Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners is one of those agencies in New York
that people have heard of, but aren’t always sure why. But with the
arrival of Logan Wilmott as creative and associate director, with his
Belfast twang, confident swagger and urchin looks, Kirshenbaum Bond
hopes to impress on people’s memories its growing array of clients.
This is Wilmott’s sixth agency since 1981, when he kicked off his career
as an art director at BMP DDB and it’s his third move on the New York
circuit. Sitting in a hotel overlooking Covent Garden, Wilmott confesses
that he misses London. ’The business in London is friendly and
interactive - you don’t get that in New York. I also miss that
unquestioned belief that a creative solution is a valid solution.
Sometimes in New York you wonder whether that’s the case. It’s a
business that uses creativity but in London it is a creative
business.’
Wilmott was lured by Kirshenbaum Bond from the large US agency, Messner
Vetere Berger MacNamee Schmetterer, where he was a creative
director.
Although he felt it was time to move on, he had to be persuaded that the
job at Kirshenbaum Bond was right for him. ’I talked with Kirshenbaum
Bond for a while, and at first I didn’t think they wanted someone as
senior as me (I sound arrogant, but I don’t mean it like that). The more
I talked, I realised they wanted to make the transition from a very
good, small media shop to a very good, medium-sized one. It’s US small,
with 215 people.’
Wilmott believes that Kirshenbaum Bond shares his passion for
creativity.
’The agency is 11 years old, but from day one it has been creatively
driven. It has passion, whereas in the US it’s very easy to make it dry.
One of the reasons I was hired was to help with the agency’s broadcast
output to give it quality and scale.’ The agency gained a valuable
foothold on the Coca-Cola roster in April. It also has a sister agency
in San Francisco and works on accounts such as Olympus, Prudential
Healthcare and Rockport.
The word ’precocious’ neatly sums up Wilmott’s early years. At the
tender age of 25 he became a founding partner and the joint creative
director of Still Price Court Twivy D’Souza. He was reunited with Mike
Court, who had worked with him before at TBWA, and together they won
awards for their campaigns for Brooke Bond Red Mountain and Mates
condoms. Five years later, Still Price merged with Lintas and Wilmott
moved on to Young & Rubicam as the executive creative director alongside
Court. In February 1992 he was pushed aside by a new management team
because of reservations about his ability to run a creative department.
Wilmott remains sanguine about the past. ’The job at Y&R was one I never
thought I’d end up doing. I don’t think I was mature enough to do the
job and I didn’t want to play by the rules.’
Wilmott can’t be too bitter about Y&R because it made a valuable
contribution to his personal life. He sheepishly admits that his wife,
Beth, was his PA at the company. After leaving Y&R, he spent 14 months
travelling around the world. ’I went away and couldn’t work out whether
I wanted to go back.
When I came back to London, I realised that advertising was great.’ He
returned to a country in recession, and after doing some freelance,
decided to try his luck in the US, where he joined the New York
start-up, Merkley Newman Harty. He found it hard-going at first and was
ready to jack it in after six months, but he stayed on for two years,
before moving to Messner Vetere Berger MacNamee Schmetterer.
Proud of his Irish roots, Wilmott has not picked up an Atlantic timbre
in his voice. His enthusiasm for New York, however, is boundless. ’Being
Irish in New York is fantastic, they truly embrace you. I feel more me
in New York than in London.’ But Wilmott is determined that he will some
day return to London. ’I’d like to have my own agency, but there’s no
reason why Kirshenbaum Bond in London couldn’t become my agency!’
FACT FILE
1981
art director, BMP DDB
1982
art director, TBWA
1985
head of art, Still Price Court Twivy D’Souza becoming joint executive
creative director in 1986
1990
joint executive creative director, Young & Rubicam
1992
travels around the world, then freelances
1994
creative director, Merkley Newman Harty
1996
creative director, Messner Vetere Berger MacNamee Schmetterer
1998
creative and associate director, Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners
