Leading strategist Craig Page joins VMLY&R to take on principal Defence Force Recruitment role

Following the appointment of VMLY&R to the highly coveted Defence Force Recruitment (DFR) account, VMLY&R Sydney has announced leading strategist Craig Page will take on the newly created role of head of planning, DFR, based in Sydney. Page joins the agency from R/GA Sydney where he was executive planning director.

Page’s immediate remit is to lead both the VMLY&R Melbourne and Sydney teams, ensuring all DFR work is strategically sound and candidate focused. Alison Tilling chief strategy officer VMLY&R ANZ, said Page’s appointment is central to the agency’s committment to build the ADF brand and achieve the ambitious recruitment targets, and pivotal to the success of the newly established agency/client partnership.

Says Tilling: “We are thrilled to build our team with a strategist and leader of Craig’s calibre. His experience makes him a truly integrated thinker, able to combine the best of many worlds for a remarkable new breed of strategy. He is generous with his time and experience, and we feel really fortunate to have him lead the DFR strategy team.”

Page brings a raft of local and international experience to the team combining a unique skillset gained from across advertising, communications and experience design fields. At R/GA he led the strategy and marketing science teams building successful outcomes for leading brands such as Telstra, Samsung, Toyota, Google and the NRL.

Prior to R/GA he worked for several other world-class creative agencies- both in Australia and overseas – including M&C Saatchi (Sydney and London) supporting brands such as Optus, SONY, eBay and Virgin Mobile, and held the role of in-house digital strategy lead with Foxtel.

Says Page: “To build brands effectively in today’s market you need the best creative and design thinking working in tandem, without silos, under the same roof. VMLY&R is the first agency I’ve seen doing this in practice and I’m excited to help drive this new model. Even more so with Defence Force Recruitment; one of the biggest and bravest accounts in the country, and one of the few who are capable of making the most of everything the agency has to offer.”

VMLY&R is part of WPP AUNZ, Australasia’s leading creative transformation company.