Creative Circle

Dear Members

It was with surprise and trepidation that I accepted my nomination as Chairperson of the Creative Circle for 2012/13. I hope I can live up to the high standards set by Brett Morris over the past 2 years. My tenure as Chair of the Creative Circle Exco begins in earnest in 2012, but I felt we should touch base this year just to get the ball rolling. It should be a great year, as long as those pesky Mayan predictions don’t come to pass.

I would like to thank Brett Morris for being a truly outstanding, hardworking, approachable and exemplary Chair over the past 2 years. As I am rapidly discovering, balancing the twin roles of being Exec CD of an agency and Creative Circle Chair takes some doing. In saying that I would also like to thank the outgoing Exco for the superb job they did in supporting Brett, serving on the various subcommittees and generally guiding the Creative Circle through what has been a truly great year.

Thankfully many of the outgoing Exco members have once again been nominated, but we do have some exciting new faces joining us as well. So a special welcome to Jonathan Beggs (Jupiter Cape Town), Graeme Jenner (Network #BBDO)and Kamogelo Sesing (TBWA Hunt Lascaris Jo’burg) who serve on CC Exco for the first time. Also a welcome back to John Davenport (Ireland Davenport) who sits on Exco again.

If next year proves to be anything like 2011 it will be another tough one for us ad folk. Budgets are still under siege, clients continue to take work in-house, global marketing “ imperatives” continue to shrink local agency content – the list goes on and on. Despite all these sucker punches our creative output is stronger than ever. Once again we featured amongst the Golds at all the major shows. Once again, courtesy of Network #BBDO, South Africa picked up a Grand Prix at Cannes. That’s our 6th in 5 years. Winning big is becoming a habit, long may it last. We’re also on the judging panels of all the major shows and this year we have a Jury Chairman at Cannes nogal (in the radio category), as well as a judge at D&AD. Big congrats to Rob McLennan for both these well deserved honours, a long time coming.

Let’s hope next year gives us as much reason to celebrate and be proud.

I look forward to working with all of you in 2012.

Cheers
Chris Gotz