Lowe Lintas & Partners has imported Jeffery Curtis from its UK
agency to boost creative standards at its agency in Thailand in his role
as executive creative director.
Curtis arrives from London where he was group head art director, having
worked with Lowe Lintas for 11 years.
"I have been here before, once on holiday and once on a Lowe shoot. The
chance to come here came up and I just jumped at it," said Curtis. "It
is a big opportunity." He said he plans to be here for a few years.
Lowe Lintas is one of Thailand's leading advertising agencies.
Established in 1970, it has 280 employees and reported generated
billings of 4.4 billion baht (US$91.36 million) last year out of
a total market size of 50 billion baht.
The agency holds some of the biggest accounts in the country, including
key Unilever and Johnson & Johnson brands.
Curtis heads a creative division of 40 people, a team that has impressed
him.
"The major task for me is to raise the creative profile and standard.
However, the current standard is much higher than I expected," said
Curtis.
"I've seen some great causes for optimism. I've seen some lovely
work."
Curtis plans to implement systems that are used at Lowe divisions in
London to raise the creative bar, central to which is the use of
time.
"We have to change the internal systems, and follow those in London. The
most important thing is to have more time to produce more ideas. In the
past there was not always enough time so the first ideas were sometimes
used.
"By building in more time, we can also breed a competitive internal
environment within the department at the agency. Through this
competitiveness we can produce a safety net to raise the standard of
work.
"The main thing is quality of ideas. This really is fundamental. The
ideas must be good before you get into trends, styles and
production."
According to Curtis, everything is in place for the agency to produce
highly creative work.
"This is a great company and there are some very smart people here.
There is strong and effective management, and big accounts. I want this
agency to be the best in Bangkok, then make a splash in Asia.
"The plan is to address current clients so we create work that is good
for them, and then go after new clients who will be attracted by our
standards. Creativity sells," said Curtis.
