Whybin\TBWA Melbourne promotes Tara Ford, Ashwin Gopal and Matt Stoddard to CD roles
Adding further to the agency’s strong creative momentum of the past few years, Whybin\TBWA Melbourne has today announced three big, new internal appointments.
Tara Ford (right), Ashwin Gopal (middle) and Matt Stoddart (left) will become creative directors working alongside ECD, Paul Reardon and chairman and regional ECD, Scott Whybin.
Ford joined the Melbourne office in 2012, after a hiatus from advertising following the birth of her fourth child. Prior to this, she worked throughout Europe at some of the best agencies in the world, including TBWA London and TBWA Paris and Wieden and Kennedy in Amsterdam.
Ford’s work, on a range of clients, has won over 100 awards both for creativity and effectiveness, across traditional, non-traditional and social media. At Whybin\TBWA Melbourne she was one of the creatives behind ANZ Bank’s famous GAYTMs campaign, one of the most awarded campaigns in the world in 2014, earning eight Cannes Lions over the past two years.
Since teaming up at Whybin\TBWA Melbourne early last year, Stoddart and Gopal have fast earned a reputation for integrated and social media-based ideas that well-and-truly punch above their media spend.
Gopal was born and raised in India then moved to New Zealand where he spent eight years working for the likes of Colenso BBDO and DDB. His work has been recognised at Cannes, One Show, Clio, Spikes Asia, Adfest and Axis.
Stoddart joined Whybin after working at McCann Melbourne and Clemenger BBDO where his efforts earned him accolades around the world. This tally features a yellow pencil at D&AD and eight Lions within the past three years alone, including the Cannes Grand Prix for Creative Effectiveness. In 2014 Matt had not one, but two, separate campaigns in the WARC 100 top campaigns in the world.
Together, at Whybin\TBWA Melbourne, Stoddart and Gopal’s work for Adidas India during the Cricket World Cup used a combination of guerrilla marketing, social media and live broadcast to land a message to well over one billion viewers. They also worked on the 3AW “Your Call” campaign, taking 3AW Football from number three to the number one football radio station. This campaign also took out the Grand Prix for Direct at Spikes Asia last month.
Says Reardon: “Tara, Matt and Ash are perfect for the new roles. All three will help us guide the agency to produce fresh, modern work. They each love strategy, they have a tireless work ethic, and there’s nothing traditional about the way they think.
“We could have looked anywhere in the world to find new creative leaders for our business. But the best answers, by far, were sitting under our own roof. At Whybin we like to see our people take big leaps.”
44 Comments
Nice to see a female CD.
Good on ya brah
Way to go pal!
More CDs than a thrift shop.
Andy Lish came up with the Gaytm concept. That is all.
Nice one Matty and Ash! On the North Side, a ceremonial brisket shall be smoked in your honour.
Go Tara go! Much deserved!!!!
Strong creative momentum? With the exception of Gaytm- which, lets face it, had been done before – I’m not quite sure that the agency is faring any better creatively than it had done previously.
Well deserved legends!
There’s a massive lot of talent in that photo.
Congratulations Tara, Matt and Ash!
Well done Matt! So good to see.
@Truth: Yes, Andy may have had the original seed of thought, however a big integrated idea like GAYTM’s took many creative brains and hands to concept and execute properly – including Tara’s. One creative would never have got an idea like this off the ground. The article also clearly states Tara was one of the creatives. There were a few…
@Strong: GAYTM’s is not the only awarded campaign over the past 4 years. They’ve been awarded for many big integrated campaigns – including the ones mentioned in this article. Look up the award shows.
And no, I don’t work there.
Nice one Stoddy!
Three absolute legends. Well done guys & girl.
Congrats boys! Well earned.
Ash you legend! Nice work matey!
Onya Stoddy!
Nice one Stoddy, thoroughly deserved!
Melbourne. One of the few towns you can leave work at five, have four kids and still kick butt.
There’s a reason Sydney advertising rates second. No life, no fun.
Well done Ash, bloody amazing stuff
Great job Stoddy! Love your work my friend.
Well done Tara!!! Miss you!
So is he the first CD never to have actually won metal at Cannes, One Show, D&AD or AWARD?
Steve Holt!
Yes- but the creative bit is thinking up the idea. I’m not knocking Tara- but with Gaytm – if Lish hadn’t thought of the idea no amount of sequins would’ve won the award.
Nice one!
@well done, I work and live in Melbourne. It has ok coffee but so does sydney.
People are always comparing it to sydney which is weird. The ad scene here is lame and tired, like our dusty axis trophies and adma awards. Can’t wait to move to Sydney where real world class talent lies, plush agencies with budgets and on world rankings lists. Oh, and they have beaches and people who don’t compare citities all the time.. You know why? Because Sydney’s better than Melbourne.
@well done, I work and live in Melbourne. It has ok coffee but so does sydney.
People are always comparing it to sydney which is weird. The ad scene here is lame and tired, like our dusty axis trophies and adma awards. Can’t wait to move to Sydney where real world class talent lies, plush agencies with budgets and on world rankings lists. Oh, and they have beaches and people who don’t compare citities all the time.. You know why? Because Sydney’s better than Melbourne.
Melbourne = idiots. Sydney=wankers.
I’d rather be a wanker.
Well done, Stoddy & Ash! Great fucking news for you guys.
Also, shout out to Tara – we haven’t met, but fuck me… four kids and still kicking advertising’s arse? Awesome. 🙂
Woo! Congrats Matt and Ash
@welldone. Are you freaking kidding me? You assume that because Tara is a woman and has kids she works till 5 clocks off and goes home? If you read the post you’d see that “they have a tireless work ethic” translation “they work they’re arses off”. As a woman in the industry she undoubtable has to work twice as hard as any man to make it. How many woman CD’s are there in Australia anyway? You’d be luck to count them on one hand. Well done Tara, ignore these idiots.
Congratulations Stoddy, very well deserved
@youwantthetruth
You know that St George also came up with name GayTMs – the thing is that they were executed poorly (very poorly) and PR’d terribly. What made the difference with ANZ is that it was executed and promoted so brilliantly – the actual design of the ATMs, the social engagement, the website, the PR, even dare I say the award entry video. @youwantthetruth the universe doesn’t revolve around one individual, and that to do great work with a team. Worth considering. And no I don’t work at the agency.
Congrats Ash!
Shot, Ash!
Girl. You got talent. Well done Tara.
Tara. Well done a career of hard word and beautiful advertising has paid off.
Awesome news Stoddy! So great to hear you’re killing it!
Awesome Tara, well deserved – congrats! x
Congratulations Tara …. so well deserved!
Tara is one of the most talented, level headed creatives I know. Fantastic news.
Good Ashwin keep growing. Good luck
Three of my favourites. Go Stoddy, you so deserve this. Ash, you’re a genuine guy with oodles of talent. Tara, my CIA cohort, good work lady. This makes me very happy.