by Herman Manson (@marklives) The Odd Number has announced the appointment of Terry Mckenna as its new executive creative director. Sibusiso “Sbu” Sitole, current ECD and agency co-founder, steps up into the newly created position of chief creative officer.
Mckenna has over 18 years of advertising experience, having started out as a junior writer at Grey Advertising before moving on to TBWA\Hunt Lascaris, Joe Public and Ogilvy South Africa, among others. He’s worked on brands including Heineken, Mazda, IEC, Standard Bank, Steers, Mahindra, Nike, KFC and Cadbury; most recently, he was creative director on Castle Lager at Ogilvy Johannesburg.
Rapid growth
According to Sitole, the agency has seen rapid growth since its launch in 2015 and, coupled with constant change taking place in the broader industry, this necessitated a greater focus on its offering by him and agency CEO, Xola Nouse, while building a formidable leadership team across all aspects of the business. Sitole says the result will be stronger integration between the agency’s various specialised offerings and, ultimately, a more-potent and -quantifiable creative output.
“Having Terry on board will help me focus on evolving The Odd Number into an effective and integrated group,” says Sitole. “I’ll be a lot more available to all our clients [and] have more time to focus on our growth, as well as maintaining our culture. However, I’m certainly not out of the creative studio; I’ll be stepping into a CCO role, and a large part of my role will still involve creative leadership. Terry will invest most of his time leading our creative department, building a formidable and future-fit creative team, creating meaningful and effective work, and decorating our entrance hall with shiny statuettes.
“We’re currently carving out our own niche and DNA in a very competitive industry. Terry brings a fresh perspective and a wealth of experience to help us build our vision for The Odd Number. Ultimately, though, we want to see our work compete at a global level and believe Terry is just the partner to help get us there.
“Revitalise”
“He’ll also be a huge support strategically for our business. His unique style, energy and passion for ideas will revitalise our studio. His wealth of experience on big brands [and] producing integrated campaigns, as well as powerful award-winning ideas, will all be of huge benefit to The Odd Number.”
Herman Manson (@marklives) is the founder and editor of MarkLives.com.
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