Droga5 snares Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney’s creative leader Steve Jackson for CD role
Steve Jackson, currently Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney’s creative leader, is leaving to join Droga5 Sydney as a creative director, adding to a formidable creative bench that already includes David Nobay (near left) as creative chairman, Duncan Marshall (second from far left) as ECD and Cam Blackley (second from near left) as CD.
Jackson (far left) will work across all the agency’s core business, as a roaming CD and report directly to Marshall.
First hired by David ‘Nobby’ Nobay at Saatchi Sydney’s in 2006, Jackson was promoted to creative director last year, and stepped in to lead the Sydney creative department after the departure of former ECD Steve Back to Ogilvy Singapore.
Last year alone, Jackson walked away with an impressive five Gold Lions at Cannes and another three Gold at the Spikes for the Toyota ‘Border Security’ campaign – Saatchi’s most awarded campaign ever – which contributed to Saatchi being named AWARD Agency of the Year just over a week ago.
He also co-created the D&AD pencil winning UN ‘Voices’ project, and won a Cannes Gold for ‘Kill a kid, kill a family’ for the Pedestrian Council of Australia.
Says Jackson: “One chat with Nobby or Duncan and you soon realise these guys are doing something right. It’s easy to get worn out and cynical in this business, but they’re always so energised and it’s incredibly infectious. They’ve clearly created a model that works for them as well as their clients and when they speak about Cam, Sudeep, Marianne and the rest of the team in such glowing terms, it’s easy to see why they’re so positive about the future. I’m really looking forward to sharing a few ideas and a few beers with them all.”
Says Nobay: “Jacko is one of the guys you’d clone if you could – he knows instinctively when an idea needs to be pushed, but he also understands the bigger picture from a client perspective.”
Adds Marshall: “I’ve known Steve for only a few months, but feel like I’ve known him for years. Beyond his well-known talent as a creative leader, he has a natural warmth and generosity of spirit that will add to our culture and be a real benefit to agency and clients alike. We’re delighted to welcome him to the Droga fold.”
Jackson has worked on some of the globe’s biggest brands in three countries, including Nike, Cadbury, Toyota, Sony and Lion Nathan.
He’s credited for three of Campaign Brief’s top 30 Australian commercials of the decade: Toyota’s ‘Border Security’ and Nike’s ‘Squirrel’ spot and Tourism Victoria’s ‘Run Rabbit Run’ from previous agency Publicis Mojo, where he also kicked off the Toyota’s ‘AFL’ spots and co-wrote Nike’s ‘Reincarnate Now’ and ‘Keep the Ball Alive’ campaigns.
Jackson starts at Droga5 early April.
It is the second time in a year that Droga 5 has raided Saatchi & Saatchi after its New Zealand ECD Mike O’Sullivan and CEO Andrew Stone defected to start Droga5 New Zealand in April last year.
23 Comments
Nobby goes wacko for jacko.
Will miss ya mate.
X
Whoo hoo Stevie Jackson! Have a hoot!
Jacko Y.N.W.A.
Top bloke and probably the best creative in Oz. Onya Steve.
Congrats Jacko.
On a side now, how about a big congratulations to Wassim Kanaan, Jacko’s replacement at Saatchis.
Good onya Waz, kick arse mate.
Great move. Top bloke. Another string in the already bulging Droga5 bow.
Congrats Waz, about time.
Onya, Steve. Well deserved indeed.
Good one Jacko, you’re a great CD and a top bloke. BIG loss!
James, you dick.
W
he needs to pack on the weight if he’s too fit in with Nobbs and Cam. Good luck bro.
Dear Saatchi management,
You may have realised by now that when you leave a creative department rudderless, with no idea who you’re secretly talking to and what the plan is for the future, that the guy you’ve left stranded at the top fielding all the questions but with apparently no hope of landing the job long term isn’t prepared to stick around.
Although, given that this is about the tenth time it’s happened to you, more likely you’ll never realise. Shame.
Fantastic news Wazz. About time.
Well done Steve.
Great move, especially considering all that is going on at Saatchi.
However, one must ask: Is there such thing as having too much talent?
Usually, one is quick to say no. But if you were to use sports as an analogy, teams like Real Madrid that have packed on the stars have yet to find true success.
Could be completely off my rocker but nevertheless.
Top move Steve, all the best, gary d
By far the best writer in the country.
It was only a matter of time.
Well deserved mate. Big congrats D5.
miss ya
x
Well done Jacko, you are one of the truly nice guys in the industry and not to mention one of the most talented, well done dude!
Give Churchy the high chair. He seems to be running the rest of the place by himself.
11:47,
Give Saatchi’s a break. You can’t bag them for producing world class creatives.
I know they’ve lost a lot of talent recently but they can’t keep everyone. No one was going to stop these creatives from going to places like Droga5, Goodby and to bigger ECD roles.
I’m sure these creatives would never of got these roles if it wasn’t for the work they produced at S&S recently.
Funnily enough, a lot of current D5 team are ex-Saatchi worldwide, including Droga himself. Says quite a lot for saatchi creative heritage. They produce great talent and they have great clients to do go good work on. That’s why other agencies keep poaching them. And winning agency of year locally shows that they really are still a formidable creative force.
Does anyone ever works out at D5? Chubbers!
11:47, were you there in 2001 also?