Amplify's Australian office appoints two new senior creative hires

Amplify is continuing the recruitment drive for its six-month old Australian office with two new senior creative appointments: Tim Baggot as creative director and Gus Magee as associate creative director.

Reporting into Gareth Davies (centre), Amplify’s managing partner in Australia, Baggot (left) will build and nurture a world-class creative team in Sydney while overseeing, expanding and pushing the local studio’s creative offering by matching the London HQ’s high level of ideas and executions.

Formerly AKQA London’s associate creative director before transferring to AKQA Sydney, Baggot was creative lead on the multi award-winning project, Elton John: The Cut, a global campaign that gave new and undiscovered filmmakers the chance to direct official music videos for the musician’s best loved songs. Baggot has also been a creative contributor to the globally acclaimed Choose Love initiative, the world’s first store exclusively designed to support refugees.

Magee (right) joins as associate creative director to oversee the Australian office’s creative design output. Hailing from the projects* Sydney, Magee was responsible for the Australian launch of Perrier-Jouët’s Garden of Wonder and Blanc de Blanc cuvée, a project that entailed collaborations with Sculptures by the Sea and multiple high-profile artists.

Magee additionally led the creative on the Gigi Hadid x Reebok capsule collection launch in Australia and helped bring Mercedes Benz to the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival in 2018.

Also reporting into Davies, Magee looks forward to being part of a pioneering agency that are re-writing the brand experience formula.

Both new appointments have been made in time for the much-anticipated release of the Australian edition of Young Blood, Amplify’s deep dive into modern youth culture, which lands in August 2019.

Meanwhile, over in the UK, Amplify are launching a dedicated content division. The new arm will be helmed by Alex Wilson who leaves his role as creative partner at Lucky Generals’ experience design arm Wild Things to fill the agency’s new head of content position.

Says Davies: “As the agency founded as a home for creative people and creative clients, creativity is front and centre of everything we do. So, in addition to a local client list that includes Google and Spotify, these appointments really put a stake in the ground, signalling our intention to help raise the creative bar across the Australian market.”

Says Jeavon Smith, executive creative director, Amplify: “Tim and Gus offer the perfect blend of talent to steer our Australian creative offering, as they combine big ideas and design craft with great experience design. I’m excited to see how they will continue to build upon Amplify’s creative output as our work strives to reflect and shape culture.”

To read the full announcement, head to Campaign Brief, AdNews + Mumbrella