Wunderman Thompson has finally recruited an executive creative director to file the role left vacant for 18 months, hiring Bartle Bogle Hegarty chief to Tom Drew as Steve Aldridge’s right-hand man.
Aldridge was appointed chief creative officer in March 2019 but, six months later, ECD Lucas Peon quit for The Gate; he had been in the role since 2017.
Now Drew, who will join in March, will oversee Wunderman Thompson’s creative output across clients including HSBC, Duracell, Ribena and KitKat.
He started his career as a copywriter at DLKW in 2000, before switching to M&C Saatchi in 2003, where he satyed nearly eight years. Drew joined BBH London in 2011 and has been working as a creative director on Audi, Virgin Media and Tesco.
Aldridge has been in the industry since the Eighties, having started his career at Wunderman Cato Johnson before joining forces with Phil Andrews to launch Partners Andrews Aldridge in 1998. The agency was eventually sold to Engine, with Aldridge going on to be ECD of Engine Group, as well as chairman and creative partner of Partners. He stepped down in May 2017.
Drew said: “I was drawn to Wunderman Thompson by Steve. He’s a legend. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with him to reshape the agency to its full creative potential; Wunderman Thompson has all the tools to make its amazing brands even bigger and better.
“It’s the end of an era but the start of something really pretty special.”
Aldridge added: “Tom’s a huge talent and his work speaks for itself. You can see the impact his ability, leadership and unique vision has had on some of the UK’s biggest brands. Tom will help us deliver another step-change in our creative development, unlock new opportunities with our clients, win new business and bring in the best creative talent.”
Earlier this month, Wunderman boosted its senior data team with the appointment of Dentsu Data Labs’ Steve Richards as UK data partner, while late last year it recruited former Karmarama chief strategy officer Sid McGrath to spearhead UK strategy teams.
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