Newsmaker: JWT’s new worldwide CCO Matt Eastwood on his career, his rise to the top and the global network creative challenges he faces

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Matt Eastwood 2014.jpgWith a career that spans numerous agencies and three continents, globally celebrated Australian adman Matt Eastwood has found a new home in JWT, in the role of Worldwide Chief Creative Officer. At the time of our interview, Eastwood is in Sydney gearing up to take part in JWT’s Global Creative Council meeting. It presents a great opportunity to review all of the network’s regional work and also offers him the chance to talk about his creative goals with the agency’s global leadership team.

Still based out of New York with an office already established in London and Singapore, Eastwood is keen to devote as much time as possible to all key regional markets to make sure he spends quality time with JWT’s leading global clients. He plans to allocate a fair amount of time to the Asia-Pacific region overlooking the work coming out of this region.

After working at DDB for eight years, and as chief creative officer of the flagship New York office since 2010, Eastwood explains he wasn’t necessarily looking for a new job but after being ranked in Ad Age’s Global Creative Report as the 5th most awarded CCO worldwide – and #2 on the global Bestads Rankings over the last two years, the offers if you like came to him.

“I got this amazing introduction to JWT global president Gustavo Martinez and we just connected,” he said. “It seemed like the next big thing – I’d been living in New York running DDB (New York) for nearly four years so I was thinking about what was next for me,” he explained.