Tom Lawrence, winner of this year’s AWARD School prize and the National Top Student Award, is on his way to New York to meet David Droga and compare AWARD School portfolios with him, as part of his reward.
Turns out, he is the son of Australian advertising creative, Neil Lawrence. Tom let it slip in a conversation with trip sponsor and creative recruiter, Esther Clerehan, Communications Council chief executive officer, Tony Hale and AWARD creative leadership course chair, Warren Brown, shortly before his departure.
“Until that moment, no one knew,” Clerehan commented. “Tom hadn’t said anything to AWARD or his tutors. I was stunned. Twenty odd years ago, I’d put two names forward to Bob Isherwood for a regional job at Saatchi & Saatchi Asia. One was David Droga and the other was Neil Lawrence.
“David and I were reminiscing about those days last year when he brought up the fact he’d kept his AWARD School portfolio. It was that conversation that led to this #Droga30 competition happening. It’s marvellous serendipity.”
Droga, who will meet the younger Lawrence on Monday September 25, noted, “He sounds like an amazing young man and his father was a really good and legitimate gentleman. It’s little wonder he’s talented. I look forward to meeting him.”
Tom had no intention in pursuing a career in advertising, despite his lineage. “The funny thing is that when he was alive I wasn’t the slightest bit interested in advertising. I was working as a bartender and playing with cameras,” he said.
“A part of me thought advertising would be a good choice as Dad had done well in the industry, and I studied media and communications and had been working in radio, film and TV.”
Neil Lawrence died in 2015. His last project was the anti-pokies documentary, Ka-Ching: Pokie Nation. Son, Tom, and daughter, Anna, developed Proudly Pokies Free as a way of building up profiles of the pokie-free pubs and providing live music, events and promote alternative forms of entertainment.
Last year, Tom and Anna accepted a posthumous ADMA lifetime achievement award on behalf of their father.
Clerehan and Wilf Sweetland, managing partner of the Sweet Shop, are also heading to New York to introduce Tom to David Droga. He will also have lunch with Australian expat, Nick Law, the vice chair of R/GA worldwide, and a meeting with one time AWARD School top student, Leo Premutico, the founder of Johannes Leonardo.
“There are a few more surprises. Tom will meet many more AWARD School alumni who are working in New York. AWARD School has launched hundreds of successful global careers in the industry and this is a great way to celebrate that,” Sweetland commented.
