While we await the next Carter Murray memo to Draftfcb staff, Grey makes a comeback with yet another pair of additions to the group creative director position. The New York office of the latter WPP agency has now welcomed Nick Pringle and Steve Wakelam as GCDs. The Cannes Gold Lion-winning duo hail from DDB Sydney, where they were creative directors on Volkswagen. Anyhow, Tor yet again has word on the new arrivals.
“I am psyched to say they are now GCDs at Grey, running the Febreze, Ally and P&G Global Corporate accounts.
AdvertisementFriends for the past 15 years, Nick (left/bald) and Steve (right/hair) have worked together, moved countries together and had a baby together. Well, Nick and his wife had the baby, Steve was nearby with hot towels. As for their advertising careers, they have taken a less than traditional route. In fact they both started out as account guys, decided they wanted to make stuff, moved into creative and spent 8 years in various London agencies including Leo Burnett, BBH and CHI. They then packed up and headed to Australia, where they spent five years as the hottest team Down Under, running accounts like Volkswagen, Virgin, Wrigley, Levi’s, McDonald’s and Boag’s Draught. It was in Australia that they developed a powerful integrated approach to building brands through all things digital, mobile and experiential as well as film and print. Next it was on to NYC, where they spent the past 6 months as GCDs helping start up and launch Goodby Silverstein’s office here in the city.
Nick is a wheeler-dealer urban art collector, an averagely good swimmer and has recently taken up woodworking. He grew up in Kent, England. His first introduction to the business was packing 20,000 copies of ‘Ogilvy on Advertising’ in a factory in Maidstone. After walking out with a copy concealed in his pants, he decided to get a job as an account man in London. His time as an account guy at DMB&B ended after three years when he moved into the creative department. For all of 2012 Nick was ranked the number 2 creative in Australia. I think this means they actually rank their creatives in Australia, which is weird. But hey, if you’re gonna be ranked, being number 2 in the entire country ain’t bad.
Steve was once the drummer in a band that got to number 175 in the UK charts (selling 72 singles), has been halfway through writing a book for 5 years now, and has a fetish for watches. He grew up in Marlow, England. After a short and unremarkable stint as an account manager, he switched to being a creative. Always a keen writer, he ignored his passion and became an art director instead. The rest, as they say, is history. He’s since picked up every award known to man, and for all of 2012 Steve was ranked Australia’s number 1 creative. This, I’m sure, pisses off Nick to no end.
These guys have helped build smart brands through all medias, while cleaning up in all the major award shows including Grand Prix at the CLIOS, Grand Prix at the Spikes, four yellow pencils at D&AD, and three golds at One Show to add to their five golds at Cannes. And that’s just in the last few years.
I strongly suggest you check out their work at wakelampringle.com, then come say hello to our new team.
But wait, don’t say ‘hello.’ They’re English and kind of Australian. So say something like ‘Good day, matey!’ or ‘Cheerio,’ which Wikipedia says is considered friendly and more informal.
Tor.”