured in the Business Review Weekly Fast100 list of Australia's fastest growing businesses.[9] The agency is known for taking a selective approach to its clients, focusing on "blue-chip" creative advertisers.[2]
SMART was appointed by Australian brand Mambo,[10] a client who had previously refused to work with advertising agencies. It has also undertaken several unconventional stunts, including sending dwarves to the headquarters of Peugeot in an effort to secure a spot on the car maker's agency pitch list. A stunt that involved agency staff disguising themselves as takeaway delivery drivers to post recruitment advertisements inside competing agencies also raised eyebrows.
References
