San Francisco’s Heat has hired Tommy Le Roux as its newest digital creative director.
He joins the shop from AKQA S.F., where he served as CD for nearly three years and oversaw the team handling global digital/social work for Levi’s. Le Roux’s is one of several recent creative hires (including BBDO veteran Mike Duckworth and Jonathan Byrne of DDB) for the formerly independent shop, which was named Adweek’s Breakthrough Agency of the Year before being acquired by Deloitte Digital less than a month ago.
The South African native began his agency career as a copywriter at Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town, later moving to the local offices of JWT and Saatchi & Saatchi before moving stateside. His 15-year career also includes work for Audi, VW and other brands, and he’s received awards from Cannes, D&D and The One Show.
Le Roux will work across Heat accounts and report to ECD Steve Stone, who describes him as “An awesome talent [who] has worked on a number of great brands,” adding, “having a few Lions under his belt means he’ll fit right in.”
“Being a well-rounded creative shop has always been important to Heat,” says Stone. “With most brands moving into developing digital creative, we needed to round out the team with a digital creative director that understands our work and our culture. I’m excited to see what he will do and the digital team here is excited to have him join the family.”
Stone’s statement fits with Deloitte’s plans for Heat, which may now be described as “a creative digital consultancy”–a phrase that is so far unique to Deloitte.
By combining Deloitte’s data and strategy expertise with Heat’s more traditional creative work, the newly rebranded unit hopes to “bring in more creative opportunities and high-profile hires” in coming months.
Heat remains best-known for its video game work, though the agency has recently created campaigns for home automation system company Control4 and discount travel site Hotwire.