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Former Leo Burnett employees make exciting moves in ad land

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Luke Atkinson, former head of planning at Leo Burnett Sydney, will be moving to New York to serve as vice president of consumer and cultural planning for Smirnoff vodka. Atkinson left Leo Burnett earlier in the year to get married and was replaced by former DDB planning partner Russ Mitchinson. Atkinson will be reporting to Matt Bruhn, the company's global brand director, who has experience working with Atkinson as head of marketing at Diageo Australia, one of Leo Burnett Sydney's top clients.

Luke Atkinson left Leo Burnett earlier in the year to get married and was replaced by former DDB planning partner Russ Mitchinson

In other Sydney-based Leo Burnett news; another of the offices Sydney employees has been snapped up, this time by the digital creative agency AnalogFolk Sydney, who have appointed Mathieu Dauner as strategy director. Dauner previously served as senior planner at Leo Burnett's Sydney office, where he led strategy for accounts such as WWF, Unibet, and the drinks brands Bullet Bourbon and Bundaberg Rum. The announcement follows the appointment of former M&C Saatchi creative technologist James Bush, who joined the agency as creative technology director earlier this month. Dauner will be joined by senior social strategist Tim Hill, who is currently a tutor at ADMA's social media short courses and heads up of his own startup, Social Status, a Facebook-based monitoring tool for brands. Also joining the team will be Tom Walter, who moves from marketing agency The Station.

AnalogFolk Sydney have appointed former Leo Burnett Sydney senior planner Mathieu Dauner as strategy director

Dauner said of his appointment that “It’s not easy being a client in today’s marketplace because “Consumers have more choice, less time and greater expectations of brands.” He decided to join AnalogFolk, because, to him, their “Approach to brand building, innovation and technology felt like the best opportunity to help clients win in this complicated new world.” Matt Robinson, managing director at AnalogFolk, said that their clients are relying more on them to “Deliver strategy across a broader remit within their business, whether that’s brand or communications strategy, loyalty & CRM, social strategy or at the pointy end of conversion.” He brought Dauner on board because he thinks they need “Modern, strategic brains who can break out of the silos agencies tend to play in,” and feels that Dauner and his new team will “Bring that in spades.”

Tim Green has left Leo Burnett Singapore to return to his native Australia for currently unspecified personal reasons

Finally, CCO Tim Green has left Leo Burnett Singapore to return to his native Australia for currently unspecified personal reasons, having left the agency's Sydney office last April to join CEO Josh Grace, a former colleague. A global search for a replacement is currently underway, with executive creative director Clarence Chiew expected to pick up the slack in the interim. Mark Tutssel, global chief creative officer for Leo Burnett, said that Green had done “A very, very good job in Singapore,” and underlined that his reasons for leaving were personal. He said “It didn't work out,” and he understood “Why he wants to return to Australia.” This news breaks only weeks after the Singapore office lost the key United Overseas Bank account, though Green's departure is necessarily related.

Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from Kidderminster in the UK.

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