Matthew Bull, former Lowe global chief creative officer announced today that he has teamed up with fellow South African Andrew Whitehouse and American Lee Davis to form The Bull-White House.
Founded in partnership with MDC Partners, the New York based firm will officially open its doors on October 1, 2011 with first clients AB-InBev and social media company, Syncapse.
The Bull-White House will operate out of its New York headquarters with Bull and Whitehouse focusing on creative duties and Davis heading up account management and new business development.
Bull served as chief creative officer of Lowe Worldwide since 2005 when he moved over from his position as CEO of Lowe London. He began his career in South Africa, eventually founding Lowe Bull in 1996, which he grew into one of the top five agencies in the county, consistently ranked in the top 50 creative agencies on the Gunn Report. He's perhaps best known for his work on Stella Artois, HSBC, Rexona, Magnum, and Dulux.
Andrew Whitehouse is one of the founders of FoxP2, a six-year old creative hot shop that has already been named Agency of the Year four times in South Africa, and has just placed first in the annual SA advertising awards for the second time in three years. Prior to FoxP2, Whitehouse worked at Lowe in New York and before that at TBWA Paris. Although he will be moving to New York to concentrate on this new firm, he will remain a partner in FoxP2, which will act as a sister agency.
"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring our thinking and creativity to the toughest advertising market in the world," said Bull. "Andrew and I have worked together for many years and are excited to be teaming up with both Lee and MDC. What we all love about MDC is that they don't feel like a bank, something that most other holding companies seem to aspire to be. The MDC family is filled with like-minded talent, talent that we will be utilizing as the company grows".
Whitehouse and Bull are joined by Lee Davis who was originally at the Martin Agency before moving over to Wieden & Kennedy for eight years where he worked on Nike, Miller, Coke and Delta Airlines amongst others. He spent the last two years as head of new business for JWT, New York.
Says Bull: "We want to create an agency within which talent flourishes, within which work is created that positively transforms brands and lives. We've made it our internal mantra - 'Inspire change. Reinforce Belief', because that's basically what we aspire to do."
The Bull-White House was developed with the backing of MDC Partners, the holding company that counts CP B, 72andSunny, kbs p and Anomaly among its many holdings.
"What MDC is really good at is identifying and backing talent," said Chuck Porter, chairman of CP B and chief strategist for MDC, "and these guys have proven they know how to make brands famous. I really can't wait to see the work."
matthew@thebullwhitehouse.com
