Creative shake-up at Clemenger BBDO Sydney as Grieve, Whitehead and Watson + 4 others depart
CB can reveal that Clemenger BBDO Sydney has let go several high profile creatives on Friday, including Hamish Grieve, creative group head on Foxtel, Adam Whitehead, creative group head on Mitsubishi and industry veteran Ian Watson – who has been at Clems since 2003.
In addition, star young creative Nikola Spadina has also been retrenched, along with three longtime studio designers.
The departures coincide with the agency’s appointment of ex Wieden + Kennedy creative Matt Follows as a creative director, as reported by CB on Friday.
Before being headhunted to join Clems in August last year, Grieve (pictured) had a brief stint at BMF as copywriter, joining from Lowe Sydney. Originally from New Zealand, he started his career under the tutelage of Kiwi legends Roy Meares and Jeremy Taine.
Following three years at DDB New Zealand he moved to Sydney – freelancing at The Furnace, JWT, M&C Saatchi and The Campaign Palace. He also spent a year at Ward 6 creating work that helped them win AdNews Emerging Agency of the Year in 2009.
Whitehead joined Clems in February 2011. Previous creative roles include Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney (where he co-created the Toyota ‘Glass Organs’ spot) and Human, Sydney.
CB hears Watson was almost retrenched two years ago but at the time client MLC insisted he remained on its business.
34 Comments
Lovely isn’t it?
Sounds like Logan’s Run.
Like I said the other day, Clems Sydney is cursed in that location. Too close to the St Leonards cemetery. Creepy.
gotta balance the books somehow i spose…
The people die on one side of the road, and the ads the other.
Cursed.
Bugger, I don’t know any of these people, but it sucks balls when axes swing.
Likely they’ll land on their feet.
If they don’t want you, you don’t want them either.
Good luck all.
Best of luck Hamish. You’ve come a long way since your NZ days. I’m sure you’ll get over this little hiccup. This is one business where there is no shame in being retrenched from time to time.
And yes, St Leonards sucks.
Why mention the retrenched by name? I reckon fair enough to give a shout out to someone for landing a job, but when they’ve just lost theirs…? Feels like you’re getting off on it. I reckon it’s in poor taste, even for CB.
The more things change the more the ads stay the same.
Schadenfreude – agreed
“Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.”
GOOD LUCK IAN
YOU REALLY WERE THE LAST VETERAN STANDING
Schadenfreude and Mac,
Fair enough, but it does let a lot of people know very quickly that you’re looking and available for a job of freelance. Could save a few phone calls, and I doubt if anyone is going to blame the victims.
Nice guy and a great creative, bigger and better things await grievo.
That explains why other creatives from Clems have been seen loitering the hallways of other agencies around Sydney.
Will the work now improve as a result of it, only time will tell? It’s not easy when you’re the one that’s now looking for work and you’re seen as a dollar sign.
Schadenfreude and Mac,
There is no shame in retrenchment, particularly on CB, moreso a banding together of people who’v been there. Im sure their exit packages will soften blow.
Hamish, Adam & Ian, it’s never a good time but at least it didnt happen Dec/Jan!
Best wishes everyone.
Whatever possessed Hamish to leave BMF (assuming it was voluntary)? Clemenger Sydney IS NOT Clemenger Melbourne.
Ha, I bet you were hoping this wouldn’t surface, the good comes with the bad at Clems. We all had so much hope for you… first it was Maddocks, then Spirko, but no matter what you try you constantly fail to change and become a great agency. The constant movement in leadership, plus the retrenchments year on year lead us to believe you are nothing but a stubborn, heartless, ruthless and just not a very nice place to work at.
In recent years you have successfully won loads of business, but done nothing with it. You’re hired great talent and done nothing with them other than got rid of them or they’ve left. Not sure there is anything else left for you other than to accept mediocrity and try do it well. Or maybe you really are cursed?
To the retrenched: don’t worry about it too much as everything will end up working out for the better. It always does.
Good luck
What is it with ad agencies once you cross the Harbour Bridge being crap and firing creatives at the moment? I heard Euro killed off 3 or 7 people last week depending who you talk to.
Maybe…
Spadina for president.
Nothing to see here.
Now Pearcey getting retrenched- THAT would be news.
As if being made redundant isn’t hard enough on people and then this in their face for all to see. Anxiety disorders, depression, sleep disorders, early heart attacks, miscarriages, nervous breakdowns…I see all these things happening around me in advertising amongst creatives too often it makes me sick, and it’s articles like this one that contribute to it. When a Creative Director or others at the top aren’t doing a good job and start shooting their team down to avoid the bullet for another 5mins – it only makes you a bad leader, a company with no integrity and a person that has lost their integrity. For what? To sell toilet paper? Creatives aren’t getting work through, not because it’s not creative but because clients don’t trust us anymore because we aren’t worth trusting.
Wake up advertising. You’re gross.
That Clems building will fall to the ground before Pearcey gets retrenched.
Stuart Driver,
I have no desire to see Piercey retrenched, but I like your idea about the building falling to the ground.
Not sure about retrenchments at Euro, but heard suits are resigning because the culture is too boring. Suits. Poor fuckers.
Good luck to all the newbies at Clem’s, strange that wasn’t announced.
Probably because the ‘newbies’ are interns from Award school.
Take the payout – put a new bathroom/kitchen/swimming pool in for the missus/kids – then dust yourself off, get your book sorted, get a new job and then get even.
Advertising’s a very simple game.
Spadina is a bloody legend! I had the privilege of working alongside him and I must say it’s Clem’s loss and someone else’s gain.
Karma always gets the bad guys.
If it hasn’t got them yet its on its way………………..
Very true, Groucho. And I’ll be supplying the popcorn.
Not necessarily 9:43, it gets more and more complicated the older you get – regardless of any exalted status when you were younger, cheaper, cooler, prettier, funnier and less opinionated. You too will learn that – eventually.
Retrenched by Clems…. worn like a badge of honour.