John Desmond Singleton (born 9 November 1941) is an Australian entrepreneur. He built his success and wealth in the advertising business in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s. He now has diverse investment interests in radio broadcasting, publishing and thoroughbred breeding and racing.
In 2019, Singleton sold his 32.2% stake in
Macquarie Media for A$80 million, to
Nine Entertainment
Nine Entertainment (registered as Nine Entertainment Co. Pty Ltd) is an Australian publicly listed media company with holdings in radio and television broadcasting, newspaper publications and digital media. It uses Nine as its corporate brand ...
.
Early life
Singleton was born in the
Sydney suburb of
Enfield
Enfield may refer to:
Places Australia
* Enfield, New South Wales
* Enfield, South Australia
** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb
** Enfield High School (South Australia)
...
and educated at
Fort Street High School.
Advertising career
He commenced a career in advertising in 1958 as a mail boy in the Sydney office of
J. Walter Thompson and after five years took a creative role at Berry Currie Advertising. Five years hence he was the Creative Director at that agency. In 1968 together with his Art Director partner Dunc McAllan, he started his own agency in Sydney and the pair soon teamed-up with Rob Palmer and Mike Strauss who had an existing small Melbourne shop with media buying accreditation to start Singleton, Palmer and Strauss, McAllan. SPASM opened with offices in Sydney and Melbourne.
SPASM (and Singleton in particular) are notable in the history of Australian advertising for embracing an
ocker
The term "ocker" is used both as a noun and adjective for an Australian who speaks and acts in a rough and uncultivated manner, using Strine, a broad Australian accent.
Definition
Richard Neville defined ockerism as being "about conviviality: ...
voice in their communications at a time when multi-national agency groups were making their presence felt with the advent of strategic planning and British or American-imitating tones of voice. SPASM's clients were largely local Sydney retailers and rather than using polished voices, Singleton's ads embraced the tone of working-class man. A successful campaign was created for the wholesalers David Holdings. The voice-over screamed the retailer's prices before the irritating catchphrase "Where do you get it?". Similar "low-brow" approaches were taken for
Jax Tyres "Jax the ripper Tyremen with the deals" and for Hudsons Timber and Hardware using a toothless old handyman spruiking "'udsons with a haitch". Critics derided this style as ocker advertising but it would pave the way for the later success of the laconic and self-deprecating style of local Australian advertising such as that created by the
Mojo agency in the 1980s.
In 1973 Singleton and his partners sold SPASM to the US
Doyle Dane Bernbach
DDB Worldwide Communications Group LLC, known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies. The international advertising networks ...
and Singleton for a time was managing director of DDB's Australian operations. Working for a large multi-national with overseas owners was a challenge for Singleton and he left the business in 1977 triggering a long non-compete provision in his contract. In 1985 Singleton started up again on his own with "John Singleton Advertising". Sydney stockbroker
Rene Rivkin
Rene Walter Rivkin (6 June 1944 – 1 May 2005) was a Chinese-born Australian entrepreneur, investor, investment adviser, and stockbroker. He was convicted of insider trading in 2003 and sentenced to nine months of periodic detention.
Early li ...
bought a silent-holding in the agency during its development in the 1980s. Singleton developed close ties with the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...
and created the advertising for
Bob Hawke's successful 1983 election campaign. John Singleton Advertising listed publicly, became the Singleton Group Ltd in 1994, then grew to become the STW Communications Group Ltd in 2002 which now owns over fifty Australian marketing and advertising businesses including the Singleton
Ogilvy & Mather
Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based advertising agency, agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging wit ...
ad agency and holds an interest in
J. Walter Thompson's Australian operations. Along the way Singleton acquired personal stakes in ventures including the 1990 buy-out of the Ten Group TV network from receivership and an acquisition in 2000 of Indonesia's No 3 network SCTV. These personal holdings in addition to the success and growth STW Group interests enabled Singleton to amass a massive personal fortune.
In 2019, Singleton sold his 32.2% stake in
Macquarie Media for A$80 million, which
Nine Entertainment
Nine Entertainment (registered as Nine Entertainment Co. Pty Ltd) is an Australian publicly listed media company with holdings in radio and television broadcasting, newspaper publications and digital media. It uses Nine as its corporate brand ...
purchased for $1.46 per share.
Honours and awards
In 1994 Singleton was appointed as a
Member of the Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an Order (distinction), honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarchy of Australia, Queen of Aus ...
for service to the community through his own personal support and fundraising activities more broadly. In 2000 Singleton was awarded the
Australian Sports Medal
The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, offi ...
. In 2009 Singleton was included in the inaugural twelve inductees to ''Ad News'' magazine's, Australian Advertising Hall of Fame.
Personal life
He has eight children from six marriages. He has been married to Margaret Wall (Jack born 1971), Maggie Eckardt,
Belinda Green (Jessie born 1982, Sally born 1984),
Liz Hayes
Elizabeth Hayes (née Ryan, born 23 May 1956) is an Australian reporter, journalist and television presenter.
Career
Hayes is best known for her work as a reporter on ''60 Minutes'', and as a former co-host of ''Today''. Hayes was born in Ta ...
, Jennifer Murrant - de facto (Joe born 1993, Hannah born 1995) and Julie Martin (Dawnie born 1998, Summer born 2000, Daisy born 2006).
Wealth rankings
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
''Original Singo''27 July 2002
History of Sydney AdvertisingBlackman "Post War Advertising in Australia" 1997Singleton's Advertising Age profile 2002
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singleton, John
1941 births
Living people
Australian advertising executives
Australian copywriters
Members of the Order of Australia
Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal
Businesspeople from Sydney
People educated at Fort Street High School