Hasta La Creative!

“Brand builder, leader and consummate strategic thinker” Kofi Amoo-Gottfried joins FCB Garfinkel today as chief strategic officer, replacing Sara Bamber. He will work in tandem with chief executive officer Lee Garfinkel.

Amoo-Gottfried joins FCB Garfinkel from Bacardi Rums, where he worked as a global communications director out of London. The Ghana native “created and launched the first majority-owned network agency on the African continent” while working as a managing director at Publicis West Africa. He began his career at Leo Burnett Chicago as an account supervisor and communications manager, where he worked alongside current FCB Worldwide CEO Carter Murray. The team later reunited while at Publicis. Amoo-Gottfried cited Murray as a key motivator for joining the agency. “I have a lot of faith in his ability to turn places around, to inspire and motivate,” Amoo-Gottfried said. “We are very similar. I, too, am all about creating a culture that brings people together to focus on creating incredible work, and having fun doing it.”

Amoo-Gottfried also worked as a senior strategic planner at Wieden+Kennedy, where he crafted the strategy for Nike’s global Beijing Olympics campaign. In January, he was named to Ad Age‘s “40 Under 40” list of young marketing stars. Lee Garfinkel says Amoo-Gottfried “doesn’t know where planning ends and creative begins, and that’s a formula for success.”

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While we await the next Carter Murray memo to Draftfcb staff, Grey makes a comeback with yet another pair of additions to the group creative director position. The New York office of the latter WPP agency has now welcomed  Nick Pringle and Steve Wakelam as GCDs. The Cannes Gold Lion-winning duo hail from DDB Sydney, where they were creative directors on Volkswagen. Anyhow, Tor yet again has word on the new arrivals.

“I am psyched to say they are now GCDs at Grey, running the Febreze, Ally and P&G Global Corporate accounts.

Friends for the past 15 years, Nick (left/bald) and Steve (right/hair) have worked together, moved countries together and had a baby together. Well, Nick and his wife had the baby, Steve was nearby with hot towels. As for their advertising careers, they have taken a less than traditional route. In fact they both started out as account guys, decided they wanted to make stuff, moved into creative and spent 8 years in various London agencies including Leo Burnett, BBH and CHI. They then packed up and headed to Australia, where they spent five years as the hottest team Down Under, running accounts like Volkswagen, Virgin, Wrigley, Levi’s, McDonald’s and Boag’s Draught. It was in Australia that they developed a powerful integrated approach to building brands through all things digital, mobile and experiential as well as film and print. Next it was on to NYC, where they spent the past 6 months as GCDs helping start up and launch Goodby Silverstein’s office here in the city.

Nick is a wheeler-dealer urban art collector, an averagely good swimmer and has recently taken up woodworking. He grew up in Kent, England. His first introduction to the business was packing 20,000 copies of ‘Ogilvy on Advertising’ in a factory in Maidstone. After walking out with a copy concealed in his pants, he decided to get a job as an account man in London. His time as an account guy at DMB&B ended after three years when he moved into the creative department. For all of 2012 Nick was ranked the number 2 creative in Australia. I think this means they actually rank their creatives in Australia, which is weird. But hey, if you’re gonna be ranked, being number 2 in the entire country ain’t bad.

Steve was once the drummer in a band that got to number 175 in the UK charts (selling 72 singles), has been halfway through writing a book for 5 years now, and has a fetish for watches. He grew up in Marlow, England. After a short and unremarkable stint as an account manager, he switched to being a creative. Always a keen writer, he ignored his passion and became an art director instead. The rest, as they say, is history. He’s since picked up every award known to man, and for all of 2012 Steve was ranked Australia’s number 1 creative. This, I’m sure, pisses off Nick to no end.

These guys have helped build smart brands through all medias, while cleaning up in all the major award shows including Grand Prix at the CLIOS, Grand Prix at the Spikes, four yellow pencils at D&AD, and three golds at One Show to add to their five golds at Cannes. And that’s just in the last few years.

I strongly suggest you check out their work at wakelampringle.com, then come say hello to our new team.

But wait, don’t say ‘hello.’ They’re English and kind of Australian. So say something like ‘Good day, matey!’ or ‘Cheerio,’ which Wikipedia says is considered friendly and more informal.

Tor.”

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You might’ve heard this yesterday, but here’s the verbatim memo from now-official Draftfcb global CEO, Carter Murray, regarding staff. You might have read about Elyssa Phillips‘s appointment as global creative manager, but there’s also Jonathan Harries. From what we’ve been told by sources in the know, Harries until recently had been planning to leave the agency at the end of this year. As part of that transition, we’ve been told that Harries, despite being named executive advisor, global creative back in Oct. 2011 at DFCB, was still parting ways. Well, now what we’ve got some clarification on the exec, who, among other things, is consulting on Mondelez at Draftfcb and is behind the agency nabbing the Beiersdorf account, eventually running it globally after it was consolidated with Draftfcb following the pitch against TBWA at the end of 2010. Here you go from the Murray himself:

“To Everyone at Draftfcb
Re Two Great People

One of the enjoyable parts of this job is recognizing great people. This note is about two individuals who have worked incredibly hard at this agency for many years and whom I have asked to take on more responsibility on behalf of all of us.

I do not know how to work without a strong creative partner and, more importantly, I do not believe that this agency should operate for one day without a Global Chief Creative Officer. In Jonathan Harries we have someone who can do this role flawlessly: someone who respects, attracts and motivates great talent. Jonathan is also someone whom many clients have expressed great respect for over his career.

In my early conversations with Jonathan, his passion for this company and his care for our people and our clients run deep. I have found that we also have similar points of view on great work, and on the importance for us to get this consistently out the door in every office.

Looking forward, Jonathan will lead the charge, with my full partnership and support, to make sure that we have an unfair share of creative talent, that we are unwavering in making certain that we never rest in getting the best creative solutions in front of our clients, and that we apply our creativity more effectively to build our client base further.

The other person that I have asked to step into a larger role is Elyssa Phillips.

Elyssa is someone who has worked tirelessly at FCB and later Draftfcb for 20+ years.  Most recently she has managed to help build the creative network in the company.  Awards are not everything, but they are a good measure of progress, and if you speak to anyone in our creative community, you will hear that she has been a pivotal part of the agency doubling its performance in Cannes for the last three years.

Since meeting Elyssa, she has always spoken of and put others before herself. She has demonstrated the hardest thing in a global role – to make a difference through earned respect and persuasion, not through force of title.

Elyssa knows and loves this agency and, together with her very broad skill set, is a huge asset for us. So I have asked her to become our Chief of Staff.

Elyssa will be a sounding board for me on key decisions and also a driving force to make sure that I and the global leadership team are as effective as possible in our jobs. She will also remain in her role to help make sure that we are relentless in constantly wanting to improve our creative product and in managing our network’s creative community.

There is a lot to do in the coming months and I believe that having these two people in these roles will make us a stronger and better place. If you have a moment, I hope you will have a chance to congratulate them.

Best as always,

Carter”

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And thus, the Matt Anthony era at Y&R begins. In what we’ve been told is his first major announcement since taking over for Carter Murray at said agency as North American president/CEO earlier this year, Anthony has announced that Y&R’s Austin-based SicolaMartin will now be known as Y&R Austin. As a result, Y&R’s North American network now spans five markets, which also includes likes of Y&R Midwest, West  sorry, California and New York.

In a statement, Anthony, who joined Y&R after spending nearly two decades at WPP sibling VML, which he was a founding partner of, says, “We are excited to make this formal integration of the Austin agency to our North America network. The truth is we have worked alongside SicolaMartin as partners within Y&R for many years.  While the transition will be seamless and easy, its impact will be powerful.  Y&R Austin has a great offering, fully integrated capabilities, and a strong culture. Their clients will benefit from access to our talent and resources.  But it is also clear that Y&R clients in other markets will benefit from their expertise and experience.”

We’ve been told that the 28-year-old shop formerly known as SicolaMartin, which has shared clients with its parent including Dell and SanDisk since joining as a subsidiary in 2001, will house a staff of approximately 50. Cherie Cox, who has been with SicolaMartin for 20 years and most currently serves as its CEO, will keep the same title at Y&R Austin.

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