Ogilvy Malaysia sets up Creative Council to bolster the agency’s creative leadership
Ogilvy Malaysia has set up an internal Creative Council to support the agency’s creative teams.
Led by Kurt Novack, Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy Malaysia, the new Creative Council brings together the agency’s creative leads. With the expanded senior leadership in the creative team, Novack is supported by Jaz Lee who joined as Creative Director late last year, Keeta Brennan and Azraai Azmi who, in February, were promoted to Associate Creative Director and Creative Group Head, respectively, as well as Shariar Ghafar, Creative Group Head.
“We have amazing, diverse creative minds in the agency and the Ogilvy Creative Council gives us a platform to harvest the creative dexterity of our leads who all have different expertise and knowledge. As a collective, we are more powerful than just one creative director. The collective can put to the test any idea, evaluate work from different perspectives, make it better, and ensure that it is outstanding in all aspects, one piece of work at a time,” said Novack.
One of the youngest creative directors in Asia and recently listed in the One Under 30, Jaz Lee stumbled into advertising at the age of 19. In a short space of five years, his work and experience in leading some of the world’s biggest brands, speaks volumes. Whether it’s crafting emotional stories for Petronas, solving nationwide social issues or creating innovative digital work for Samsung, his work for brands has been recognised by some of the world’s most prestigious award shows such as Cannes Lions, The One Show, London International Awards, AdFest, AdStars, Spikes Asia, Effies, Appies and the Kancil awards. With his unique brand of anything is possible and a whole lot of crazy to the team, Lee strives to create work with ideas that bring a little more meaning and connection to people’s lives.
Keeta Brennan, who has been with Ogilvy since 2018, was recently promoted to the role of Associate Creative Director. With over 15 years’ experience in advertising and communications, she has brought her creativity to bear on projects for Tenaga Nasional, Ericsson, Media Prima and Bank Simpanan Nasional. She has a pragmatic approach and having run her own business, understands the need for ideas that generate revenue for today’s brands.
Shariar Ghafar has been at Ogilvy for 4 years now, following stints at both international and local agencies where he honed his craft working with big brands such as Petronas, Mitsubishi, and Milo winning awards in the Kancils. His mantra is the craft, the craft, the craft. He brings his many years of experience to the table in making things look beautiful no matter what the budget is.
Azraai Azmi, or Rae as he is affectionately known as, joined Ogilvy in April 2019 as Senior Copywriter. His contributions have seen him promoted to the role of Creative Group Head last month. Over the course of his career, Rae has worked on Digi, Telekom Malaysia, BMW, Unicef, Mcdonald’s and more; some of that work has been recognised in the Effies, AWARDS Award, Kancil and Appies. An avid podcaster, rapper and gamer, it comes as no surprise that Rae is a live wire filled with ideas.
“As we strive to deliver highly localised insights built on modern marketing, the Ogilvy Creative Council with its diverse mix of talents and depth of knowledge will raise the bar on our promise of creativeness and effectiveness to our clients. Creativity can come from anyone within the agency. The council will harness their collective creativity to trigger outstanding work in all aspects to make brands matter,” said Nizwani Shahar, Ogilvy Malaysia chief executive.
“We are always looking to freshen things up. We are thrilled to have Jaz join us to bring a new perspective to some of the work we do, and we are proud of Keeta and Rae who have grown from strength to strength working alongside Kurt and Shariar,” added Niz.
The council will also look to showcase best-in-class work to clients on a regular basis while providing ample guidance to the teams to foster a deep-set creative culture in the agency.
Pictured clockwise from top right: Kurt Novack, Keeta Brennan, Azraai Azmi, Jaz Lee and Shariar Ghafar.
3 Comments
It’s a creative department and you have some seniors but you just rounded them up as a council?
The definition of council is…a body of people elected to manage the affairs of a city, county, or other municipal district. OR an advisory, deliberative, or administrative body of people formally constituted and meeting regularly.
I get it when agencies set up a regional or global creative council to meet time to time and council the different countries. Here you have a department, you hired some seniors and promoted them within your department but called it a council. It doesn’t make sense. It’s just a creative leaders in your creative department, why call it a council?
Senior leaders in any agency should already be tasked with the same responsibilities without the need for PRable piece on creating a ‘council’. If its internal….keep it internal! What this ends up sounding like is management by committee….again. Let’s get even more people looking at the work…spending even more unbillable hours..add more layers..more frustration. yes that’s sure to make the work fly!
i hear the agency is bleeding – good people are leaving and the finances are bad. yet it promotes the 2 Co-CEOs to CEO and global director. I hope can get job there, get promoted and rewarded for doing little. Where is the checking from the big bosses… i thought WPP is very strict and stingy.