As the son of two creatives and godson to a famous South African ECD, a career in advertising was perhaps inevitable for Ad Man.
Adam is now an experienced creative leader, having served time in almost every type of communication agency imaginable, in almost every creative job possible: AD, CW, ACD, CD, ICD. He has finally reached peak initialism in his current role: Global ECD @ VMLY&R / WPP - a hybrid role working with an international team of creatives and overseeing an ecosystem of agencies within the WPP network ensuring creative excellence and global consistency.
He is a worldly creative director with big international business thematic of his career - prior to VMLY&R, he spent a decade in Paris working on TBWA’s largest global account, the 5-billion-dollar Nissan Motor Corporation account. During this time, he launched the Infiniti brand into Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and was the global CD on Infiniti’s sponsorship of the Red Bull Racing F1 team. He was also the European CD on the Nissan account and led Nissan’s sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League.
Has he worked on big TV-first global campaigns? Yes, of course, many. But what about hyper-targeted digital campaigns? Yes indeed, he worked at Omnicom’s pre-eminent data-driven precision-marketing agency! He’s created creative technology, started his own agency, and has been described as a generalist and a specialist. Adam has won pitches, a few awards, and most importantly, the trust of his teams and clients alike.
Adam is a thinker and a problem solver and a big believer in the big idea. He leads with empathy and is guided by these three principles:
1. Be truthful. But don’t always let the truth get in the way of a good story.
2. There is a cigarette paper width between a perfectionist and %$@#.
3. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).
The one thing he is not particularly comfortable with is talking about himself in the third person. So, the last thing I will say for Adam, is that his best work is yet to come.