Former Clems Melbourne CCO Ant Keogh takes up CCO role at The Monkeys, Melbourne
The Monkeys has announced that one of the most awarded creative talents in the country, Ant Keogh, has been appointed as chief creative officer of Melbourne.
Keogh joins The Monkeys after departing from his role as chief creative office of Clemenger BBDO Melbourne in July this year where he guided Cannes Gold winning campaigns including TAC ‘Meet Graham’, Snickers ‘Hungerithm’ and Bonds ‘Boys’. First turning heads as a copywriter; his most famous work is the ongoing Carlton Draught ‘Made from Beer’ campaign featuring ‘Big Ad’. Voted as the ‘Number One Beer Ad of the Last 15 Years’ by The One Show, it’s also included in the Sydney Powerhouse Museum’s archives under the ‘Top Ten Greatest Australian Ads’.
Keogh’s career has been filled with impressive industry accolades including his last 10 years at Clemenger Melbourne, where the agency took home this year’s Cannes Agency of the Year and D&AD Agency of The Year awards. Last month listed in AdWeek’s ’10 Global Creative Leaders Reinventing the Advertising Industry’, and for seven years in a row ranked as the top Executive Creative Director in Australia by Campaign Brief, Keogh has headed up the BestAds Australian Executive Creative Director Rankings for the past decade, and is also ranked number seventh in the world.
Called upon for his comprehensive advertising expertise, Keogh has served as a Cannes Lions juror on Print, Film and Television award juries and on the Titanium jury, and in 2012 he was a member of the Cannes Chimera group – a selection of Grand-Prix-winning mentors that served for the Bill Gates Foundation in Seattle.
Says Keogh: “I take pride in creating real work that real people see, and if that work wins awards, well that’s a bonus. It’s why I’ve always admired The Monkeys’ ability to get people out there in the real world talking about their work. Couple this with the firepower of Accenture Interactive and you have a pretty formidable cross-platform team, which I’m very happy to be joining.”
Says Justin Drape, co-founder and group CCO, The Monkeys: “Ant is a phenomenal creative talent who will help us transform brands and businesses in Melbourne and beyond. We offer our clients more than campaigns and Ant’s vision will help create and direct work that lives in the sweet spot between advertising, entertainment and technology. We’re thrilled to have him with us and are now looking forward to focussing on the work and opportunities in front of us.”
Says Mark Green, co-founder and group CEO: “We are so pleased to have Ant join our Victorian leadership team, alongside newly announced Melbourne CEO Paul McMillan and head of strategy Michael Derepas. I’m certain that our growing list of Melbourne clients will welcome the opportunity to have Ant’s vision, track record and creative pedigree available and on hand to help steer them forward. Exciting times ahead.
29 Comments
Holy fuck!
Ant, you legend. Congratulations.
Nice one Ant, great move.
Never heard of this guy
Surely this is a lawsuit waiting to happen from Clems. Wonder what the non-competes look like.
Still, best of luck to them, looks like The Monkeys are trying to suck up all the best talent in town.
It’s great news for Ant, great news for Monkeys and great news for the Melbourne industry.
Obviously, anywhere with Ant onboard gets better. But, if you are trying to take on the big dogs in the market (Clems Melb) shouldn’t you really be trying to do things differently, rather than just rinse and repeat. Plus, of the three poaches so far, this is the only one that Clems would have actually not wanted to happen.
Don’t get me wrong, sure this will all lead to a good agency. I just don’t see it leading to an agency that is going to overtake Clemenger any time in the near future.
Seriously! After the service he gave Clems, they would only wish him the best.
Actually it’s the agencies other than Clems who’ll be worried. There’s nothing protecting their clients from being nicked…. grabs popcorn…
Nice move. Creative talent at the Monkeys just turned up to eleven.
Hope The Monkeys Melb fill out their creative department with women and people of colour to round out the (excellent) testosterone at the top.
Oh my God.
Hopefully a new agency with Ant at the head will give the entire Melbourne ad industry an overdue kick up the creative arse.
I agree – I don’t think Clems will be all that concerned but every other agency in Melbourne is going to need to start upping their game!
Brilliant hire
@what a hire! – how are people of colour a balance to testosterone?
Agreed, Clems will be sad about Ant but I can guarantee are doing first pumps about the others. Problem solved.
…but it’s still Accenture. Good luck with upholding The Work x 3
Seems like a few clems folks on this thread
No surprise with this news.
Anyone that understands the industry would have been waiting for the announcement.
watch the departments fill up with old collegues from patts and clems
Congrats Ant …. but shame he said no to KWP job
Working for Accenture.
Sounds like a recipe for creative success to me
GPYR, Clems to Monkey rebrand is now complete.
CUB announcement in 10…9..8..7..
Y&R (formally Patts) is the big looser, already handed over their two biggest clients, Australia Post and Crownbet to Monkeys. 80% of their revenue. Lights out over there sadly, will merge with Grey very soon.
Ok, so let me get this right, So Jamie ‘Maca’ Lannister and ‘Tyrian the brains’ Derapas have left Casterly Rock to escape the rule of King Jodprey.
Why? Because the Monkeys just got nest eggs, and those eggs turned out to be fricken dragon eggs…and dragons win everything. But wait there are 3 dragons!
Enter the 3rd dragon rider…Sir Ant.
Then the Iron Bank (PWC) invests in Mastor Ferrier and Thinkerbell. Now whilst they don’t have dragons, they do have some sort of green smoke magic potions to blow shit up with. And blowing shit up is also cool so why not.
Meanwhile, across the other side Westeros, BWM is now being run by Melisandre and the lord of light after Lord Wato bailed to a smaller house to escape certain death, and John Snow Bagnasco smartly bails to wield his creative sword over at House Starky & Starky
Then out of nowhere another Iron Bank (Deloitte) completely destroys House McCann leaving a bloody mess for the just landed Daenerys Targaryen to clean up. (which I’m sure they will)
Is that right? Have I got everything?
Tune into next week’s episode of Melbourne’s Game of Thrones when House TBWA turns up in their pirate ship to blow more shit up too
DA DA DANA NA NA, NA, NA
I love how the Clems guys feel so threatened by this that they feel the need to denigrate the new Monkeys Melbourne people. It shows how worried they must be.
Good luck to them I say.
Monkey Magic!!!
If you drink too much cool aide you eventually get the runs…
Don’t worry, we aren’t feeling threatened. We love the competition, bring it on.
And don’t assume the negativity is from Clems people. Ant, Paul and Mike are highly respected here and have done a brilliant job
Wow. Y&R are screwed now.