Aussie connection in Under Armour campaign that took out the Cyber Grand Prix for Droga5

There’s a bit of an Aussie connection in the Under Armour campaign that took out the Cyber Grand Prix for Droga5 New York last night.

The creative director on the business is John McKelvey (far left), who grew up surfing Tamarama beach in Sydney. He got his degree in business communications from The University of Technology Sydney and was lured into the exciting ‘not for profit’ lifestyle of an advertising intern.

By 25, he’d co-founded international-award-winning creative agency Southpaw. He was then appointed as a creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi Australia where he helped lead the agency to its most awarded year in its 25-year history, including being named ‘Agency of the Decade’ by Campaign Brief.

McKelvey then joined Whybin\TBWA Sydney, helping the agency become the top ranked creative agency in Australia, before moving to the US to be creative director on Nike and Google for R/GA New York.

His work has been recognized at all the major creative and effectiveness awards shows, with honors including Gold Cannes Lions, Gold Effies, D&AD and Young Guns. He is also credited with creating the most effective and awarded Tooheys New Beer campaign of all time.

He is very pleased to have joined Droga5 New York and be leading the Under Armour account and other projects. He currently lives above the loudest bar in Manhattan and travels farther than most people consider reasonable to go surfing.

His creative partner is Hannes Ciatti (above right), who lived and worked in Australia for six years.

Hailing from a tiny village in the Dolomites in Northern Italy, Hannes began his career dividing his two passions, design and a professional football career. Creativity won and he travelled to Germany to become an Art Director at DDB. Here he garnered an impressive creative reputation but something was missing – warmth. So after deciding he needed winter without snow, he moved to Sydney, Australia and started working with Australia’s top agencies like The Monkeys, Naked, M&C Saatchi and Whybin/TBWA.

When not at work, Hannes enjoyed dropping in on other surfers at Maroubra beach, adding to his collection of stitches from football headers. After six years immersed in the arts of wave riding and advertising, he sold his two boards and added another layer of weirdness to his Italo-German-Australian accent by moving to New York. In the Big Apple Hannes worked as a Creative Director at R/GA on Nike and Google before joining Droga5 surrounded by more Aussies.

Hannes’ creative work has been awarded multiple times across Film, Direct, Outdoor, Digital, Apps and Integrated categories by the world’s most prestigious advertising awards including D&AD, Cannes Lions, One Show and Spikes.

Staying true to his roots, Hannes now lives in Nolita, enjoying the ubiquitous smell of pizza.