Psembi Kinstan Joins McCann Melbourne As Executive Creative Director

McCann Melbourne has appointed highly awarded BBH London Creative, Psembi Kinstan to the newly created role of Executive Creative Director.

Psembi returns to Melbourne from a career in the UK, working for BBH and VMLY&R, where he was the youngest Creative Director in history to be appointed by both networks.

With well over 100 international awards to his name, including five years of consecutive wins at Cannes for campaigns on M&S, Audi and Oxfam amongst others, as well as a BAFTA for his work with the BBC, and campaigns that helped BBH win IPA Effectiveness Grand Prixs for their largest clients, Psembi will lead McCann Melbourne’s creative output and oversee key projects for its affiliated independent network, HERO.

On his appointment, Psembi says: “I’m thrilled to be joining McCann and Hero at such an exciting time with a bucketload of momentum behind them across the entire country. The ambition and energy that Ben, Pat and Coulson have is inspiring, and their desire to make properly populous and famous work is right up my alley. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in and working with some great brands and really good humans. Plus the creative department at McCann is genuinely one of the nicest and most talented groups of people you could hope to hang out with, even on Zoom.”

Prior to returning to Australia, Psembi helped creatively lead BBH’s successful pitches for Audi, Barclays and Publicis networks’ global Western Union business win. His campaign for M&S Christmas “won Christmas” in 2016 and received over 100 million unpaid views, and his Winter and Summer Olympics campaigns received 60 million between them.

“After learning so much from some inspiring leaders like Hegarty, Karen Martin, Nick Gill, Ian Heartfield and Ewan Paterson amongst so many others, I’m thrilled to be able to lead the Melbourne office in this next exciting chapter.” Psembi is the second high-profile creative leader to be hired by McCann Creative Chairman and HERO network founder Ben Lilley, who also appointed Ben Coulson as CCO of McCann Sydney earlier this year.

Lilley says: “Psembi is a unique talent in so many ways, right down to his name, which came from his three-year-old brother. It’s not surprising he has such a creative world view, and this has led to such a strong creative career. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can now bring to our Australian clients and business.”

Chief Creative Officer Patrick Baron says: “Psembi’s done his best work for some of the world’s biggest brands. We couldn’t be more excited to have him joining our leadership team from BBH London at this exciting time. He represents a new generation of creative leadership in Australia, with a new energy and voice.”

Lilley confirmed that Psembi’s role will also encompass the HERO network of independent companies. Launched by Lilley earlier this year, HERO offers integrated creative and technology services across the national Australian and New Zealand businesses of McCANN, SMART, The Red Republic, B.B.E, JSA Creative and Engine Room Productions.

The network’s clients include Coca-Cola, LinkedIn, L’Oréal, MasterCard, Microsoft, Menulog, Nestlé, Ebay and the Federal Government. Lilley says he is continuing to expand the HERO network’s national creative scope and scale by integrating both more best-in-class talent like Psembi and more best-in-class acquisitions in the creative, data, design, media, technology and PR space across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

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