GPY&R Sydney snares Droga5’s Ben Akers as CD

Multi-awardwinning creative Ben Akers has been signed by George Patterson Y&RSydney to work alongside David Joubert — who transferred to Sydney inMay last year, since he’s been promoted to one of the agency’s new creative directors reporting to ECD Julian Watt.

Akersspent 10 years in the industry at some of London’s best agencies,before being lured from BBH to Droga5 Sydney.  During a two-year stintat Droga5 he co-created the Vanilla Ice apology work for Virgin Mobileand the Cannes Gold winning digital idea for V-Australia which set an(unofficial) world record for Tweeting every minute of three days.

His campaign for 4320 has just been ranked #10 Direct Campaign in theworld by The Big Won, an annual global ranking which charts theperformance of individual agencies and networks.

Akers has wonnumerous awards at all the major shows around the world, culminating inhis haul last year of three Cannes Lions and pencils at One Show andD&AD.GPY&R Executive CD Julian Watt says that Akers has ideasthat clients need and agencies covet.

“I’ve admired Ben’s workfor years now and it was only a matter of time before we workedtogether. He has that rare combination of sharp creative ability andbusiness suss which will be a great offering for our clients and agencynetwork.”