About me
Things didn't start well.
My career in advertising began after careers in banking, travel and tourism, video and music store management, theatre arts and rock-n-roll fell flat.
Embarking on what is probably a world record for unpaid agency internship (14-months), I eventually landed a gig.
Cutting my teeth on new home brochures and health insurance flyers, it didn't take long to work out I had to go looking for creative opportunities. Five years on and a small collection of local awards later, I also worked out that I wanted to get out of Perth. Next stop, DDB Auckland.
The pace, the clients, the people I was sitting next to - everything was faster, bigger, better. I worked on everything - VW, Cadbury, SKY, Stella Artois, McDonald's and Lotteries New Zealand. And I picked up a few awards - Cannes, D&AD, One Show, AdFest, LIA, AWARD, Caxtons and Axis.
Four years in and I wanted another challenge. So I joined arguably the world's best digital agency - R/GA.
As Lead Writer I was fortunate enough to collaborate with the New York, San Francisco and London offices, working on a range of global accounts (Nike, Mastercard, Unilever) and was instrumental in helping win the WaterAid and Rip Curl global pitches.
Come 2012 and after five years away from Australia, I headed over to Sydney as Ass.Creative Director at McCann, which soon turned into Creative Director. While here I helped steer the agency through some difficult times, while also winning New Zealand's Fair Go awards two years running (a public voted competition for best TV ad of the year).
Just over a year in the position, the opportunity to work with Damon Stapleton at Saatchi&Saatchi came up. I couldn't really refuse. Since April 2013 I have worked on nearly every account, including Toyota, St.George Bank and The National Art School, as well as being involved in numerous successful pitches. I've got a much better view, too.
I also sit on the AWARD Committee and co-head AWARD School.
Sector Experience
My Work
SEE ALL WORKMended Murals
- BRAND:
- Vaseline
- AGENCY:
- VML New York
Positions
Head of Copy
Head
Winning New Zealand’s Best Ad of 2012 (for MasterCard) may have played a hand in that decision, too. Not sure.
Apart having to oversee more work and attend more meetings, the position allowed me to establish a creative internship program, from which we hired a number of full-time junior creatives and designers.
overseeing, presenting and producing work across all accounts including
MasterCard, Coca Cola, X-Box and Lion Nathan Foods.
Pitch wise, I was instrumental in developing the creative work that won the Hitachi Australia pitch.
And in between all of this I put McCann's hand up for AWRD School, tutoring in the second half of 2012, and then co-heading AWARD School from 2013.
Senior Copywriter & Creative Group Head
Responsible for producing and overseeing above the line work for SKY as well as working on all DDB accounts, including McDonald’s, Volkswagen, Cadbury, Stihl, New Zealand Lotteries, ANZ Bank, Australian Tourism Commission, Heinz/Watties Foods, Clorox, AMI Insurance and National Foundation for the Deaf.
Attended and presented at DDB Regional Management Conference in Sydney, 2009.
Regularly present at new employee inductions on the role and operation of the creative department.
Attended a variety of professional development courses - Public Speaking, Creative Development Techniques.
Outdoor jury member at 2010 AdFest in Tokyo, Japan.
Copywriter
I also undertook a variety of proactive projects which brought new busines into the agency (Women’s Refuge, Landrover, Guitar School).
