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McCall's exit during WPP's £500M restructuring reflects broader holding-company talent flight to independent studios capturing luxury-brand project spend.
£500 million
cost-reduction program consolidating agency operations into four core units…
18 percent
year-over-year according to R3's January report
12 percent
in the twelve months ending September 2024
4 percent
over the same period per the Australian Association of…
Bec McCall left her group creative director post at HERO to launch We Were Here, an independent creative studio based in Sydney. The departure arrives three weeks after WPP announced a £500 million cost-reduction program consolidating agency operations into four core units by 2028.
McCall spent the past several years building creative teams at HERO and previously at agencies including The Monkeys and BMF, contributing to campaigns that collected metal at Cannes, D&AD, and The One Show. She joins a cohort of senior Australian creative directors who have launched independent shops since mid-2023, including former Clemenger BBDO partners and ex-Special Group leads. We Were Here will operate without retainer clients in its first six months, focusing instead on project-based work with brands seeking creative direction outside traditional agency structures.
The timing matters for three reasons. First, WPP's restructuring will compress reporting lines and reduce duplication across its Australian network, which includes VMLY&R, Ogilvy, and Wunderman Thompson subsidiaries. That compression typically pushes senior creatives toward smaller P&Ls or exits. Second, luxury and lifestyle brands have increased their allocation to independent studios by 18 percent year-over-year according to R3's January report, driven by demand for faster turnarounds and direct access to senior talent. Third, Australia's independent agency sector grew revenue by 12 percent in the twelve months ending September 2024, outpacing holding-company shop growth of 4 percent over the same period per the Australian Association of National Advertisers.
McCall's studio model prioritizes creative direction and brand strategy over full-service capabilities. She will not pitch for integrated retainers or build permanent production teams. Instead, We Were Here will assemble project-specific collaborators from a vetted roster of producers, designers, and strategists. This approach mirrors the operating model of London-based Studio Sutherl& and New York's Mythology, both of which launched in the past eighteen months with similar senior-talent-only structures. Brands working with these studios report 25 to 40 percent lower costs compared to holding-company equivalents on creative-direction engagements, though without the media-buying leverage or tech-stack integration larger shops provide.
Family offices and luxury hospitality developers should watch three follow-on events. First, whether We Were Here secures a founding client from Australia's premium hotel sector, where independent studios have won six of the past eight major brand-refresh mandates since 2022. Second, if former HERO clients follow McCall—an indicator of personal relationship strength versus institutional stickiness. Third, whether WPP Australia promotes an internal replacement or recruits externally, signaling how aggressively the network will defend senior creative talent amid consolidation.
We Were Here's first client announcement is expected before the end of March 2025.
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