Tag: Independent agency

Sydney, Australia – Full-service independent agency Enigma has launched a new specialist property marketing division called ‘Enigma Property & Place’, and has appointed Akira Galvin in the newly created role of head of property and place.

According to Galvin, the new division aims at providing Enigma with the depth and scale to handle large jobs while remaining agile enough to create bespoke solutions for boutique clients. Some of those clients include Frasers Property, Third.i, Landcom, Dexus and GPT amongst others.

“In today’s market, it’s important to understand every single moment in the buyer journey, as part of the consideration set and ultimately in that final sales conversation. What we have access to in terms of data and insight from our property media specialists and how those insights inform creative and campaign is so seamless and it’s a real competitive edge for our clients,” she said.

Galvin was most recently the director of strategy and development at The Property Agency, and prior to that was the director of brand experience for The Garden Agency. She has led complex projects to market across a variety of sectors including corporate, commercial and residential, working with blue chip property brands such as Lendlease, Frasers Property and Cbus Property.

Lisa Sutton Gardner, founder and director at Enigma said the agency has more than 30 years of property marketing and brand expertise, and with a team of over 20 specialists and an enviable client roster, it was time to give Enigma’s property experience a designated home.

“Enigma Property & Place is an exciting proposition to bring to market and is the next step in the evolution of Enigma. Clients are offered a fully integrated full-service property division where media strategy and buying is fused with research and brand, enabling us to continue our mission to build chemistry between people and place,” she said.

Melbourne, Australia – Keep Left, a local independent agency, has appointed former general manager at advertising company Proximity Worldwide Germany, Mike Doman, to be its newest general manager, under the creative and content division.

He will be leading the agency with responsibilities for strategic planning, digital, social, content and creative. Along with the broader management team, he will be responsible for the growth and continued evolution of Keep Left’s creative offering, which has grown under ECD Blair Kimber’s leadership on key clients such as ANZ, Openpay, and Charter Hall.

During his time at Proximity Worldwide, he helped shape the agency’s digital, experience, media, social and technology teams, while overseeing a client portfolio including Porsche, Amazon and Unilever. Prior to this, he also spent six years at CHE Proximity in Melbourne in a mix of strategic and creative roles, working across clients including Telstra, Mazda and Latitude Financial.

Speaking about his appointment, Doman said, “Keep Left is an agency with a huge ambition and the team has the talent to deliver on the vision. The opportunity for independent agencies in Australia is huge right now and – more than ever for advertising and content work – the need to earn attention, and not just pay for it, has never been more important.”

He added, “Keep Left’s heritage in earned media and PR – when combined with a crazy smart team that is experienced in advertising, editorial and digital – puts the agency in a front row seat to make seriously impactful work. The team is also genuinely nice, which is a major bonus.”

For his new role at Keep Left, he returns to Australia after working in Germany.

Caroline Catterall, CEO at Keep Left, commented that Doman is thoroughly energized by the challenge of shaping and building agencies, hence they couldn’t be more excited to have him join the team at this important time on embarking on a new three-year strategy.

“Mike’s breadth of experience across strategy and creative, and an understanding of PR and content marketing from early in his career, made him the standout candidate for us. The stars really aligned that he was planning to return to Australia and we’d built the business to a point where it presented the right opportunity for him,” Catterall said.

Sydney, Australia – Independent creative agency SLIK in Australia has unveiled four key appointments across management, creative, and production.

Taking the role of general manager is Sarah Wood who’s had 18 years of experience in the integrated marketing and creative industry, having spent 12 of those years at experience design agency, Imagination. Her role will focus on developing insights and strategies for SLIK that will drive the agency’s growth and direction across commercial, creative, client, and culture.

Meanwhile, assuming the position of senior art director is Randle Juan who brings a wealth of experience in art direction, digital design, and motion. Juan has worked with both specialist boutique and larger agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi and Naked. 

For the role, Juan teams up with SLIK’s new Senior Copywriter Sophia East. East comes from a customer experience background, having spent seven years at CX agency MercerBell working on end-to-end campaigns for clients including Qantas, Toyota, Allianz, and American Express. 

Meanwhile, with big name brands like Google and Sainsburys under his portfolio, Kyle Blanshard joins the SLIK team as head of production. Blanshard recently returned from the UK where he spent over 12 years working in management roles at production houses and creative agencies such as Warp, Gramafilm, and Pulse. 

Cooper LaPlanche, SLIK’s director and co-founder, commented, “We’re excited to welcome such a diverse range of talent and energy to the team. All four new hires bring fresh perspectives and are already making an impact here at SLIK, as well as with our clients.”

SLIK’s portfolio includes brands from the charity, food and beverage, finance, and music industry with notable new clients including Active Super, Redkite, and Bupa