Leo Burnett Sydney hires two top planners
October 13 2010, 4:14 pm | | 17 Comments
After a 6 month global search, Leo Burnett Sydney has added two senior appointments to their strategic planning group. Ben Taylor (far left) joins as head of digital strategy with over 13 years experience in the digital space including time at Naked and Tequila and Luke Atkinson joins as senior strategist (near left). Atkinson recently won the 2010 Effies Grand Prix for his work on Nestle.
Says Scott Davis, head of planning: “This is the 4th planning hire this year and we have two more planned for early 2011. Finding top planning talent in all the required disciplines sometimes feels like mission impossible. There are a lot out there but separating the good from the amazing is a tough task. Ben and Luke are two of the best.”
17 Comments
Think Luke’s the one on the far left.
Well done sire.
“6 month global search,”
or just too tight to hire until the current staff had a breakdown.
oh and ‘planning is the new creative’ guessing by the t-shirts
Planners. Lol.
It’s such a nothing role.
Good to see Neil Patrick Harris is into “the industry” too.
Never met a good planner. Worked with one of those ‘amazing’ guys.
I heard they can make creatives lives easier. Burnett’s in for a shock.
Worked with both of em. Both top fellas. Well done sirs!
Ben’s one of the finest digital strategists in Sydney. A rare find and a real win for leos.
There must be more planners over there than creatives now.
even with the revolving door of planners at leo burnett, the work has continued to be good. hmm…
Luke, please stop with the frontal comb-over.
wonder if they’ve told Ben that every single Digital member of staff has left the agency since Dom Layton left and….get this, it’s true…..
they didn’t have a Digital component to the eBay pitch until the night before the pitch. yes folks, eBay the online auction company but they forgot to online component.
obviously, they still won the pitch but just sayin
10:52 sounds like a bitter ex-creative there
I don’t doubt the usefulness of a good planner, but I’ve yet to come across one in Australia. The ones who haven’t worked overseas don’t have a clue (it’s not entirely their fault, either), and the ones who’ve come from overseas are here to spend Sunday afternoons at North Bondi Italian.
Meanwhile, I’m left with double-minded propositions (the clients can share this blame) and scarcely more than a week to work on a creative brief while it was mired in a quagmire of strategy for a month weeks. And after all that, we either have to rewrite the prop, or retrofit it to our idea anyway.
But I don’t doubt the usefulness of a good planner.
1:54 pm
“Meanwhile, I’m left with double-minded propositions (the clients can share this blame) and scarcely more than a week to work on a creative brief while it was mired in a quagmire of strategy for a month weeks. And after all that, we either have to rewrite the prop, or retrofit it to our idea anyway.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Useless shites they are.
Ahhh, good to see some planner-bashing back on the CB Blog.
It’s been too long.
I personally love working with planners but I guess I’m just into problem solving. Planners are great to chat to for a different perspective, the good ones know how to navigate work through research. Some are just good at earning a client’s trust. But yes the best ones have worked overseas. If they respect you they start picking your brain when it comes to formulate strategy. Get over yourself guys and learn to work with people and you may find you get better results.
12:37 PM
“they didn’t have a Digital component to the eBay pitch until the night before the pitch. yes folks, eBay the online auction company but they forgot to online component.”
As someone who worked on the pitch at Leo Burnett, I can tell you that is a load of SHIT!!! If we forgot anything it was to send stupid pitch videos by DVD instead of digitally.
Andy
I’ve worked with Luke. For a planner he’s quite social and has his head screwed on, but more importantly he gives you briefs you can dig your teeth into and stretch into interesting advertising.
He’s also open to collaborating if the creatives find a slightly different strategy that happens to be better.
He’s all about the work being as good as it can be, and not about process, client butt-licking or generic research regurgitated dribble. After working with lots of nice, lazy planners, his willingness to let the creatives do what they do best and support that process is a rare find.
Leo’s have struck gold.