Branding News South Africa

Mick Blore joins Y&R Brands SA

Mick Blore has joined Y&R Brands South Africa as chief creative officer, it was announced yesterday, Tuesday, 1 July 2008. Blore was formerly Saatchi & Saatchi group executive creative director for South Africa & African Network - a group of 17 agencies.

Blore's immediate priorities at Y&R South Africa are to drive creative efficiency and excellence across the group, to put big ideas at the forefront of the thinking on clients' brands and to champion Y&R to become one of the leading creative agencies in the world, not just in South Africa.

Blore is one of South Africa's most awarded creative's, with multiple accolades from The One Show in New York, The Clios, The World Press Awards, The London International Advertising Awards, The Andes, The New York Festivals and The South African Loeries Awards, to name but a few. He has won six Cannes Lions in the last three years. He was invited to be an executive jury member of the Clios Awards in the US, has judged the New York Festivals, London International Advertising Awards, was a member of the 2008 APEX Effectiveness Awards and has been invited to judge this year's Loeries Awards. The work Blore did on Nugget Shoe Polish reportedly became, and remains, the most awarded campaign in the history of South African Advertising in any medium, ever.

He regularly lectures at South Africa's leading advertising schools, colleges and universities and sits on industry forums at the AAA School of Advertising and the Vega School of Communications. Blore is a member of the Who's Who of Southern Africa initiative (www.whoswhosa.co.za).

Before joining Saatchi & Saatchi, Blore took over from Graham Warsop to lead the largest creative department on the continent of Africa at The Jupiter Drawing Room, where he also led the charge to the unprecedented R1-billion win of the SAA, MTN, ABSA and Sasol accounts in 2006.

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