Former Droga5 creative director Jo Sellars has been named creative director of Publicis Sydney as the agency moves to place creative leadership across all channels of communications for clients.
Publicis Australia’s chief creative officer Grant Rutherford said he was evolving the national agency’s creative capabilities to anticipate future opportunities, particularly for brands working with their agency to manage the entire customer journey.
“I have been working with Jo since October last year, and she is a very strong creative director, thinker and leader,” said Rutherford. “She is the person to ask the tough questions of our creative challenges and to lead the Sydney group to more compelling and effective creative work as our offering evolves. And she’s an Aries!”
Prior to her appointment, Sellars was creative director at Droga5 in Sydney, working mostly on Woolworths, Sunsilk and new business pitches. Before that she was group creative director and copywriter at Ogilvy Sydney.
During her career Sellars has created some of Australia’s best known integrated campaigns for brands such as Qantas, Toyota, Telstra, Dove, Woolworths, Purina and Coke. She was also a member of the team that helped Events NSW conceive, name and create Sydney’s VIVID Festival of Light, which has taken its place on the list of the world’s top festivals.
Sellars said, “The first 12 years of my career were at Mojo Brisbane, then Sydney and I learned from a lot of amazing creative. The Publicis Mojo brand has always been close to my heart – it feels like a sort of homecoming – but to a new, smarter version bolstered by impressive digital capabilities and some very big ambitions.”
She added, “Having worked with Grant closely on ideas and executions for major campaigns, as well as highly targeted and niche brands, we share a passion to ensure the creative work is sharply focused and highly relevant to people. And the fact he’s responsible for one of my favorite ads, Cougar Bourbon’s Barry Dawson, makes it a more exciting opportunity.”
