Levi Slavin promoted to creative director at Colenso BBDO, Steve Clark joins as planner
Colenso BBDO has promoted Levi Slavin to creative director and lured Steve Clark to the role of Strategic Planner from a strategic planning role with Mojo.
Slavin has been promoted less than six months after he returned to Colenso as deputy CD from Saatchi & Saatchi London, joining fellow Colenso CDs Steve Cochran and Aaron Turk.
Says Colenso ECD Nick Worthington: “It’s great to have Levi on board; he has been here less than six months and is already making a huge difference.”
Levi, an Aussie originally from Perth, worked at Colenso in 2006, andleft a legacy of iconic work like Trumpet ‘Undies’ and thelaunch of Frank soft drink. He then moved to Saatchi & SaatchiAuckland and has spent the last two years at Saatchi & SaatchiLondon, working on campaigns for T-Mobile, Carlsberg, P&G andCadbury. Most recently he completed the first global campaign inGuinness’ history, working with director Antoine Bardou-Jacquet on acampaign that has run in USA, China, Africa, Ireland and the UK.
Clark started in the advertising business in the mid 80’s in London atLowe Howard Spink in the days when Frank Lowe and Geoff Howard Spinkran the business and Lowe was a creative powerhouse.
Havingworked for 4 years as a media planner he jumped at the chance to joinBBH as a media manager in 1990, working on Levis, Shell and G shock andwinning awards for work in TV, Outdoor and print. He progressed throughthe ranks to become a group media director.
When BBH openedtheir own media agency in the late 90’s, Clark became a foundingpartner looking after their biggest accounts One2One, Cadbury TreborBassett, WHSmith and Levis.
By 2001 he felt that it was timefor a break so took what was to be a year off to travel the world. Oneyear quickly became nearly four before Clark rejoined the world ofadvertising, and established channel planning at Mojo.
For the lastyear he has been working in strategic planning at Mojo under MartinYeoman.
Clark’s move from Mojo to Colenso will see him workingalongside his good mate and former colleague, Colenso BBDO ECD NickWorthington, who he used to work with at Mojo and BBH London.
Says Colenso BBDO planning director James Hurman: “Luckily for me,Steve’s stepped out of channel specialisation and into the broaderplanning world. But his unique pedigree in channel planning does makehim a brilliant compliment to the planning team and to the creativeprocess.”
Says Clark: “Colenso is a recognised leader of innovative, creativecomms and an agency that likes to push the boundaries. It’s anexciting place, creating great work that’s recognised around the world.”
28 Comments
Living the dream.
I thought he was Creative Director. Why wouldn’t he be?
Yeasty!
Well done.
But I have to giggle at the generous way the English way hand out CD titles. Kind of devalues the currency.
But hey, I suppose that’s how it’s done in England. Which is just like NZ. Innit?
And with all this expat culture, us Kiwis are the only losers.
Now the new regime at Saatchis are looking around, but:
http://jobs.brandrepublic.com/job/380394/creative-team-new-zealand
No balls to place an ad here, will look anywhere else. Very disappointing Mr Harrison!
The Brits aren’t really that willy nilly with CD titles. Remember many of the agencies in London are three to four hundred people, so many do have group head systems. If you want titles, look to the USA. Now they love them. But even in NZ, there are a fair few CD titles. And there’s barely an agency bigger than 100 or so people. Colenso, DDB, FCB, Mojo all have a number of CDs.
As for the the hiring of overseas people, it is kind of sad. But then, that’s the way it’s been for a long time in NZ (and many other places). Instead of creatives here complaining about the situation, maybe we should be knocking on Dylan’s door letting him know how good we are.
By the way, 9.38, how do you know that recruitment ad is for Saatchi’s, it doesn’t mention the agency anywhere?
Surely the lack of Kiwi CDs is even more depressing. Which is surely what leads to expats being hired lower down. If staying in NZ isn’t working, perhaps you should try a stint overseas (even if brief). That seems to be the quickest way of getting up the ladder.
It’s for Saatchis. They’ve knocked on the door of every creative in Auckland, tried to hire, but failed. They tried Aussie. But word about the agency had spread like wildfire. Now its time to call creatives living in the UK.
There isn’t a huge incentive as a young creative to go to Saatchi and Saatchi NZ, mainly because ‘International’ has made a mandate that you cannot enter award shows – other than Cannes or your local show. Which is a bit of a problem when you’re trying to build your book.
Saatchis has to tread carefully here. Employ too many UK creatives and many large NZ brands will refuse to work with them – there are plenty of other options out there whom claim to know NZ, how it thinks, and more importantly, the humour.
All up, this sort of thing has always happened in NZ. Every time a UK CD arrives they all follow the same game plan: Employ UK creative, make the structure like a London agency, instill processes like a London agency, write UK ads for the NZ market. Then wonder why the clients leave.
It’s just more of the same. How sad.
There are plenty of NZ CDs. Just not in NZ.
Elementary my dear 3.25. Saatchi wins Sanitarium, a while later ad appears, and note the “Specialism: FMCG”. Hey all Kiwi teams out there… respond to that ad straight away. Let’s get things cooking in this town.
How about hiring some suits and clients from London. That’d make us all look better.
it’s because kiwi clients don’t mind being told what to do by a pom – but if a kiwi – that is, an equal, said the same thing they wouldn’t believe it. the accent gives them some kind of sick authority. nga mihi.
Our of interest, who are the “…plenty of NZ CDs. Just not in NZ”?
Offhand, there’s Angus Hannah in Sydney, Todd McCracken in HCM, Andy Fackrell in Amsterdam, and Carl Van Wijk in Japan,. That’s offhand. I’d be mildly surprised if there weren’t more.
8.16 – “write UK ads for the NZ market. Then wonder why the clients leave”
So what’s a UK ad?
There’s Andrew Tinning, ECD at Marketforce, Perth and Malcolm Poynton, European CCO for SapientNitro (based in London).
A UK ad is a VW ad – which is what Saatchis will soon be churning out. Or something very similar to that.
Ian Brown in HCM. Peter Vegas in Abu Dhabi.
Josh Moore at US Sydney
On what clients 9:04 AM and with which creatives?
Angus is an Aussie.
There’s Bridget Taylor at BBDO Singapore.
Are you sure Angus is an Aussie? I though he came from down Wellington way?
He’s not from Wellington. He’s from the Hawkes bay.
Thanks. Still in NZ but.
That’s 10 so far. I wonder if that counts as ‘plenty’? I think it’s more than are working inside NZ though, isn’t it?
3:26 – Bang on. Look what happened to the All Whites when they finally realised a Kiwi coach wasn’t so bad afterall.
CD spotting.
You boring fuckers.
If you spent as much time on ideas as you do bemoaning the world for being so cruel to poor kiwis you wouldn’t be concerned about it.
9.59 – Hey Mr Pompous Pommy Arsehole… What did you amount to before you came out here? Guess you won’t be going anywhere else for a while then. Don’t worry, were getting pretty used to you guys outstaying your welcome!
The prize for missing the point goes to … 9.59.
I mentioned there were plenty of NZ CDs in response to whinging that an NZer can’t get a CD gig. Well we can if we lift out sights from our tiny back yard.
Still I guess at least it means you’ve won somthing this year.
Talk about miss the point you dumb bastards, the big news in this article is Steve! Nice one mate, you’re a gem & i hope they’re good enough for you! All the best & when are we going to have that beer?
Cheers
Abe