Undervalued by senior management, dogged by group under-achievement and creatively frustrated - the reasons behind the departure of one of Kevin Murphy's favourite Liverpool midfielders, Xabi Alonso, seem clear, but he'll be a loss nonetheless.
Talking on the day the Spanish midfielder confirms he is leaving Anfield for Real Madrid, and the country he calls home, lifelong Liverpool fan Murphy fleetingly puts the vision of his own new role as global client and business development director at Mindshare to one side.
"It's a sad day and he'll be missed," he says. "But it's no big shock after Rafa [Benitez] tried to replace him with [Gareth] Barry last year. You have to sympathise if he wants to go."
Sitting in his new WPP office, just 20 months after being named joint managing director of Publicis Groupe's Zed Media, the 37-year-old digital specialist is clearly looking for a fresh start of his own.
"Being an MD had long been an ambition of mine and I was thrilled to get to that stage, and earlier than I expected," says Murphy. "But I realised it was planning and the theory of marketing that really excites me. I always felt most alive during new business pitches or client strategy review meetings.
"Invariably, when you're managing director, there's a certain amount of admin-related work, which I didn't enjoy nearly as much."
Murphy's reign at Zed was not made any easier by the worst advertising recession in living memory. After two bumper years before 2008, in which then managing director Greg Grimmer more than doubled billings and trebled his team of specialists, Zed has struggled to build new business.
Worse still, the UK agency has also failed to retain some of its most lucrative accounts, often being a victim of circumstance. Capital One dropped Zed at the start of the year after a shift in its marketing strategy; Tiscali scaled back its media spend significantly before being sold to The Carphone Warehouse's Talk Talk; and insurance giant Zurich called a £100m global review, eventually awarding the account to Mindshare this summer.
Growth targets
Ambitious goals set in January 2008 by Murphy and joint managing director Paul Constantine, to make the agency known as more than a digital offering and to ultimately break into the country’s top 10 ranking, still seem a long way from materialising. Zed actually slipped back to 20th position, according to 2008 Nielsen data, following a 13% drop in billings to £51m.
"The first year we hit all our growth targets, but Zed felt the pinch of the credit crunch, which slowed growth," Murphy concedes.
His predecessor, Grimmer, not known for his reticence, deconstructs things further still.
"As Napoleon once said, ‘don't give me great generals, give me lucky generals'," he says. "Kevin was unfortunate in the way things turned out, but he's gone off to be a specialist again and that's probably no bad thing. He can spread his magic dust and let others handle the administrative side."
In his new role, Murphy will be responsible for developing Mindshare's direct and digital product and client offering at UK and European level. He will report to Lucy Stafford, managing director of Mindshare Direct in the UK, and worldwide chief strategy officer Nick Emery on an international level.
After months of discussion, Stafford admits she is "delighted" to have Murphy on board. "We've always wanted to have a European and then global focus on direct, and working so closely with international markets on Zurich clearly established the need," she says.
Murphy says the performance of Mindshare Direct under the leadership of Stafford, which reported 71% year-on-year growth last year, was instrumental in his decision to return to the WPP fold.
Similarly, Mindshare's strong reputation for planning and the chance to be part of GroupM's quality of systems in direct marketing, all helped reassure the former Zed managing director that it was time to swap sides.
It also represents something of a homecoming for Murphy, having started his agency career, and passion for econometrics, on the playing fields of The Media Business, which went on to become WPP's powerhouse MediaCom.
Familiar faces
The network still houses many friendly faces, not least the man who first trained him, David Kyffin, now managing director of direct digital at GroupM, and the person who hired him at Zed, Jeff Hyams, now chief strategy officer at MEC EMEA.
Imbued with a new sense of purpose, Murphy is relishing stepping out in his new team colours. "Digital media is going to take direct response into its golden age," he says.
"As more of the traditional world goes digital, it is creating more data. The planners who adapt most and accommodate this, and the agencies that have the vision to see that investment is needed to tackle the tidal wave of information and pull out the key nuggets, are going to be the ones generating the most ROI for clients."
For what it's worth, Murphy fears Liverpool could slip further to fourth place this season, while Real Madrid's new team of all-stars appears primed for glory.
CV
2009
Global client and business development director, Mindshare
2008
Joint managing director, Zed Media
2004
Board planning director, Zed
2002
Account director, Initiative Media
2001
Travelling
1998
Group head, MediaCom Direct
1996
Media executive, The Media Business
1993
Marketing executive, Admiral Insurance
Lives
Rugby, Warwickshire
Born
Wales
Family
Married to Mariel, with son Joseph, aged two and a half
Loves
Writing and Liverpool FC
Favourite media
The Times, The Guardian, Daily Mirror, MadMen, Lost, 30 Rock,
Star Wars, Godfather, Taxi Driver
Murphy on...
Econometrics: It's not only key for direct, but also justifies brand investment, especially in this economic environment. The boundaries are becoming blurred. Every TV ad will have a website and every brand should at least have its brand terms covered on search, which takes us into direct marketing territory.
Pitching: I love the energy of pitches. I love how much you learn in a short time, the teamwork and camaraderie during those intense periods. And the buzz you get if you win is fantastic. It's the bread and butter of the agency world and what it's all about for me.
The joint MD role at Zed: When Paul and I were appointed, neither of us was 100% ready to take the job solo. Over time, as both of us developed, the company needed to grow as it had been over the previous five years for us to feel we were still growing as MDs.
Writing: I write a column for our local National Childbirth Trust magazine, called Head-wetter's corner. It talks about issues like the battle to make sure your son supports the right football team.
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