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| CAREER SUMMARY | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Feb 1986 - Nov 1989 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fresh out of UCT, my first advertising job was at Knights Advertising, where I landed a copywriting position on the strength of a copy test. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I worked on accounts including: Andre Jewellers, Bliss/Nels Dairy, Duco Automotive Refinish, Dunair Airconditioning, Gateway Papers, Incity Real Estate, Loctite DIY products, Luxavia Airlines, Multi Media language courses, Sandton City, Sandton Sun Hotel, Valiant Skylights and Wiggins Teape Paper Merchants. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dec 1989 - Feb 1990 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Is there life after advertising? Determined to find out, I left my writing job and joined the newly formed Take Five Music company, working as a Producer/Arranger with TFM's big "find" - a soul group who, it soon became apparent, were useless (the awesome demo they had submitted was, in fact, another band's!) Nonetheless, this gave me valuable hands-on experience in music production and diplomacy. I soon left to focus on my own musical interests. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Feb 1990 - Mar 1991 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After Take Five Music, I continued to enjoy my break from the advertising mainstream, working on the odd freelance copywriting job, but concentrating on writing music for cabarets, musicals and a string of rather dodgy bands! (see McGringomania elsewhere on this site) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar 1991 - July 1996 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After an 18-month hiatus, I returned to the ad industry, joining the then-small Bedfordview based agency Column Advertising as a Copywriter. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I wrote for accounts that included Cargo East (Mercedes Benz dealership), Pleasure Foods, Simba (Peanuts/Fritos), Stellenbosch Farmer's Winery (Bols Brandy, Bols Liquers and Autumn Harvest wine), Denel Informatics Networking, ISM, Marketing Concepts, Fourtell Software and Virgin/EMI. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aug 1996 - Aug 1997 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Creative Director at Column Advertising, which had grown during my tenure there from a small company of 12 to a medium-sized Top 30 Agency according to the annual Financial Mail AdFocus Survey. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The accounts I worked on included AgrEvo (environmentally friendly agricultural chemicals), Coca-Cola Partners In Education, Denel Informatics, Dell Computers, Dulux Paint (Corporate, Trade, Automotive, Reseller and Foreign), Forsdicks BMW, Forsdicks Land Rover, Graduate School of Public & Development Management (Wits), IBM, Spairnet (airconditioning), Sasko Bread (character development), Speedheat (underfloor heating), TA Bank, Tedelex Electronics, Wendywood High School. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sept 1997 - Jan 1998 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Senior Copywriter at SBBW Partnership, 13th largest agency in South Africa. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wrote commercials for Body Mist, Daewoo Motor, Philips (cellphones, PABX, monitors), First National Bank, Print Media Association, Pharmacy Professional Awareness Campaign. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar 1998 - Mar 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Creative Director at Branded Marketing, a small retail-oriented agency. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Accounts included DataPro (ISP), Feds DIY, Hotel Amenities, Master Lock, Phutuma Freight, Safe-T-Tyre, Spescom Electronics, UNISA School of Business Leadership | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| April 1999 - Dec 2001 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Creative Director and co-owner of Alchemy Marketing Communications - a one-stop virtual agency offering a complete range of advertising and marketing services, from strategic consultancy to hands-on creative execution and production. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Clients included Branded Marketing (ad agency), Mortimer Harvey (ad agency), M-Web Business Solutions (Internet marketing), Pro Tactic (PR consultants), Purple Orange (ad agency) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mar 2001 - Aug 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Senior Copywriter at Mortimer Harvey, a promotions and ad agency. Clients included Action Stations (SABC Airtime Sales), Colgate Palmolive, Peugeot, Miss SA Teen, Plascon (instore and online), ABE, Kreepy Krauly, Kellogg's All-bran, Pfizer and a number of pharamaceuticals, including Lamisil. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sep 2003 - present | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Creative Director at BrandSmart, a strategic brand building consultancy. My job involves developing brand building strategies and following through to implementation via a pool of freelance designers, video producers etc. according to the specific needs of the strategy, from straight advertising to sales promotions to full blown repositioning, including product launch eventing. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Clients include First National Bank, SASRIA, SABS, Cadbury, Timberland, Enterprise magazine, The department of Trade & Industry. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||