Exclusive: Micah Walker departs the ECD role at Mojo Sydney to explore other opportunities – Craig Davis to take creative leadership in Sydney
CB Exclusive – CB can reveal that Publicis Mojo, Sydney executive director Micah Walker has departed the agency after four years in the role to explore other opportunities.
Walker led the agency to win AWARD‟s Agency of the Year in his first year at the helm with work for James Boag’s and Toyota. Soon after, the ‘Pure Waters’ campaign for Boag’s put the agency on the global stage winning gold at every major show and Australia’s first and only Grand Clio in film. In 2010 ‘Pure Waters’ was ranked 4th on the Gunn Report’s most awarded film list.
The highly respected and awarded Walker joined the agency in August 2007 from the CD role at Fallon London, one of the world’s hottest shops, where he had been for four years.
Prior to Fallon, Walker was CD at Leo Burnett Sydney.
Under his creative guidance, Mojo Sydney’s work has received wider industry recognition than ever before, including their Boag’s “Pure Waters’ film being named the world’s 4th most awarded spot of 2009 by the Gunn report. More recently, the agency’s innovative content project for European energy drink ‘Burn’ has spread across 43 markets and been celebrated as a major step change in approach for Coke.
Most recently, Walker and his team created the Hahn Super Dry spot which is sure to show well in 2012.
“Micah is an extraordinary talent and has made a tremendous contribution to Mojo”, said chairman, Graeme Wills (below left), “we will miss him and know he‟ll continue to do great things”.
Chief Creative Officer, Craig Davis (near left), will take on creative leadership responsibilities for the Sydney office.
“I‟m proud of the work we’ve been able to do at Mojo, especially with Boag‟s and ‘Burn’. After finishing up the Super Dry spot and the new Virgin Mobile brand campaign it just felt like a good moment to make a change”, says Walker.
“It‟s always strange to leave a place where you’ve invested so much, but I think it‟s the right time for us both.”
Throughout his career, Walker has worked in the US, Asia, Europe, United Kingdom and Australia on some of the world’s most exciting brands – including Orange, Coke, The BBC, Ask.com, Toyota, Bacardi, Skoda and Boags.
His work has won over 100 international and local awards, including Australia’s only Grand Clio in 2010 – and has also been recognised with Gold, Silver or Bronze in every major, global show including Cannes, the Clio’s, D&AD, The One Show, Art Directors Club, Epica, the Andy’s, London International, Creative Circle, New York Festivals, AWARD, and the British Television Awards.
43 Comments
Yeah. Right!
So Mojo’s great plan is not to replace his brilliance with another hands on hot ECD for Sydney? Maybe more light can be shed on this during the next ‘What’s Up Wednesday”. Seriously, the creative credentials of Mojo have just fallen through the floor.
Hmmmm….give us an O, give us a G give us an I-L-V-Y…
Huge, huge loss for mojo
CD for ECD, I’d like to see that………………………
Good luck to the guy. Enjoyed that Boag’s spot I did yes yes.
By that photo, looks like Graeme and Craig have decided to split his salary between them.
The Boag’s spot is one of my all-time favourite Australian commercials. brilliant concept. beautifully written. brilliantly directed. it’s timeless and provides a foundation for Boags advertising for decades to come. Its up there with Vision Saucepan-Computer Sox-OTC Memories. Big Ad was great. But for me, Boag’s is even greater – no offence Ant and Grant. Good luck Micah.
What he should do is open up his own shop, get loads of retail clients and live off his past glories while making shit ads the nation hates for muchos coin.
Oh, no, wait. That’s already been done.
A huge blow to the mojo creative department, both ways
Good luck Micah in whatever you do. Shame for Mojo to lose such a great talent, you’ll be hard to replace.
Those guys in there adore Micah. He’s hands on and has the ability to elevate the quality 5 fold. Totally obsessive about the craft and knows what it takes.
They just lost their mojo.
I know a couple of guys who work at Mojo.
They love Micah.
There’s a bit of head scratching going on now.
One of the most talented and passionate blokes in the business… that’s a monumental loss.
Good luck Mojo!
First Franklin, then Mel, and now Micah. Seriously, what’s going on at Mojo?
The man is a genius. Huge loss.
So, in the last year Mojo has:
1) Installed an ECD in Melbourne that didn’t last a year.
2) Installed an ECD in Auckland that didn’t last 3 months and
3) Lost the ECD that was by far the shining star of the network.
What’s the story?
What’s happened Jay?
I agree the ads have been great, but it hasn’t worked for the business that is Mojo.
Don’t know about Auckland, but Sydney is a fraction of its size a few years back. And Melbourne is smaller than Clemenger’s studio.
Probably only 20-30 creatives in Australia. Bit hard to justify any more than one big salary to manage that.
@Jay
Maybe the answer isn’t in the fact that the first two but in who hired them. I’m guessing Micah has left for the same reason.
Moral to the story…be nice to the people on the way up because you’ve got to face them on the way down.
Micah’s a genius, pure and simple, and I feel sorry for the crew at Mojo for losing such a brilliant individual.
That said, can someone find out where he’s going?!
Why no comment from his boss Craig in the press release?
8.04
Who was No.2 ?
I hear Micah came up with all the ideas – few nervous teams at Mojo???
That’s lice, 5:36.
By far the Best Creative Director around. He will be dearly missed and will be a great loss to Mojo. Onto bigger and better things.
Good luck fella.
Always thought your work was top notch.
Talk about your brand karma!
Wow Lynchy. Amazed how you protect Craig by editing any post that questions his position.
Especially since you did the exact opposite when you posted that story about Mojo Melbourne a few months back.
Micah, you were a true star. You inspired everyone you worked with. All the best x
Yes indeed… some very nervous ‘creative’ teams at Publicis now their hot shit ECD is outty… he wrote all of their stuff over there, everyone knows that.
Walker walks and Publicis looses it’s Mojo.
… Just sayin’
From what I’ve heard it’s a revolving door of staff… here one day gone the next, always new faces… I mean it ran on freelancers for years…
Karl
That’s not true, and it’s shitty to say.
micah
Hmmmm….give us an L, give us a O give us an W-E…
I don’t know Micah, but I have a lot of respect for him. I’d certainly love to work for him one day. Besides championing great creative, he also employs women over the age of 25. Rare and smart.
Dearest Karl and whoever else made that comment about the ‘nervous’ teams at Mojo.
I’m sure I don’t know you, and you clearly don’t know anything about Mojo, but I feel compelled to address your hastily worded comments. Everyone in the creative department here is gutted that Micah has left, he’s the most inspirational, fun and brilliant leader you can imagine working for and with. He had a huge impact on the work here and each of us individually, because he knows how to bring out the best in his team. A talented team that he hand-picked, which is still here and working as hard as ever. Every one of us loves Micah dearly and misses him, and that’s why you might have heard there’s few long faces around these parts.
I hope this clarifies things for you, Karl. Now, maybe we can all hold on a second, and leave the judgment of whether ‘Walker walks’ means we’ve ‘lost our Mojo’ (puntastic, by the way! High five!) for when our next run of creative work comes out.
Just sayin’.
Pictures speak 1000 words…. Micah good luck…u did a fabulous job!!
Justine – the only well-crafted rebuttal I’ve ever seen on this site. Nice one.
Thank you Micah.
And sorry dearest Karl, it’s not true.
Team brochure wrote all of our stuff, everyone knows that.
Thanks team brochure.
It would appear that Justine clearly has the most to lose from Micah’s departure.
What i hate about this blog is the personal resentments allowed to be aired. Play the ball not the man. Lynchy, let’s keep this real; your site admins are appalling.
Why are you calling yourself the Dutch Voice over Artist, and not using your real name Pim?
Anon @ 1:47 July 24 : when the man is holding the ball he gets played too. Hope this is not too complex for you.