STW SHOCK AS MATCHETT LANDS JWT INDIA CCO CHALLENGE

STW group executive CD Bruce Matchett is about to be lured to chief creative officer of JWT India, a role based in Mumbai in charge of around 250 creatives spread across five cities. CB understands JWT worldwide CD Craig Davis has been a long time admirer of Matchett, a Scot, who was the award-winning CD of Ogilvy & Mather Auckland prior to transferring to O&M Sydney nearly a decade ago. Shortly after he arrived in Australia, JSA merged with O&M and Matchett became national CD of SO&M, even though it meant giving up entering award shows. He was accused by his peers of "selling out to the dark side", probably because he was paid nearly double any other CD in town! He was at SO&M until last year when he stepped up to a group creative role at STW, his former role replaced to some extent by Neil Lawrence earlier this year. According to Matchett, he is looking forward to "cracking some great ads again and having some fun. I will set up ‘shop’ in Mumbai but spend a lot of time chasing things in the other offices - especially Delhi - where Pepsi, Unilever and Ford are so huge. My Coca-Cola experience will help and I've worked on many Unilever brands over the years with Ogilvy. I've also got a lot of car experience - BMW and Hyundai." Recently Matchett spent a two month sabbatical living in a Buddhist temple on the Burmese border, which must have had a huge influence on his decision. According to Matchett, "the seed was well and truly planted on my return to Australia, with the realisation that I was compromising himself, both at work and in my life. It was the old cliché of ‘good being the enemy of great'. I can satisfy all areas of my life in India. There is an optimism and sense of fun about the advertising industry in India that I have not seen for some time in this part of the world."