HELLO, I'M DAVE.

What gets me going every day is a drive to develop world class strategic thinking and execution for Global brands, with a skew towards sport & human performance. Over the past 12 years I’ve achieved this through communications, experience design, and (digital) product development. 

I’m proudly a hybrid - with a background in strategy and current remit in agency account leadership - and I use these skills to drive the success of brands such as Nike, Adidas, Intersport, Gatorade, OneFootball, Patagonia, TikTok, Philips, Vodafone, Highland Park, Reckitt Benckiser, Foxtel, ANZ Wealth and M.J. Bale.

I'm currently based in London, working at the global digital innovation agency of the year - R/GA. My previous experience was in Amsterdam and Sydney working at AKQA, WE ARE Pi, Studio Lore, TBWA, J. Walter Thompson, and Momentum Worldwide.

Beyond working in the industry, I’ve thrown myself into further learning in creativity, account service and brand strategy courses, and made industry contributions through teaching both online and at universities, and writing trade press articles. 

Below you’ll find some of the work I’m most proud of - thanks for dropping by. 

Nike - MOVE TO ZERO

To emphasise the importance of ongoing action and behaviour change, we launched Nike’s Move To Zero campaign on Earth Day 2023 to encourage Nike owners to extend the lifespan of their products. The approach was to make the act of recycling, refreshing or reusing your old gear as active as the act of buying it in the first place. We worked with athletes & communities including UNKWN PROJCTS, Eluid Kipchoge, Sky Brown, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Eric Dier to create bespoke social  content that brings to life the message that before creating more landfill, you should Get ‘Em Back In The Game.

adidas - RECODE RUNNING

This campaign saw us undertake the task of globally reposition adidas Running - introducing a culturally more meaningful position for the category. It resulted in taking adidas Running from a product first communicator to one driven by consumer insight; resulting in purpose driven communications.

My responsibilities:

\ Agency lead and point of contact for adidas team.

\ Managing all global partner agencies.

\ 4x global shoot setups & attendance, post-production oversight with production and creative teams.

INTERSPORT - You Never Sport Alone

With the year that was 2020 in the rear view mirror, we brought in 2021 with some motivation and positivity through sport - focussing on the support of our training crews that are there for us both physically and digitally.

My responsibilities:

\ Agency lead, heading up the team of creatives, producers, designers and planners that brought this campaign to life

\ Managing all clients are input from 20 global markets who ran the campaign.

\ Running 2x sets of shoots, 13 talent and 35 crew through a COVID production reality - scenario planning, and reacting to a COVID case on set that caused a halt in the production mid way through.

adidas - Ultraboost 19

In a campaign of many firsts (my first global agency lead role, my first shoe launch, my first adidas campaign) this was the first piece of film to be created to hype the launch of the next generation of adidas’ most popular shoe since 2015 - the UltraBOOST.

For this campaign we go back to the design roots of adidas and hero the brand that is FOR CREATORS. BY CREATORS. This film documents the story of how adidas went about creating the shoe.

My responsibilities:

\ Agency lead at Brand Articulations.

\ Managing all global partner agencies on campaign strategy, rollout, timings and ongoing requests.

\ Shoot pre-production setup, shoot attendance, post-production oversight with lead producer and creative director.

Gatorade - Bolt Rate

In the weeks before the Australia vs England Ashes cricket series, we enlisted the world’s fastest man - Usain Bolt - to train the Australian team to excel in a traditionally overlooked measurement of the game: run speed between the wickets. In doing so, we introduced a new competition within the notoriously slow game of cricket: The Bolt Rate.

It resulted in worldwide press reaching over 180 million people, a 25% uplift in Ashes viewership on the back of the hype created, and a 3.5% increase in sales of Gatorade year-on-year over the same time period.

My responsibilities:

\ Together with the strategic planner, developed the strategy for how we best combine the assets of Usain Bolt and the Australian cricket team to brief creative.

\ Working with creative and PR teams to develop the campaign idea.

\ Managing campaign timings, budgets, legals, shoot day, pre and post-production from start to end.

\ Working with Gatorade clients from briefing to implementation and post analysis, ensuring their objectives were hit and they loved every minute of it.

\ Working with the digital production team and Catapult tech who track the athlete speed to ensure the data would come through in a timely, simple formatted manner.

Multi-Aid Programs (MAPs) - Robogee The Robot

In 2020, we launched an inspirational children’s character - Robogee (Robot Refugee) - who’s story was based on the real accounts of Refugee children and migrant youth from around the world. We created an entertainment franchise and produced a kids book and doll, who’s proceeds all went back to education programs in Lebanon to empower displaced youth from Syria.

My responsibilities:

\ Part of a small team of 4 within the agency who conceived the idea, brought it to life, created all the social channels, wrote the content for the Robogee story, worked with MAPs to ensure the stories were genuine, and reached out to partners like WeTransfer, The Guardian and Buzzfeed to help amplify Robogee’s exposure.

M.J. Bale - Coolest Suit on the Planet

For the launch of M.J. Bale’s ‘Cool Wool’ range - made from breathable Merino wool that keeps you cool in the heat - we partnered with English Weatherman Alex Beresford to go on a heat-seeking mission to the hottest places on earth for live weather broadcasts via Facebook live & Instagram Live to prove that in a world getting hotter, you can always keep your cool and look great at the same time with M.J. Bale.

Back in Australia, we created a world first change room that simulated the temperatures that Alex was currently experiencing in real time, so people could trial the Cool Wool suits for themselves at the hottest temperatures on earth. 

My responsibilities:

\ Start to end management of the project from client strategic kick off through to campaign wrap up

\ Working with strategic planner to identify opportunity based on product innovations and writing creative brief

\ Rounds of creative sell in and tweaking with the team based on client feedback, budget changes and talent identification / updates / requests.

\ Key contact for production team, tech partners and activation partners in the lead up to the shoot and during. Key support in Australia to the team once 2-week worldwide shoot commenced.

\ Campaign wrap up and creative optimisation of assets based on test & learning once live across digital media, Instagram & Facebook stories, etc.

G Active Hydrogym

To launch Gatorade’s new sugar free product in Australia, we created an immersive brand experience that promoted the essence of the product: a lifer more active. We set up a floating gym on Sydney harbour and listed the help of 3 of Australia’s leading fitness influencers to spread the word and promote the event on social.

It resulted in a reach of 15 million views & impressions, 37 pieces of media coverage, and beat projected sales by 22% in the first month after launch.

My Responsibilities:

\ Project lead across integrated team (Integer for activation, TBWA for creative & production, Eleven for PR) and other agencies (social, influencer and media)

\ Key contact for client teams (local, regional & global) for product launch plan in Asia Pac

\ Managing 3rd party suppliers from activation element, to digital tech for live streaming the event, submissions of interest online, and social plug ins from the Hydrogym on the day

\ Campaign materials from the activation to be used across digital and ongoing PR beyond launch, campaign reporting and optimisation once live.

UNSW - Women in Engineering

Engineering is a male dominated industry, and therefore male dominated university degree. The perception is that it’s all hard hats and men designing heavy metal machinery. That doesn’t bode so well for university faculties trying to encourage more women to enrol in engineering degrees.

We set out to change perceptions of the entire industry by enlisting the social crew of the Nervo Twins - a grammy award winning DJ duo who use their engineering smarts to produce their music.

My responsibilities:

\ Project managing the job and liaising with all departments within the agency and clients

\ Dealing with talent and their management

\ Developing media plan with media agency based on key creative channels and best approach to seed a music video

\ Working with internal PR agency to promote the album and video clip along with Nervo management

\ End-to-end website UX, design and development, resulting in www.madebyme.org.au

Veet - Hairy Questions

Teenage girls going through puberty have a lot of questions. It’s arguably the hardest time in in their lives to navigate what’s ‘normal’, they want to fit in, but sometimes answers to life’s tough questions as a teenager aren’t easy to find. So for Veet EasyWax, we tapped into the truth that in this time, there’s someone you don’t usually ask the hard questions to: dad.

We launched the below video to capture attention and create shareable content, which drive teenage girls to the Feet EasyWax kit - a kit designed to help them with the hard questions when it comes to beauty and hair removal. So they don’t need to rely on unreliable sources anymore.

My responsibilities:

\ Account management of the project with my Account Director at the time, leading all client comms, timelines, budgets and internal departments

\ Working with production on the pre-production, shoot day, post production and talent sourcing

\ Working with digital department internally as well as Reckitt Benckiser web team on integrating the digital UX of the payment and info site

\ Setup of the eCommerce element of the website with Reckitt Benckiser web team to allow global payments and purchase of Hairy Questions Kit

\ Liaising with postage supplier to ensure all purchased kits were delivered on time and consumer feedback was received

Industry Press:

Click this link for an article I got published on B&T about productivity in a modern workplace.

Click this link for a Campaign Brief article about winning my place in AWARD School.