Howcroft’s shift to PwC a lightning strike at the heart of creative by the consultants

PwC has hired advertising’s master cheerleader Russel Howcroft to head its new creative practice. Mumbrella discusses if the hiring of the Ten executive means that consultancies have at last breached the walls of the creative industry and are ready to pillage….

Russel Howcroft always had a vision for the industry, from his very early days at Melbourne’s Leonardi Advertising. But his decision to join consultancy giant PwC in the newly-formed role of chief creative officer marks the arrival of the business consultant as a genuine threat to the creative industry. This is a game-changer.

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The creative side of the business has been muttering about consultants for the past few years, but the appointment of one of Australia’s highest profile advertising men marks an escalation of the battle for the minds of marketers – and, more importantly, for their budgets.

Intriguingly, Howcroft is not a creative; he is, in fact, the quintessential suit. A salesman for the industry who has achieved well plying his trade on the ABC through various incarnations of Gruen, succeeding in educating a once disinterested nation in the value of advertising. Or the very least, softening a nation’s hatred just a tad.

For the better part of 20 years, Howcroft has been advertising’s master cheerleader.

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