GPY&R Sydney snares Droga5’s Ben Akers as CD

Multi-award winning creative Ben Akers has been signed by George Patterson Y&R Sydney to work alongside David Joubert — who transferred to Sydney in May last year, since he’s been promoted to one of the agency’s new creative directors reporting to ECD Julian Watt.

Akers spent 10 years in the industry at some of London’s best agencies, before being lured from BBH to Droga5 Sydney.  During a two-year stint at Droga5 he co-created the Vanilla Ice apology work for Virgin Mobile and the Cannes Gold winning digital idea for V-Australia which set an (unofficial) world record for Tweeting every minute of three days.

His campaign for 4320 has just been ranked #10 Direct Campaign in the world by The Big Won, an annual global ranking which charts the performance of individual agencies and networks.

Akers has won numerous awards at all the major shows around the world, culminating in his haul last year of three Cannes Lions and pencils at One Show and D&AD.GPY&R Executive CD Julian Watt says that Akers has ideas that clients need and agencies covet.

“I’ve admired Ben’s work for years now and it was only a matter of time before we worked together. He has that rare combination of sharp creative ability and business suss which will be a great offering for our clients and agency network.”