Matthew May has been named Hill+Knowlton Strategies Canada’s second-ever national creative director.
May was digital creative lead at Real Interactive for five years and senior art director at DraftFCB for more than a year. He replaces Chris Davies, who left H+K in March after two years to become executive creative director at Traffik.
May has nearly 20 years of experience at digital and advertising agencies in Europe and North America and has worked with such global brands as Virgin, General Motors and Energizer.
“We feel that it’s a great coup for H+K to have someone with his energy and experience onboard,” says Joseph Peters, chief strategy officer at H+K in Toronto. “I think Matthew’s the perfect person to take the torch from Chris and keep us moving forward.”
May is leading a full-service creative and digital team that has about 20 people in Toronto and includes copywriters, web developers, ad buyers, UX experts, graphic designers and content strategists. H+K also has digital strategists across the country.
Peters says it’s hard to believe H+K used to farm out its creative and digital work as creative has become integral to the agency’s work. “I think it’s been transformative. It’s provided structure, consistency and excellence that all of our clients appreciate.”
H+K in Canada has “created a centre of expertise that’s different from other H+K countries around the world” that is now doing “some groundbreaking work for our clients,” he says.
