Paul Dery promoted to ACD at R/GA New York

October 14 2010, 10:23 am | BY Kim Shaw | 25 Comments

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PaulDery – the son of M&C Saatchi’s Tom Dery – has been promoted from copywriterto associate creative director at digital powerhouse R/GA New York. 

He’llreport directly to R/GA chief creative officer and fellow Australian Nick Lawwho is in Australia to present the keynote speech at the Caxton Awards in Noosa the weekend after next. 

“Paulis in the vanguard of R/GA’s transformation into one of the mostmulti-discipline agencies on the planet,” Law said. 

“A prodigiously talented writer from the marketing and advertising world, Paul’s deft collaborative skills have him working with a myriad of disciplines across R/GA,” added Law. “Despite his regular off-colour jokes causing offence, most of the 350 creatives rattling around in our New York office want to work with him since doing so usually results in great work.”

Inhis new role Dery will lead various creative teams across R/GA’s mostprestigious blue chip accounts Nike (American) Football, MasterCard andChapStick.           

Themove caps off a meteoric rise for the former Sydneysider who began at R/GA as seniorwriter soon after landing in the US during the height of the recession 18months ago.

“Iwas just happy to be employed! Working at the agency I had targeted beforeleaving home was a huge plus,” Dery said.

He hashad a roving commission working across all parts of the Interpublic Group ownedagency, widely considered the world’s most progressive digital shop. His rolehas included winning R/GA a plethora of new business as a key part of its pitchteam.

“Traditionalthinking is still key, but is totally under-utilised if not merged with leadingtechnology and that’s where R/GA is at the forefront,” Dery said of hisemployer, recently anointed Adweek’s Digital Agency of the Decade.

Theformer M&C Saatchi copywriter gained notoriety at R/GA last year forcreating an iPhone app for a Pepsi energy drink that became the second mostdownloaded app in the world before being pulled by the client for being sexist.

Theapp, for the AMP brand, instructed men on how to pick up different women “types”,including “married girl” and “rebound girl” caused a furore amongst women’srights groups.