DDB Canada has a new creative boss—one with a strong digital background—after hiring Kevin Drew Davis to lead all creative teams in Canada.
Davis, whose title is chief creative officer, was most recently with Digitas as executive creative director overseeing the Chicago and San Francisco offices. He has also held senior posts at Publicis and DraftFCB, and was global interactive creative director at Wieden + Kennedy.
It’s the fist time DDB Canada has had such a senior level, overarching post to lead all creative.
“The guys fills the room with passion and is so inspirational,” said David Leonard, national president and chief operating officer of DDB Canada.
Leonard said creating the position and hiring Davis was about improving upon an already strong creative product rather than filling any shortcomings within the organization.
“We have been in a very nice place for a long time. What better time to invest in your brand, when you are riding high,” said Leonard. “While we are performing very well in a domestic sense, I want us to be a much bigger player on the global stage.”
Davis has been in the business for 22 years, winning top honours from Cannes, The One Show, the Clios, the Effies and the Webby Awards, among others.
Davis will report directly to Leonard. The rest of the senior creative leadership at DDB remains unchanged: Dean Lee and Cosmo Campbell in Vancouver; Eva Polis in Edmonton; Denise Rossetto and Todd Mackie in Toronto and Gaetan Namouric in Montreal.
Leonard said “huge digital cred” was near the top of his wish list for his new CCO, though Davis’s record of winning new business helped separate him from the pack. “This guy has an amazing track record,” said Leonard.
But it was the chemistry he felt when meeting with Davis that ultimately settled things for Leonard.
“The culture fit was probably the clincher,” said Leonard, adding that creative directors had a chance to meet with Davis during the hiring process to ensure they’d end up with a new boss who’d gel quickly with the DDB culture.
Davis starts his new role with DDB on Monday working out of the Toronto office.
