Former DDB Group Melbourne chief creative officer Darren Spiller, who departed in November last year, has been appointed chief creative officer of Host, based in Sydney.
Spiller joined DDB Melbourne in 2012 as ECD, replacing Grant Rutherford, and was promoted to CCO in February 2015,
a move which saw a major creative restructure for the agency. During
his time at DDB Melbourne, the agency enjoyed a creative resurgence,
developing
high-profile work for Westpac, Devondale and RSL amongst others.
Prior to joining DDB Melbourne, Spiller held the role of CCO at Fallon
USA, moving to
Minneapolis in June 2009. Before Fallon, he was regional creative director of Publicis
Mojo Australia and New Zealand.
At Mojo Spiller was ECD on award winning campaigns including
Tourism Victoria's 'Labyrinth' and 'Run Rabbit Run', Nestle Peters
Drumstick campaign and 'Nike's 'Stuff History'.
During a career
of more than 20 years, Darren has produced award winning campaigns for
clients including Nike, Nestle, Tourism Victoria, NBC, H&R Block and
Lion to name but a few and has played a key role on the global creative
boards at Publicis and DDB.
Says Anthony Freedman, founder and group CEO, Host: "I have known Darren
for a long time and quietly always hoped we might work together one
day. Firstly and most importantly, he is great guy who sees the world as
we do, but he's also one of Australia's most experienced creative
leaders with an impeccable track record and the best qualified person we
could have brought into Host, to help us to develop the most exciting
creative content in Australia."
Says Spiller: "I was all set for
another overseas adventure and had a number of conversations underway in
Europe and the US. However after my chat with Anthony and Laura, it
became clear that what I thought I would have to go half way around the
world for was actually on offer in Sydney. Host is a home-grown success
story that's stayed the distance. They're riding high at the moment and
it seems the perfect time to pitch in and build on recent successes."
Last
year was a year of strong performance for Host, with the iTunes chart
topping, Christmas campaign of 2016 - Air New Zealand's "Summer
Wonderland" - a long list of new business wins including XXXX Gold,
James Boag, Tooheys Extra Dry, James Squire, Red Rooster, Oporto, Star
Entertainment Group, Subaru and Visit California, and a number of
notable hires including creative director, Chris Little, integrated
production director, Michael Griffiths, and group account directors
Brooke Chilcott and Gemma Cadwallader.
Host and sister agency,
One Green Bean formed a partnership with Havas in 2011 and in
conjunction with Universal Music Australia, also launched entertainment
marketing agency Bring, in 2016.