Steven Thomson has freelanced as a creative director with a strong sense of strategy at many of the best agencies – DDB Sydney, Ogilvy Sydney, Thinkerbell, M&C Saatchi, Akcelo, whiteGREY, Bastion, BWM, The Monkeys, DDB, JWT, HERO/McCann, Ogilvy, Special Group, R/GA, TBWA, BBDO, Havas…
His two-decade career also features extended stints in New York, Singapore, Auckland, Dusseldorf and London, including five enlightening years working at TBWA\Chiat Day Los Angeles, under the leadership of Rob Schwartz and the legendary Lee Clow, with whom he worked closely on global campaigns for brands such as VISA, Playstation, Energizer and Nissan. He founded social agency, Bondi Advertising, as creative partner, and has led creatives at Loud and BWM Dentsu.
Now he has made logical career shift, or what he calls more a shimmy than a shift, from creative director to creative strategist. “That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing anyway throughout my twenty-odd years as a creative director, copywriter and agency leader. As well as creatively solving business problems, directly with many of the industry’s leading CMOs and marketing directors,” he explained.
“And while I still love making great work, it seems my experience is now more valuable further upstream, working with senior clients and agency partners, crafting strategies that can evolve into expansive ideas. Now, with so many touchpoints and nuanced behaviours, stretching these ideas across the entire customer experience is a more complex task than ever for both agencies and clients.”
Thomson has observed astutely that a strategist who can not only differentiate between strategy, idea and execution, but is also proven at the highest level creatively, is an asset worth taking on board.
The “shimmy” has been warmly received by those who have worked with him already:
‘‘I have known Steve for many years and in that time have worked with him twice, in LA at TBWA Chiat\Day and later in Sydney at BMF, both very strong creatively, but also deeply grounded in strategic rigour. Steve is a smart and mature creative leader who pushes for great work in the right ways but has always been deeply curious about business strategy and has always sought to understand more about our clients’ business and how to solve their bigger problems.
“At this point in the industry’s evolution there are too few senior creative minds who know how to fuse strategy and creativity and clients are desperately in need of them as the networks focus their attention further down the funnel,” stated Nick Garrett, global leader marketing and commerce, Deloitte Digital
“From early on in his time at TBWA\Chiat\Day, it was obvious Steve’s approach to briefs was a little different than that of a lot of creatives. Whereas most just wanted to know what they were tasked to say, Steve also wanted to know WHY they were tasked to say it. Steve as a Creative? Excellent. Steve as Strategist? Even better,” commented Rob Schwartz, ex-Global CCO TBWA\Chiat Day.
More information around Thomson’s shimmy and how to get in contact, are displayed on his new strategy site. The work that got him to the top as a creative can be viewed here.
