Senior creative team Ash Ghazali and Jon Kallus join from BBH London, where their professional partnership began, creating films for Barclaycard and Mentos. Before their fortuitous meeting in London, Kallus was based in San Francisco, teaching at Miami Ad School and working at Goodby Silverstein, where he was part of the team that brought the world a 50 foot vending machine for Doritos at SxSW. Before that, he wrote the first big DirecTV campaign at Grey, shooting an eccentric Russian billionaire and his mini pet giraffe to fame.
Ghazali started his career at Ogilvy Singapore in 1999, bringing them awards success with his FHM print and Levi’s Reborn online campaigns. He moved to BBH Singapore in 2008, transferring to BBH London 2 years later, where he was the Creative Director on the Google account. He oversaw the Google Voice Search billboard campaign, which earned gold at Cannes as well as a Media Grand Prix. He also helped launch Google Chrome with a film starring SBTV’s Jamal Edwards, which picked up 4 million views in just 3 days.
AKQA creative team Nat Cantor and Neil Gurr bring 14 years of creative experience on some of the world’s biggest brands between them, including Nike, Xbox, Heineken, Volkswagen, Mazda and Fiat. The pair started working together in 2012, a partnership which saw them lead the award-winning Nike Barbershop campaign for Euro 2012, which allowed football-obsessed fans to emulate some of football’s most iconic hair styles online, and even get their hair chopped for real at pop up Barbershops around the world.
Cantor and Gurr also worked together on Nike’s ‘The Chance’ – an innovative campaign that gave young, unsigned footballers the opportunity to put themselves in the spotlight and earn a professional contract.
Rafe Greenlaw joins BETC London as Head of Design. After working in Sydney for several years as a designer and typographer at Lowe across Néstle, ELLE, Emirates, Diet Coke, and HSBC, Greenlaw took his design skills to Europe. He joins the agency after 7 years as a designer at Mother London, where he worked on an extensive portfolio of brands including Ikea, Stella Artois, Motorola, Becks, Schweppes, Boots, Intel-Acer, Travelodge, Pot Noodle, Coca-Cola and Diet Coke.
Art Director Gareth W Rice complements the creative intake. Hailing from New Zealand, he moved to Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam in 2009, where he worked on the global re-launch of Coke Music, Heineken and the Film Institute Netherlands. Rice moved to London in 2012, where he spent time at Mother London’s boutique agency Wednesday, working across a range of fashion and luxury clients, before heading to BETC London.
The final addition to the BETC London team is Kate Blumer, who takes the role of Director of Creative Services. Blumer brings 13 years of experience at some of the world’s most renowned agencies, working on some of the world’s most iconic brands. She spent the first 4 years of her career at AMV BBDO, before moving to BBH London, where she spent five years as traffic, producer and art buyer on Audi, eBay, Barclays and British Airways. Her next move took her to Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam and Coca-Cola, ESPN and Nike, before heading back across the Channel to be Head of Project Management at Havas London.
Andrew Stirk and Rosie Bardales, Managing Partners of BETC London said, “We’re proud and excited to welcome such talented individuals to BETC London. We have a lot of creative in production, and their addition to the agency will allow us to embrace an even greater variety of work.”
In Photo from left to Right: Nat Cantor (Creative), Rafe Greenlaw (Head of Design), Neil Gurr (Creative), Jon Kallus (Senior Creative), Ash Ghazali (Senior Creative), Kate Blumer (Director of Creative Services), Gareth Rice (Creative).
