Wesley Hawes will depart Innocean after four years as executive creative director at the end of the year to join creative agency 72andSunny, Sydney.
Jasmin Bedir, CEO of Innocean, said: “Wez and I had four amazing years together as a team. He is a lovely human, and we’ll of course miss him, but change is inevitable.
“We will make an announcement on our new creative leadership in due course,” she added.
Jasmin Bedir
Hawes joins from Innocean Australia, which was reinvigorated under his leadership, winning more clients, awards and cultural recognition than any other time in the agency’s history.
Highlights include the Aria winning ‘Voice of the Sea’ project for the AMCS, the Kia Tasman campaign featuring Australia’s most iconic sporting legends, and the D&AD Yellow Pencil winning White Ribbon ‘Daily Issue’ newspaper.
He is also co-creator of Fck The Cupcakes – a gender equality organisation and brand that seeks to bring men into the equality conversation. As well as this, Wez also co-founded Love Our work, an initiative and industry charter designed to improve ‘creative feedback’ and raise editorial standards.
Ross Berthinussen, president of 72andSunny ANZ, said: “We are thrilled that Wez is joining Laura, myself and the 72andSunny team in ANZ as Chief Creative Officer, ANZ. Our founding belief is a belief in Optimism, in finding opportunity in any challenge, and Wez is the embodiment of that ethos.
“Over the last few years we have experienced incredible momentum and are looking forward to how he can help us build on that by fostering our collaborative, creative culture and delivering what we get out of bed for every day, radical, culturally led ideas that grow our client partners’ brands and business.”
Previously, Hawes was ECD of CHEP Sydney, Marcel, and TBWA Sydney. He also spent eight years of his career at BBH London under the tutelage of the likes of Sir John Hegarty, becoming Partner and Creative Director on the global Axe/Lynx and Mentos/Vigorsol accounts, the most creatively awarded accounts in the agency at the time.
Wesley Hawes
Hawes spoke to Mediaweek earlier this year about the Kia Ute campaign featuring many of Australia’s favourite sportsmen and women. The campaign successfully generated over 1.3 million organic views and 82 million media impressions in just four days.
At the time Hawes told Mediaweek the team never set out to create such a grand affair. “We never really thought we were making a big ad. We just thought we were making something really cool,” he said.
It was only when A Current Affair stationed its team to capture the makings of “the most iconic ad ever in Australia,” (as they told Hawes) that Hawes realised the potential of their production.
Hawes and Kia CMO Dean Norbiato attribute the final scope of the campaign to the serendipitous expansion of the talent pool. Norbiato said: “There was a domino effect of people wanting to get involved.”
Hawes added: “The more the stars realised they were going to be part of something, the more they wanted to do it. Even though it was a logistical nightmare, the vibes on set were really good. You’d walk out, and there’d be Scotty Sattler chatting to David Boon chatting to Jessica Watson.”
See also: 82m impressions in four days: How Kia’s big ute ad exceeded CMO and Innocean’s expectations
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Top image: Jasmin Bedir and Wesley Hawes