Lowe Establishes Global Creative Squad

“I don’t think our work is where we want it to be,” said Bull, who’s now based in New York, adding that he has an “insatiable appetite for excellence.”

The group consists of four creative directors who will tackle everything from new business pitches to hard-to-crack briefs from existing clients, according to Bull. All but one of the creative directors will be based in New York, but each will travel to local offices as needed.

Besides Bull, the team includes a digital specialist, an art director and two writers. The digital specialist is Tom Markham, a transplant from Lowe Sydney who has worked on Vodafone and MTV. The art director is Raj Kamble, who previously handled Unilever’s Degree and Aruba at Lowe’s New York office, and one of the writers is the London-based Patrick McClelland, who also has worked on Unilever business.

“All these guys show flexibility. They all have strong ideas that can be produced” across all media channels, Bull said. He declined to name the other writer because he’s still in the process of being hired.

The move reflects Bull’s desire to “get my hands dirty” in his worldwide role, which he reassumed in the spring of 2009 after three years as chairman of Lowe Bull, his namesake South African agency. “I want to lead by example — to do and not just talk,” he said.

Lowe worldwide CEO Michael Wall expects the global group — known internally as the “flying squad” — to support and backstop local creatives and offer alternative takes on client problems.

The approach mirrors the Interpublic Group shop’s past practice of pulling creative ideas from different regions for key clients such as Unilever. “These types of tight-knit groups solve things,” Wall said.