BlueArc bolsters creative capabilities appointing ex ninemsn’s Joe Smith as creative director

BlueArc Group has appointed Joe Smith as creative director. With over 10 years’ experience developing digital advertising, websites and online applications, Smith has worked with both leading publishers and agencies.

Most recently, Smith was creative director for website design and online marketing agency William and prior to that he was creative director at ninemsn where he worked for seven years leading the User Experience and Design team. During his career, Smith has also been creative director at ninepixels and M&C Saatchi where he established the digital arm, eMCSaatchi.

Scott Porter, BlueArc CEO, said: “We identified an opportunity to build on our core strengths and to become stronger advocates of brand development. We are acknowledged as industry leaders in platform development and we wanted to contribute more to the success of our clients’ brands in the digital space.”

“We’ve always enjoyed outstanding relationships with our clients and increasingly they were asking us to manage more aspects of their accounts – particularly creative brand development. With Joe on-board we’re excited about the new directions in which those relationships can grow,” says Scott.

The process to appoint Smith has been long and involved as BlueArc had very specific objectives beyond finding a creative heavyweight who could conceive, design and sell great web work. While Smith is a master storyteller and is passionate about developing online brands that resonate with users, he is also a dedicated team leader who encourages a culture of innovation.

“We have an outstanding culture within BlueArc and the incoming creative director had to be appreciative and excited about the high performance environment they were joining. What Joe brings to the game is a respect for the importance of culture, a drive to produce outstanding work and an acute awareness of what a successful narrative layer can mean for an already strong platform-based digital project,” said Ben Eames, BlueArc commercial director.

Smith is responsible for all creative leadership and output and will work closely with the respected portfolio of BlueArc clients.