Thursday, February 01, 2007

GREENWOOD AND MATHER FORM THE CAVALRY


Respected creative directors Tony Greenwood and Ron Mather have joined forces to launch The Cavalry, a new creative service that will generate ideas for everything from advertising to products and content.
Greenwood was most recently Group Creative Director of Clemenger BBDO Melbourne while Mather was Chairman of Clemenger BBDO Melbourne.
The pair has a wealth of experience in advertising, a cache of Cannes Lions and are responsible for some of Australia’s most memorable advertising campaigns.
Greenwood co-created some of the classic Yellow Pages TV commercials (including ‘Not Happy Jan’) and the multi-Cannes winning ‘Milk. Legendary Stuff’ campaign.
Mather’s credits include Daewoo, Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation, Westpac’s Sydney 2000 Olympic Games’ ‘Parents’ campaign, Bonds and the latest AXA campaign.
The Cavalry was born from Greenwood and Mather’s strong belief in the power of strong creative, and the belief creative ideas can be applied to anything from an ad campaign through to new product development and content.
"There’s already more than enough agencies with structures in place to handle large pieces of business. While we of course would be delighted and look forward to working on big projects for agencies, we have no desire to win big accounts," Mather said.
"An area we do find exciting and feel we could be of great value is to the not-so-big accounts that are often not suited to traditional agencies because of their size but who are looking for fresh entrepreneurial, clever ways of communicating and who find the idea of talking directly to the creative source appealing."
Mather has worked in advertising for more than 30 years, beginning his
career with Saatchi & Saatchi, London. Mather moved to Australia in the mid-70’s to join Lionel Hunt at The Campaign Palace as Creative Director. He then moved to Saatchi Melbourne and then Sydney. In the late 1980s, Mather formed his own tvc production company Mather Godsell and was a writer and director before rejoining The Palace as National Creative Director for 10 years. In 2004, Mather became Executive Creative Director at Grey Worldwide and then joined Clemenger BBDO Melbourne as Chairman. Mather has twice been voted ‘Creative Director of the Year’ by BRW. He has represented Australia as juror at the two biggest award shows in the world: Cannes and Clio.
Greenwood has worked in advertising for more than 20 years in the United Kingdom,
Amsterdam, New York, Canada and Australia. Most of this time has been divided between Young & Rubicam and BBDO, having worked for each three times.
Along the way he has notched up numerous local and international awards including four Cannes Lions, six Clio awards, One Show silver and 11 AWARD pencils. In 2001 he was ranked the number one creative in Australia and New Zealand by Campaign Brief and number 10 in the world by Boards Magazine. In his first year as Creative Director, he led Y&R to Victorian Agency of the Year and won his first Gold Lion as Creative Director this year.
Prior to joining Clemenger BBDO, Greenwood and Mather both enjoyed a run of new business wins as creative directors of rival agencies. Greenwood was responsible for winning Yellow Pages, Sensis, the Defence Force and Victorian Government business at Young & Rubicam.
Mather picked up AXA and John West at Grey and also won Business Victoria, retained Dulux and played a key role in winning the NAB pitch during his time at Clemenger BBDO.
"There is no independent creative resource in this market with the depth and breadth of experience that The Cavalry has. There’s no doubt we can make a valuable contribution to agencies and clients," Greenwood said.
Commenting on the name of the new business, Mather said: "We feel The Cavalry had a nice feel about it. It is certainly memorable, campaignable and reflects a lot of the values we want our brand to stand for.
"Historically, the cavalry was made up of highly trained and experienced soldiers whose strategic thinking, speed and incisiveness often meant the difference between winning and losing.
"Our biggest offering will be our thinking and that could be for agencies, strategic or media partners or clients direct. That could include campaign ideas, strategic thinking, new product opportunities, fresh media ideas and packaging etc. We have also both got ideas of our own that we want to develop. Overall, our strength will be our thinking and our ability to deliver a world-class package,” Mather added.
The Cavalry, based in Port Melbourne from today, is already working on a number of clients through agencies.


The Cavalry’s address is 374 Bay Street, Port Melbourne, 3207.
Their phone is (03) 9646 4696 (but it won’t be installed until Tuesday).
Greenwood’s email is antony_greenwood@yahoo.com and his mobile is 04 0304 8300.
Mather’s email is ronnie.mather@bigpond.com

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is yet another start-up with the mistaken belief that Australian clients are interested in fresh ideas, content and new ways to look at advertising.

I hope they succeed, I really do.

Unfortunately, the average Australian client wouldn't know a fresh idea if it bit him on the arse.

6:46 PM  
Blogger Stanley Johnson said...

Two legends who also happen to be decent blokes. Wish them well.

HOWEVER

Surely the average CB Blog reader knows who Mather and Greenwood are?

Did we really need the press release quoted verbatim?

Bit too much of this sort of thing don't you think Linchy?

1:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

6:46 – What do you think of the idea of trying to get o/s clients to offshore in Australia?

Cheaper production / agency costs and a free holiday for well under what the average US budget would be.

Could this be a viable / sustainable option for Australia with the advancement of the internet / work anywhere business model?

Could this attract our best creatives back to Australia?

2:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

2:44 I'm not really sure I understand what you're trying to say - offshore clients coming here for an ad-campaign?

I'm assuming o/s clients would rather people with a more specific knowledge of their home countries do the work.

Nice holiday angle though.

4:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Cavalry is here! Baamp bumpida baaaamp!!!

6:06 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home