Clemenger BBDO Sydney snares Cannes Mobile Grand Prix winner Ben Clare from Johannes Leonardo New York for senior copywriter role

Ben Clare, the creative lead on Google’s Project Re: Brief, which won the Mobile Grand Prix at Cannes 2012, has joined Clemenger BBDO Sydney as a senior copywriter, partnering with Luke Hawkins.

Clare has returned home to Sydney after working at part Aussie-owned Johannes Leonardo New York for the past two years. He joined the agency in 2010 helping it grow from 12 to 50 people in 18 months.

Founded by Australian expat Leo Premutico and South African Jan Jacobs in 2007, it was awarded AdAge’s Small Agency of the Year in 2011.

Says Paul Nagy, ECD of Clemenger BBDO Sydney: “You don’t get much luckier than hiring someone this talented, this young, this driven and this genuinely nice. He really is inspiring to be around and the work he and Luke have already done together has got everyone in the agency jumping.”

Project Re:Brief, Google’s contemporary reimagining of four classic ad campaigns, won eight Lions at Cannes this year including the first ever Mobile Grand Prix for its digital take on Coca-Cola’s ‘Hilltop’ TV commercial.

Soon after joining Johannes Leonardo, Clare made his mark with Google’s ‘Demo Slam’, which changed the way people learnt about Google products. So far, the world has watched the equivalent of 17 years worth of tech demos.

Clare has also worked on brands including Coca-Cola, Bacardi, GE, Chanel, Volvo, Kellogg’s, Nokia and Nestlé. He graduated with a BA in Communications (Advertising) at Charles Sturt University in 2005 before going on to do AWARD School in 2007, finishing in second place for NSW. He then worked as a copywriter at Euro RSCG and JWT before relocating to New York.

He says it is an exciting time to be returning home to join Clemenger BBDO Sydney. Says Clare: “I have a lot of respect for how hard these guys have worked to raise the creative profile of the agency.

“They were one of only a handful of Australian agencies to win Gold at Cannes this year and it’s testament to the level of creative leadership underneath Paul, but more importantly, the ambition felt by the entire agency, not just the creative department, to do the kind of work that makes you think, ‘f**k, I wish I’d done that’.”