CHE Melbourne restructures creative department: Ralphsmith, Coggle and Gallagher promoted to CD, report to recently appointed ECD Mike O’Hare
CHE, Melbourne has announced its new creative structure following the recent appointment of Mike O’Hare (top left) as executive creative director, following the departure of former ECD Jason Ross in early September.
The revised structure seeks to build the agency’s strengths across digital and traditional disciplines while supporting the exceptional talent and leadership in the creative group.
Following her involvement in the development and growth of many of Australia’s leading brands including Sportsgirl, Portmans, Cussons, The Age and Colonial State Bank, Sally Coggle (top right) has been elevated to creative director. With nine years under her belt at CHE, Coggle has been responsible for successful creative campaigns for Bonland Dairies, IGA, Organic Care, Bakers Delight and the Commonwealth Games, and is currently leading the creative charge for The Laminex Group, and Adairs.
Richard Ralphsmith (above right) has also been promoted to creative director. With a five year tenure at CHE, Ralphsmith has also held roles with M&C Saatchi in Sydney, London and New York, and Batey in Singapore, during which time he has produced major award-winning campaigns for brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Schweppes, McDonald’s, Bakers Delight, IGA Supermarkets, Retravision, Laminex and Earth Choice. Ralphsmith is President of the Melbourne Advertising and Design Club.
As the creative director of Simon Richards, Erin Gallagher‘s (above left) role in the agency seeks to harness her digital, direct and crm capabilities ensuring cohesion across digital and traditional channels.
According to O’Hare, building greater breadth and depth at the creative director level allows for continued strength across the creative department, aligning Gallagher’s digital expertise with Coggle’s art direction focus and Ralphsmith’s writing skills.
Recent success including wins with Retravision and the Salvation Army, is a result of the continued growth of the agency and is testament to the leadership and talent residing in CHE.
In addition, O’Hare has also promoted Dom Megna, Rogan Briggs and Francis Bourke to creative group heads for their consistent delivery of first rate work across a variety of demanding brands and in recognition of their mentoring roles in the agency.
“Promoting from within CHE is simply an appropriate acknowledgement of the quality, consistency and sheer hard team work that makes this agency remarkable,” says O’Hare.
“The agency continues to evolve and, from a creative perspective, we want to reward our best talent and foster the team’s passion for great, effective creative.”
14 Comments
Hey Mike O. great to see you back in Oz.
Gotta love modern advertising.
No slur intended on the recipients of the various titles at CHE, but time was when the Creative Director was the – um – Creative Director, and the other creatives were just writers and art directors, or occasionally Group Heads in agencies that were very, very big, with 30 plus people in the creative department (none of which seem to exist nowadays).
Of course, it all started with account service. Once the Account Director was the head guy or girl (usually guy, I confess) on the account, and everyone else was an AE or maybe, again only in the really big agencies on really big accounts, the Account Supervisor.
I can only assume the salaries are getting lower and lower, because the titles are getting bigger and bigger and handed out to more and more people in compensation.
D&R for president.
If ever there was an agency that needed an injection of talent, it’s CHE. I guess new titles is the next best thing.
So basically CHE needs three creative directors to do the same job it would normally take one Creative Director to do.
It certainly appears that there are far more chiefs than indians.
Lots of people needing lots of titles seems much more the account service way of doing things than creative.
By the way has anyone seen the digital expertise for show on the simon richards website? spectacular stuff…
http://www.simonrichards.com.au/
Okay, I have never heard of Simon Richards before reading this article. After checking out their website I highly recommend Mike appoint an extra two CDs with digital experience in addition to Erin Gallagher. Why? Because their website looks like it was created by a 7–year–old on a Commodore 64. So much for strength across the creative department.
I’m confused. Does this mean Jason Ross used to do the work of three Creative Directors or are the newly appointed Creative Directors only a 1/3 as good as an average Creative Director?
Is there room for a Deputy Creative Director? If so, I’d like to apply for the position
Promoting from within CHE only means one thing. CHE is happy to continue producing mediocre work.
Erin, congratulations on your promotion to CD of SImon Richards. I hope you do a much better job than the person who was running it the last couple of years.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Four more reasons why Clemenger Harvie Edge will always live in the shadow of Clemenger BBDO.
Hey 2:35pm, after checking out Simon Ricard’s ‘spectacular stuff’ I would suggest CHE make an appointment with a surgeon to have its digital arm removed.
is it too late to make a comment?