Ex-DraftFCB creative director Matthew Maxwell has joined mobile marketing agency Sponge in the same role, in what is believed to be the first significant industry move from digital to mobile.
Maxwell has been a digital creative director for the past ten years. He previously held the position at DraftFCB for just over a year, and for four years at independent digital agency Blue Barracuda prior to its acquisition by DraftFCB. Before this, he worked at digital marketing agency twentysix, which has offices in London, Leeds and New York.
At Sponge, Maxwell will be responsible for the creative direction of brands’ mobile strategies. Sponge helps brands design and build high-end mobile websites, apps and creative mobile marketing campaigns. Agency clients include Coca-Cola, McDonalds, adidas, Barclays and AutoTrader.
“Matthew is the first big-hitting creative director to move from digital to mobile,” said Dan Parker, CEO of Sponge. “He will offer our clients new ways of doing things to engage users and drive business results. He brings many years of digital creative experience and we hope he will lead the industry debate in terms of mobile and the opportunities it presents.”
At DraftFCB, Maxwell worked on notable campaigns such as Trust for eBay, helping the brand articulate its ‘trust’ proposition in a digital environment. He worked with the UK Film Council to encourage greater consumption of film via legal channels, which resulted in the creation of findandfilm.com; the first and only comprehensive directory of any film currently available in any format in the UK.
He also co-wrote a viral campaign for Philips amBX, which won a host of awards including a Cannes Cyber Lion gold for best use of viral.“As a creative, you always want to be at the cutting edge. That’s where it’s exciting – doing things nobody’s ever done before,” said Matthew Maxwell, Creative Director at Sponge. “I joined Sponge because I was impressed by the heritage of the company and because mobile as a creative channel is starting to mature. Technology has reached a point where the potential is there to allow a greater breadth of ideas, design and interaction. Mobiles are integral to people’s lives. The channel offers an extension of the principles of digital, but with an opportunity to redefine what we mean by creative.”