CB Exclusive: After four years in the role Colenso BBDO chief creative officer Levi Slavin departs
Campaign Brief can reveal that Colenso BBDO chief creative officer Levi Slavin has departed the agency after four years in the role. When contacted by CB Slavin confirmed he has left but would not reveal his future plans.
When contacted by CB, Angela Watson, managing director, Colenso BBDO says Slavin has been a constant contributor to the success of both Colenso and Clemenger: “His creative genius has led to work that will always be massively loved and respected in and out of the industry. He leaves the agency this week with nothing but our love and best wishes for the future.”
Before joining Colenso in 2017, Aussie expat Slavin spent two years as a EVP, group creative director at BBDO New York. It was a homecoming, having left Colenso BBDO Auckland in February 2014 to take a global creative director role at Anomaly, New York. After a year he returned to the BBDO fold, taking a VP, group creative director role at BBDO New York in January, 2015.
At BBDO New York, Levi worked on Visa, the American Red Cross, Babies’R’Us, and General Electric–winning the historic brand its first two Gold Lions. The awards were for The Message, an 8 episode original sci-fi podcast that made it to #1 on the iTunes charts. The Message went on to be the year’s most awarded branded content campaign in the U.S.
At Anomaly, Levi worked on Google, Johnnie Walker, Captain Morgan, and MyMusicRX–helping the organization launch Bedstock, an annual music festival where artists play from bed for sick kids stuck in theirs. The long running event has attracted multiple a-list artists.
Slavin joined Colenso in November, 2009 as deputy CD from Saatchi & Saatchi London, eventually elevated to CD six months later.
Perth-born Slavin, whose first gig was 303 followed by Marketforce Perth, worked at Colenso in 2006, and left a legacy of iconic work like Trumpet ‘Undies’ and the launch of Frank soft drink.
He then moved to Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland followed by two years at Saatchi & Saatchi London, working on campaigns for T-Mobile, Carlsberg, P&G andCadbury. At Saatchi’s he completed the first global campaign in Guinness’ history, working with director Antoine Bardou-Jacquet.
At Colenso, he was responsible for many award winning campaigns, including Doggelganger and Donation Glasses for Pedigree, and the highly awarded War On Wine campaign for DB Breweries. During Slavin’s time, Colenso consistently ranked in the top 5 in the Won Report’s global rankings, coming in at #5, #1 and #4 respectively – a record never before achieved by a New Zealand agency. In 2012, Slavin was named the world’s most awarded writer in the report.
Slavin has won over 100 international awards for dozens of brands, including 18 D&AD Pencils, 32 Cannes Lions, and the highly sought-after D&AD Black Pencil–the first for New Zealand. Slavin’s work has featured at TED; ranked #1 on both the iTunes music and iTunes podcast charts; and joined popular culture in the form of podcast, product innovation, tv series, music, literature, annual festivals, and film.
Since joining as CCO in 2017, Colenso BBDO was named Campaign Brief Agency of the Year in 2018.
34 Comments
Total legend.
Absolute legend.
DDB?
Delloite Digital NZ
Yes. I’d say they’ve found their new CCO.
DDB was my suspicion too. Or DDB Sydney after Ben’s resignation.
Who knows.
I’ve never met the chap. He’s done well though. I wish him well! I’ll open a bottle of something French to celebrate. Might open two…
The agency is in great hands with Simon and the other creative leaders.
…and haven’t heard that.
Levi to Deloitte. Vicars to CCO.
You can’t instantly fill a role that’s been made redundant.
Since when was the role made redundant?
Agree on Vicars. Levi would be great at DDB. They’ve got emotional story telling locked down, he’d bring some progressiveness to that mix. Could be a match made in heaven.
Vicars for president.
At least they’ve confirmed Levi’s departure. Wortho sloped off under the covers…
Guess again. Dan Wright to Deloitte.
Maria is the best person to lead that department.
Talent not gender. You’re better than that.
If this doesn’t act as a wake up call for the industry nothing will. Levi was (and is) one of the most brilliant creative minds in New Zealand. He contributed to years (and years) of success for Clemenger. And this is how they thank him. And then the industry response? We all ponder who will take the poisoned chalice. No one in their right mind. Holding companies make for broken models. And the consultancies you now idealise will be even more disrespectful toward creativity.
That’s how they thank him
With respect. It went spectacularly wrong. How many accounts lost? How many staff dumped wily nily? How much did the awards tally drop since? Do the maths people. This was a long time happening. 5 years ago Colenso was respected around the globe. Now? A shadow, and don’t pretend otherwise.
Levi led the agency incredibly well, and did some bloody great work. He also established an internal culture of empathy, diplomacy, and respect – that’s real success. He’s one of the most brilliant and humble human beings in the industry, and he made a lot of people look good – often at his own expense. A true gent. Hats off.
Unfortunately this is the unavoidable truth and whilst it’s not down to Levi he’s the latest to take the fall. As ever with Colenso it seems the problem is not the talent that leaves but those that remain.
The business has become a shadow of its former self and it’s best PR is the leaders bigging themselves up as opposed to the work. We need less gaslighting of great employee policies for a business often critiqued and with a track record for the worst behaviours. And less of the supposed “guru” status of the leaders and more simple mahi.
I’m not sure Colenso have won an account in five years have they? But there’s been quite a few losses in that time. It’s not the business it was and it’s time to see what they can do about it. If Spark left we could have another saatchi on our hands (although they seem to finally be working things out).
Hats off to you Levi. You have had an amazing innings, produced so much world class work and will continue to do so for many years to come.
N
You Colenso haters sound like you work at DDB (or worse, TBWA). That place had (and has) a magic that you’ll maybe never understand. If it wasn’t for Clemenger taking a yearly pound of flesh, they’d be allowed to focus on the things that matter. The people and creativity. Levi’s role fell victim to the group, not the people in the building or the work.
Levi was and is brilliant. One of the absolute best. Anyone who says otherwise hasn’t worked with him. His time at Colenso was hugely successful in terms of the quality of the work. That work was often his but he side stepped the spotlight. He’s a guy who had a lot of love for his people. Big love and respect to you Levi
Call it collaboration, but a lot of creatives get carried by talent above.
Couldn’t you say the same thing about any agency? If any agency could just focus on ‘the things that matter’ and didn’t have to worry about making money – it would be a better more creative place to work. But the reality is, you need to make money so you don’t have to do the ‘Colenso cull’ every year. All those agencies Colenso look down on, realise this and prioritise their people, even if it means having to do some, not so great work now and then.
Has Colenso really nailed over the last 2-3 years ?
Levi is a better creative than a leader @Not True – you couldn’t be more wrong on the empathy, diplomacy, and respect call. And there are dozens of ex/ Colenso employees that feel that way
As an ex-Colenso staffer myself, you can certainly put me in the (ever-growing) group of ex/employees that feel that way. Empathy? Yeah right.
“An internal culture of empathy, diplomacy, and respect”?! Have you ever truly looked at the hard working mid and junior people in your agency?
Colenso has always been ruthless but at least they made world-class work. That was the trade off. Now they don’t make world class work and it’s still ruthless. It hardly seems ‘magic’ and no one’s jealous of you for working there. We don’t hate Colenso, we just feel sorry for everyone who works there.
No one is disagreeing about Levi as a creative. He is superb. But, here is the thing, Wortho, sublime creative, but also built peerless reputation of Colenso around the globe. Don’t know the man, but his CD touch was peerless. Sure, part of that was Levi. But roll on a few years, Wortho left. Levi took over. One word example, Kupe. Who came up with that only award winning idea in his first 12 months? They were let go. Levi is indeed a sublime creative, but was he a sublime Creative director? For the people ke kept, sure. And it is great that your loyalty is showing here. But, to the rest of the indistry, the place, to be frank… the awards, the accounts, the reputation..it fell apart. There were instances of superb work, but it wasn’t the same powerhouse. But, I do sincerely wish Levi all the best, as a sublime creative, he deserves the best.
Another ex-Colenso person here….“An internal culture of empathy, diplomacy, and respect”…yeah right.
Couldn’t be further from the truth. Junior and mid-level staff there are miserable, underpaid, treated like cannon-fodder and paid like interns.