BIG AD MOVE IN MELBOURNE: CLEMENGER BBDO’S RUTHERFORD TAKES ECD GIG AT DDB
In a major coup that is sure to shake up the Melbourne industry, DDB Group Melbourne has appointed Grant Rutherford as executive creative director. Rutherford will assume responsibility for creative output across all DDB Group Melbourne businesses, including DDB, Rapp Collins, Tribal DDB, DDB Shop, Mango and DDB Remedy.
Rutherford joins the agency from Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, where he held the role of Group Creative Director. He is one of the most respected and acclaimed creatives, not just in Australia, but also on the world stage. His work has been acknowledged with over 100 national and international accolades and includes Carlton Draught’s ‘Big Ad’, one of the most awarded campaigns in Australian advertising history.
Says Rutherford: “What attracted me to DDB Melbourne was the combination of its absolute commitment to creativity and its enviable client base. It’s an opportunity I just could not pass up and I’m looking forward to working with Matt, Andrew and the team to continue growing the creative product across the business.”
Says DDB Melbourne Group Managing Director Andrew Little: “We are absolutely ecstatic about Grant’s appointment. His creative talent and reputation speaks for itself. But just as importantly for us is that he is an incredibly nice bloke and a natural fit with the culture of our business.”
Says National Creative Director Matt Eastwood: “Grant is one of the most sought after creative leaders, not only in Australia, but on the planet. Obviously, he’s a great talent. But importantly, he’s also one of the nicest and most humble guys you will ever meet. For DDB, this is about firmly establishing one of the most formidable creative line-ups in the region. All three offices, Sydney, Auckland and Melbourne, have won ‘Agency of the Year’ titles within the past 12 months, including CB’s. Grant’s appointment is intended to capitalise on that momentum and continue cementing DDB’s reputation as a creative powerhouse.”
Rutherford’s commencement date with DDB will be announced later this week.
41 Comments
Well done Grant!
DDBoom!
A lot’s been said about Matt Eastwood but you gotta give the guy one thing. He’s not afraid of hiring people better than himself. That’s good leadership.
R
Great to have you in the family.
Sorry? Did I read that right? !!!
“Cementing DDB’s reputation as a creative powerhouse?”
>>
Sorry. Coffee just went up my nose reading that bit. Who writes that shiat? Creative powerhouse in their own minds more like. No one elses. Why not smoke a cigar in ya bum too while ya at it?
I think they call this sort of career move Jumping the Shark.
Matt doesn’t have much choice R!
That museum in Sydney with all the electric gadgets, now that’s a powerhouse.
will he still be wearing a name tag in his new job?
Great work Rubba.
You’ll do an amazing job!
It’s probably a long overdue move.
Of course, good creatives don’t always make good creative directors. (Though, of course, bad creatives usually make worse ones.)
We’ll all watch with interest.
Really, this had to happen.
Grant is good, but the work that’s been coming out of Clems has been over-rated and he’s better than that.
Free to do his own thing, I’d expect a return to the great – and relevant – work he’s capable of.
Who grabbed the parachute to jump out of Clems…..????
Having said that, a good move to build DDB…
Congrats Rubba
Maybe Grant should take out a subscription to the Albert Park Times so he can peruse the work of his creative department.
It’s a long way from a Middleditch to the middle of a half page in the local rag flogging something with no brief and more importantly no budget. Good luck.
He musta really loved Clems…
I hope there’s more than one parachute at Clems.
Grant without Ant. Gr
I’m not sure why people are talking about people ‘bailing’ from Clems. From the outside, it looks like they’re doing pretty bloody well.
Surely this is a case of a very talented creative getting the chance to ECD an agency. From Grant’s perspective, he’d be a bit silly to knock it back.
Why? Because our industry has developed a really dumb tendency to put a bullet in the head of very talented creatives once they reach a ‘certain age’.
And if you don’t find yourself in an ECD’s chair once you’re approaching 40, come the next purge, you’ll soon enough find yourself ‘consulting’. No matter how good you are. Sure, there are exceptions, but generally speaking – if you wanna continue your career in our business past 40, you need to be in the big chair.
Grant is talented and a good bloke. Clems is doing great business. Grant got an offer too good to refuse. There is no conspiracy.
Gee, that would have been nearly 12 months to the day since Grant started at Clems. Seems like the parachute was packed, ready and waiting. Can’t blame him really.
Do you think he was like life imitating art?
He jumped out of his skytroop plane and crash landed off the mark at DDB?
Either way, no one has mentioned the sad end to the Ant and Grant show.
Things doi run their course. Flashbeer. Skytroop.
So it was indeed time to bale from getting stale.
You miserable cunts.
Matt Eastwood is a CREATIVE DIRECTOR. It’s his job to be just that, not to be a creative.
I’d say he’s done pretty well the last couple of years DIRECTING CREATIVE.
Now piss off and write some ads.
Oh, and congrats Grant.
Well deserved.
Yeah, Clems is doing fab. Nothing in AWARD 2 years running and no new business for even longer in Sydney and 32.5 CD’s in 2 years in Melb.
Top bloke gets a top job. Nice one Rubba.
c
You people are fucked in the face.
Well done Rubba.
It might be true,10.12, that Clems is “doing great business” – but that, unfortunately, is different from doing great work.
They haven’t done anything of the sort.
Your argument about Grant’s need to move on, though, is probably sound.
Especially when someone else has happily taken credit for everything you’ve done for over a decade. (And I don’t mean Ant, who, of course, deserves his share.)
10:12, you’ve put your finger on a very important issue, and one curiously swept under the rug in adland.
For those of us with a few miles on the clock it’s painfully obvious in retrospect that one needs a strategy to either extend your career into your twilight years or develop a plan for an alternative career, one more fitting for a person of maturity. Ironically, these are the last things you think of when things are going along swimmingly, particularly if you have achieved recognition by working at the sexiest agencies.
Like the hairdressing, restaurant and fashion industries, advertising eschews experience in favour of the latest look. But wait, there’s more. The yoof are less opinionated, prepared to work idiotic hours, and more committed to the obsessive and largely irrelevant pursuit of awards, And of course, cheaper.
He’s the Chris Judd of advertising.
Rubba rules!
Well, at least he’ll be able to take the credit for his work now.
I have massive respect for Grant as a creative, I think he is brilliant.
However for us future rising stars can someone tell me what other great work Grant has done besides the Carlton Draught stuff and the cougar stuff, which are both great by the way?
Monty, sorry, I mean 10.12…we had this debate when Ranallo got the boot and how hard it all was…and now he is fully employed again.
Maybe it’s just you.
9:50, you mean he’s carrying a groin injury?
Hear hear 2.29.
You make absolute sense.
Everyone in agencies should have a contingency plan that kicks in when they turn 35.
Is there an agency out there that is actually good to work at and the bosses aren’t a bunch of tossers? Seems everyone in this industry is jaded.
1.31pm
Yes there is. I work there, and no, I won’t tell you where it is. It’s not the sexiest agency (I’ve worked at a few of those too) but at the end of the day, when I go home (at a reasonable hour), I am not biiter or twisted, nor disillusioned or unhappy. I am paid very well, respected and I am over 40.
10:09, you attribute comments to me that were made by someone else.
I agreed with 10:12 in my piece of 2:29, but posted my opinion anonomously, as seems to be the preferred custom on this blog.
Thank you 10:47 for your support. What I said was nothing more than commonsense.
Perhaps it would be simpler if everyone just stood by their comments and were prepared to put their names to them.
But, yes, that would spoil all the fun.
Thanks for thinking of me though, 10:09. I’m curious to know who you are.
Monty.
It wasn’t me Monty
Nor me Monty.
Where has the previous DDB Melbs creative director gone to ?