OMD strategy head Gavin Gibson joins 303Lowe as Steve Sinha departs after just 10 months
Steve Sinha
The national head of media at 303Lowe, Steve Sinha, has described his stint at the full service agency as “short but sweet” after departing just 10 months into the job.
He will be replaced by OMD national head of strategy Gavin Gibson.
Sinha joined 303Lowe last September after seven years as MD of OMD Melbourne. But the move towards a “different structure” at 303Lowe has seen Sinha and the agency part company.
Chief executive Nick Cleaver said in a statement: “After discussions with Steve regarding the future direction of the company and the nature of our integrated offering, Steve has tendered his resignation and is leaving the company.
“I thank him for his positive contribution to the business and wish him well in his future endeavours.”
The comments come just 10 months after Cleaver described Sinha as “highly respected media leader” who would bring a “wealth of knowledge and experience to our team”.
News of the Sinha’s exit comes after financial services company Challenger confirmed it has split its media and creative accounts and moved them from 303Lowe to Match Media and J Walter Thompson respectively.
Sinha said of his departure: “We agreed a few weeks back that the media team needed a different structure. It has been short but sweet and hopefully I have helped 303Lowe gain some clarity on future media direction, as well as a couple of positive wins along the way. They’re a great bunch and I wish them well.”
He told Mumbrella there was “nothing sinister” about his departure, adding the business was probably of a scale where it needed a “digital channel planner” rather than someone used to handling large-scale operations.
“We were piecing it together, and we had a few wins along the way, but it felt as though what they needed was an media channel planner to help them with their current size,” he said.
“I put in place some good approaches to programmatic, and the digital was close to zero when I came in. We won Macquaries and that was a digitally-based account win and it’s allowed us to do some nice things in the programmatic space.
“I created a good base line in terms of understanding the programmatic, social and data and how it needs to piece together. It was all pretty amicable and mutual.”
Cleaver responded: “We have always been a digitally driven company since we opened our doors in 2008. Programmatic has been an important part of our media operations for many years and continues to grow strongly as does all aspects of digital from search to social.”
Gavin Gibson
He said Gibson, Sinha’s replacement, will provide the agency with the ability to “supercharge” its full service offering, while offering a “more efficient and effective means of planning and implementing campaigns”.
“Better campaign ideas come from harnessing insights born from the consumer, brand and media landscape,” he said. “Gavin’s strengths and experience across programmatic, data, social and digital will also boost our capabilities and enable us to continue investing heavily in these areas.”
Gibson had been OMD national head of strategy since September 2013 and also held strategic and planning roles for OMD in Asia where he worked with clients including McDonald’s, Johnson and Johnson and Visa.
He also had a stint as vice president global marketing at HTC in Taiwan.
Cleaver said Gibson’s combined client and agency side experience will bring “invaluable perspective into our business”.
Gibson said in a statement: “I am excited at joining the 303Lowe team and working in a full service integrated environment. I believe people’s media behaviour is a fundamental part of creating impactful and effective creative ideas that truly connect with consumers.
“The opportunity to be part of a team truly unlimited in terms of how it can translate client briefs into go to market campaigns is a very exciting proposition.”
Steve Jones
Looking forward to seeing Steve pop up elsewhere very soon . A great operator !!
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Congrats, Gav! You will kill it!
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