MUMBAI: Ogilvy & Mather announced today the promotion of Chris Garbutt to Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy & Mather East. He is currently Chief Creative Officer for Ogilvy & Mather France and will transition into his new role by mid-year. He will be based in New York and report to North American Chief Creative Officer Steve Simpson.
Garbutt will be responsible for driving the creative vision and delivery for clients across all of Ogilvy & Mather's East disciplines, including advertising, customer engagement, public relations, digital, shopper marketing, branded content and entertainment. He will continue to work with many of the agency’s global brands and will also continue to sit on the agency’s Worldwide Creative Council.
Chris first started his career at Ogilvy & Mather Johannesburg in 1995 then moved to TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris. He was European Creative Director at TBWA\Paris where he worked on Nissan, Sony Playstation and Absolut Vodka for five years. He re-joined Ogilvy & Mather France in 2008 as Executive Creative Director working on global campaigns for Dove, Perrier, Coca-Cola, IBM, Louis Vuitton and more. He is currently ranked in the top ten most awarded Chief Creative Officers in the world.
Tham Khai Meng, Worldwide Chief Creative Officer stated: “Chris inspires, teaches and raises standards. His rare talent, relentless perseverance to always excel in the creative work and his proven leadership skills make him the ideal candidate for this newly created role. I have every confidence that Chris, working with our talented team in New York, will shine and take our office to the next level.”
Commenting on his move to New York, Chris said, "One of the most exhilarating things about working at Ogilvy is the power of our global network and the opportunity to transcend regions and disciplines. The ability to continue to work with some of the world’s most respected brands but also create the new model agency of the future was something not to be missed."
"This is the age of the adaptable agency. Our work is changing daily, and it requires different talent and disciplines,” said Steve Simpson, North American Chief Creative Officer for Ogilvy & Mather. “This development plays to Ogilvy’s strengths. In this new role, Chris will only help us speed our progress and our own evolution."
He has worked with a variety of brands and categories, from radio stations to airlines; Volkswagen to BMW; Nando's Restaurants to KFC; luxury to fast moving consumer goods. Chris’s significant award wins include numerous international awards from festivals such as Eurobest, Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clios, New York Festivals and the European Effie Awards.
