Such is the case with Stuart Walsh. After graduating from Wits in 1993, he moved quickly between Saatchi, Red Nail and TBWA Hunt Lascaris, finally returning to Red Nail as ECD, before moving to Lowe Bull as Creative Director. Between these different shops he picked up a slew of creative awards both locally and internationally: Ad of the month, Ad of the year, Gold Loeries, Art Directors Club, One Show Gold, Cannes Gold. All spread between a range of brands in diverse categories; from banking to cars via Wonderbra.
Rather than continue with a career which was clearly going places in the highly competitive world of creative, Walsh continued to ask questions of himself and the industry, such as "why aren't we getting even better work out more often?" The answer - there is no shortage of creative talent ready to execute briefs but there is frequently a lack of inspiration in those briefs or the underlying brand positioning. This led to a watershed decision - to be pretty much the first creative to apply their talents in the strategic world, knowing that a great strategist has to be as much about the analytical side of the business as the inspirational. Six years on Walsh has once again risen swiftly through the ranks. After starting out at Lowe's strategic consultancy, Oil, he set up his own operation followed by a stint at Euro RSCG as Strategic Director and then moved on to Yellowwood Brand Architects - probably the best strategic consultancy in South Africa. Between these different agencies, he worked on a further spread of brands with numerous successes, before he was lured to DDB, in his own words, due to the strong strategic heritage.
"With the DDB network having been home to both Stanley Pollitt and Bill Bernbach, the godfathers of planning and creativity respectively, it was probably inevitable that someone with a passion for both would end up here.
My aim here is a simple one, to build on the agency's culture of effectiveness through creativity to prove to creatives that you don't need to sell your soul when you make ads that sell and to planners that rationality and logic aren't the only routes to effectiveness.
I want to help build an agency where planning is every bit as sexy as creative, and not just because, as research shows, planners are 32% more attractive than creatives.
It may take a long time, but for once I think I've found an agency that'll keep me inspired for a lot longer than the usual two years."
Emmet O' Hanlon, MD of the agency, is equally upbeat about the recent hiring. "When Stuart arrived we didn't want to announce it until he had been here for a while because we were generally disappointed by the senior strategists in our market. Too many rely excessively on 'tools' and jargon rather than common sense and clear thinking. Similarly a surprising proportion don't seem interested in creative, preferring to hand over a brief and run for cover. But direct working experience has shown the management team that we have a genuine heavy hitter in Stuart. He invariably sees through the confusion to come up with intuitive workable solutions rooted in sound analysis which are always welcome in the creative department. We have found our man."
Glen Lomas, CEO of DDB, added: "Stuart is the most irritating, cocky, arrogant and odd person I have ever worked with, apart from Emmet: these seem to be common traits among the brilliant planners in the DDB network. Stuart has the added disadvantage of being ginger. To have all of these drawbacks and still to be one of the people I most look forward to working with each day says an awful lot about how talented and inspiring he is."
DDB South Africa has ranked second in terms of number of awards won at the recent APEX gala event with two silvers for Mrs Balls and McDonalds campaigns.
