Banjo hires Kevin Mackay from McCann’s Olympics pitch-winning team as first digital director
Banjo Advertising has hired its first digital director as the four-year independent agency looks to boost its digital credentials.
McCann UK’s head of digital Kevin Mackay, who led the team that won the 2012 London Olympic Games pitch as a digital, CRM, search and media planning partner, has taken on the role, and will work on a client list that includes Bonds and Nando’s.
Mackay, who has represented Great Britain as a 1500m runner, spent four years at McCann in the UK, and before that, a six-year spell at JWT Manchester.
He has run the Olympic Games digital account for the past three years, which includes work integrating campaigns for Olympic sponsors BP, Cisco and InterContinental Hotels.
Andrew Varasdi, partner at Banjo, said: “One thing that has always been important to our business is to be able to offer the best minds and thinking across everything we do. Our vision for our digital capability is no different. Just as we do for brand and creative work our goal was always to be able to offer real thought leadership across the digital channel when the time was right for the agency to invest in it.”
Varasdi said that while his agency has produced many digital campaigns for its clients over the past four years, he was always conscious of not “over promising” their digital capabilities as a “strategic thought leader”.
The agency expanded its digital offering early last year – a move prompted firstly by clients, Varasdi said.
“On talking to the CEO’s and marketing directors of many business, not just our clients, it became very clear how big a gap there is in the Australian market for real thought leadership in the application of the digital channel for brands and in meeting business imperatives.”
“And in keeping with our approach of hiring the most senior people and thinkers first, the business is now well placed to invest in the senior people that we believe will be industry leaders,” he said.
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Banjo are onto it – good idea to invest in digital capabilities, especially love the fact that they waited to make sure it wasn’t a fad first. Genius… Pure fucken genius.
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“Banjo hires man…” – really?
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Being first isn’t as important as getting it right. Banjo are a smart agency, who produce more good work than people give them credit for.
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@One man’s opinion
+1
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Doesn’t look a thing like Lord Sebastion Coe.
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