“A structural evolution, a potent focus on targeted and measurable advertising and an impressive new hire –  a good combination we think.”

The Hallway has restructured, adopting what the agency sees as a more powerful yet simplified operating model: Create & Connect. The Create offering, led by executive creative director and partner, Simon Lee, will continue to focus on creating affective ideas across all channels. The Connect team will be led by new hire, Pascal Winkler, to deliver the Hallway’s ideas in more targeted, measurable and efficient ways.

Winkler has become head of Connect after after six years at Host as digital planning director, where he helped the agency to win AdNews Agency Of The Year and delivered award winning work for Air New Zealand, Levi’s and Coca Cola. He will lead communications strategy and social, PR, programmatic media and search for The Hallway’s clients, including Google, Disney, UNSW, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Mutti and NSW Government.

The new appointment reunites Winkler and The Hallway’s chief executive officer, Jules Hall. The pair worked together at NetX. “Pascal is an awesomely talented strategist, a lovely human, and I’m really happy to be working with him again,” Hall stated.

Winkler added, “I see independent agencies move a lot faster in adapting to the way marketing is changing, and I have always admired how The Hallway has remained nimble and disruptive, constantly refining and evolving their approach to advertising and communications. I wanted to join an entrepreneurial team who truly are ‘right brain analytical’ and easily combine award-winning creativity with effective analytical marketing”.

“Increasingly data is the springboard for creativity and we have always believed the real power is in elegantly combining the two without sacrificing quality. The real benefits of the Connect approach is our ability to deliver data-driven creative solutions faster, combined with the ability to optimise our work based on real-time insights,” Hall continued.

The Hallway has housed PR & social in-house for a long time, is a Google Certified Partner. With Winkler at the helm, the agency is able to formalise its reach into programmatic media, which The Hallway sees as a rapidly growing creative opportunity.

“The creative canvas has got bigger and more complex,” Winkler  explained, “which probably is still a bit daunting for many creatives. But to us, this bigger canvas is clearly a chance to expand a narrative across executions and media, as well as a way to better control what story the consumer is being told. If you understand and embrace the technology, you’ll create much better, richer work.”

The agency has been exploring the potential of blending creativity with data and dynamic delivery over the past few years. In 2015 ADMA awarded The Hallway the AC&E Grand Prix and the Pinnacle Award for Innovation for its work on Google Search. Its latest Google campaign was also shortlisted for Mumbrella’s Media Campaign of the Year.