Andrew Scott returns to NZ to replace Whybin\ TBWA Auckland’s Todd McLeay as CEO; former Joy ECD Christy Peacock joins as new ECD
After eight years leading Whybin\TBWA Melbourne, Andrew Scott (near left) is returning home to New Zealand to lead the Auckland office together with Christy Peacock (far left) who has been appointed as the agency’s new executive creative director.
Scott and Peacock join a strong management team including David McIndoe (executive planning director), Che Tamahori (MD, Digital Arts Network), Robyn Budd (client services director) and Jean Arlove (chief operating officer).
Scott will be succeeding Todd McLeay, who has resigned from the agency, as CEO. Peacock will be filling the vacant ECD position after a six-month international search. McLeay will be working with both Scott and Peacock through a transition period and will finish up at the agency in November.
Says Paul Bradbury, CEO, Whybin\TBWA Australia and New Zealand: “I would like to thank Todd for his leadership and professionalism over the last three years.”
During his tenure at Whybin\TBWA Melbourne, Scott guided the agency through a strong period of growth. Staff numbers tripled; revenue more than doubled, winning major clients such as ANZ Bank, McCain, Origin and Medibank; the agency also saw a surge in creative rankings, including a Cannes Grand Prix for ANZ ‘GayTMs’. Most recently the Melbourne office was awarded Asia Pacific Agency of the Year at the New York Festivals.
Says Scott Whybin, chairman, Whybin\TBWA: “Scotty is a builder. He always has been. Perhaps it’s that entrepreneurial Kiwi thing, but Andrew is happiest when the business has almost unreasonable plans for growth ahead of it.”
Says Scott: “I’m excited about the opportunity to head back to New Zealand and Whybin\TBWA Auckland is a great agency with some outstandingly talented people. With the combination of the digital and UX offering of DAN (Digital Arts Network), our earned media offering via Eleven and the power of Disruption, we are in a great space.”
Peacock joins the Auckland office with outstanding credentials. Most recently he was with M&C Saatchi Sydney relaunching the Commonwealth Bank with the next phase of CAN, the ‘We could have been anything that we wanted to be’ campaign. Shortly before that he was executive creative director at Joy Australia and New Zealand, an agency he was instrumental in re-inventing from the ground up.
During his career Peacock has been head of art/creative director at Fallon in North America. Between the years 1998 – 2009 he was creative director at Publicis Mojo Melbourne and also creative director at DDB Melbourne. He’s also worked at several agencies in London including BMP DDB Needham and Mother.
Says Bradbury: “We are excited that Christy will be joining us to creatively lead our Auckland office. Fresh from delivering some damn fine work in financial services for M&C Saatchi, Christy is very aligned with us on what it will take to get Whybin\TBWA Auckland back to the top echelon of creative agencies in Asia Pacific. Christy has strong experience on Trans-Tasman accounts and had created some of the most effective tourism work in the world for Tourism Victoria and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
“Lots to build on and it’s going to be lots of fun to work with Andrew and Christy and the management team in Auckland over the next few years. Watch this space.”
21 Comments
“Staff numbers tripled; revenue more than doubled”.
The previous management took a great creative agency and turned it into a shit shop.
Scott finally acted on the mistake he made three years ago. Terrible appointment.
That experiment proved to be less than successful. Never get a client in to run an agency.
Previous management should be consigned to the dustbin of failed experiments under the title of ‘Clients should never run ad Agencies’.
Perhaps they can start by coaxing NZ Tourism to come back through the doors again.
Fun times being a creative at TBWA, hope your books are up to date.
the last thing tourism want is an advertising agency. and they are not alone.
Good luck to Whybins, smart move – but maybe a bit too late. A lot of talented people have left under his watch.
@Melvin – they were talking about the Melbourne office (if that escaped you).
As an ex employee I want nothing more than to see the agency make a comeback – it’s not unthinkable. Remember there was a time when nobody wanted to work at Y&R – now look at it (co-incidentally re-invigorated by another ex ECD of Joy).
Cut them some slack, there are worse places to work in this town. At least the agency has legacy, still has some good people, and a challenger spirit.
The previous ECDs had much more to do with the exoduses than the CEO, and you’ll have to ask yourself who put them in place… hint – it wasn’t a Kiwi…
As one of the gazillion people who left in the last two years, I can assure you it was because it was an agency with no focus on doing creative work. All the CD’s wanted to but management just wanted to have meeting and talk about all of the CEOs management knew and how much profit they’d make.
We’d love to award the business to TBWA. They’ve been dead certs for the business since the pitch began……. only they’re actually all piss and wind with no idea. Sorry boss. But we need ideas. Hello Republik.
New management definitely needed.
If the CD’s wanted it and the management team didn’t want it, the the first thing the new team has to do is fire the management team – no matter the legacy issues. If you’re a creative agency then the purpose of a management team is to propel an agency forward, not hunker down and act like Ogilvy.
Heads should roll, start with the management team.
Were you the ECD @Dodo. If so you must know I left because of you! And so did many others.
strategy A talent B+ momentum B creative leadership D-
Christy you are the missing link. And everybody at Whybin knows it.
If you left the agency and blamed the ECD for restricting your creativity, then you’ve only yourself to blame. A great idea us a great idea. Quit playing victim and take responsibility for your lack of career momentum.
Good luck with your future, if your fortunate there’ll be a large volume of people to blame for your failures.
I suspect, much like your aforementioned CEO, you didn’t leave by choice. But if it makes you feel better, keep telling yourself you had a choice.
Dodo didn’t actually say they left the agency, nor did they disclose why, even if they did leave.
Restricting creativity is an oddly specific reason, not sure what the even means. The reasons will vary wildly for different people, but the exodus was plainly clear.
From what I observed this had much more to do with the ECDs than the CEO. But if the creatives bailed because of the the CEO then the ECDs have even more to answer for.
What way do you want it?
@@@@dildo – the agency would have retained the cleaners as creatives to stem the flow of departures.
Sorry, but I was referring to the silly creative whom left and blamed the ECD.
To quote: ‘Were you the ECD @Dodo. If so you must know I left because of you! And so did many others.’
Apologies for the mix up, too many dodo’s and @’s. Why can’t we all call each other Smelly Finger or Puss Face, it would make this so much easier.
But I digress…
TBWA has had a horror time, no-one within the agency has stood up (at least from the senior creative side) and delivered the goods, worse still, even the suits were leaving. TBWA has a lot of work to do, Scott Whybin is their main source of new business and it’ll be at least a year or so before anyone dares touching that agency with a ten foot barge pole. In the meantime, they’ve got one large client to work with, one that likes to share its $’s with agencies other than TBWA.
The previous boss didn’t like advertising. Or awards. Or fun. So no one had fun. So anyone who could leave, did leave. Finally, The owner, who does like to have fun, decided enough was enough and removed the impediment to fun and introduced two people to bring fun back into the agency. The fact that even Lishy couldnt have fun under the impediment shows what an impediment he was.
Is the same senior guy there who’s been there for decades? If so, that’s the problem. Hopeless. Arrogant. And two faced. As management has just discovered. Nasty.