Gavin Levinsohn

Gavin Levinsohn

Chief Executive Officer at Marcel Sydney
Walsh Bay, Australia

About me

I lead Creative Companies.


- Currently CEO of Marcel (Publicis Sydney) and National MD Publicis Australia
- 1.7 years CEO of Moon Group (part of the ASX Listed STW Group), Sydney Australia
- 5 years Managing Director of Ogilvy Cape Town and Board Director of Ogilvy & Mather South Africa
- 3 years Founder and Managing Director of my own business, singh&sons
- 9 years The Jupiter Drawing Room: Junior 'Suit' to Strategic Planner to Board Director
- 1 Year Online Gaming Industry
- 4 Years University of Cape Town: Bachelor of Business Science (Honours: Finance)


Two side-projects:
Founding investor and Non-Executive Director of Fives. 'Fives' is the fastest growing Five-a-Side Football business in South Africa, currently operating in nine locations across Cape Town, Johannesburg and soon to open in Durban


Non-Executive Director of Recomazing. Recomazing is a Sydney based start-up that provides a curated database of peer-recommended companies and tools aimed at the start-up community. 

Positions

National Managing Director
Walsh Bay, Australia
February 2017 - Present (7 years 1 month)
In addition to my role as CEO of Marcel Sydney, I'm responsible for operations of PublicsQ in Brisbane, and Publicis Melbourne.
Non Executive Director
Recomazing
January 2016 - Present (8 years 2 months)
Recomazing is curated database of b2b recommendations aimed at specifically at the world of start-up communities, incubators and co-working spaces.
CEO Sydney
Sydney, Australia
June 2015 - Present (8 years 9 months)
Marcel Sydney is the 5th office in the Marcel Network. The Sydney office was launched in March 2016, Previously called Publicis Mojo Sydney, Marcel is the name Publicis Worldwide reserve for their most innovative, digitally integrated and creative offices.
Founding Investor, Brand Custodian
Fives Futbol
January 2010 - Present (14 years 2 months)
My ongoing side project. As an early investor in South Africa's fastest growing 5-a-Side football business, helped establish the brand and am ongoingly involved in both business strategy and the marketing end: creating (social) content, promotions and our soon-to-be released online platform/site.
CEO
Moon Communications Group
November 2013 - May 2015 (1 year 6 months)
Part of STW Group, Moon Communications started 17 years ago as a branding and design agency. Moon has helped develop some of Australia's best known brands including JetStar and Westfield. Moon has also completed integrated design and comms work for Luxottica (owners of Sunglass Hut, Vogue Eyewear), packaging for Glasshouse, identity for The Sydney Opera House and several branding projects in the financial services category.

During my 17 months I lead the expansion of Moon into an integrated group of communications agencies covering communications (Shift), Branding (Moon), Internal Branding and Service Design (Human) and Shopper Marketing (Tribe).
Managing Director Ogilvy Cape Town
Cape Town, South Africa
November 2008 - October 2013 (4 years 11 months)
Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town, part of Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide, is the largest communications agency in Cape Town, and the second largest in South Africa. It is an integrated communications agency housing Ogilvy PR (public relations and social media), OgilvyOne (digital design, development and CRM), Record-Edit-Create (Video production), Ogilvy Action (Activation, Eventing and Shopper Marketing) and neo@ogilvy (digital media and search). As Managing Director was responsible for all of these business units.

Over the five years I lead the agency we radically contemporised the culture, dramatically improved digital capability, built a stellar creative reputation and thrived commercially.

In August 2013 Ogilvy Cape Town was ranked the #1 creative agency in South Africa; a position it's held for the second year in a row. In November 2013, Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town was named by Financial Mail's AdFocus review as the Best Agency in the Country. And in January 2014, Ogilvy Cape Town was named the most Admired Agency in South Africa, and the most Integrated Agency in South Africa, by Agency Executives in a national Poll run by industry blogsite marklives.com. The agency went on to win Large Agency of the Year, Agencies' Agency of the Year and the Creative Champion Prizes at the AdReview Awards in May 2014.

As Managing Director of Ogilvy Cape Town, I was a member of the Ogilvy South Africa Group EXCO and a Board Director of Ogilvy & Mather South Africa.
Managing Director, co-founder
singh&sons
February 2006 - October 2008 (2 years 8 months)
singh&sons is a through-the-line branding, advertising and design agency. Clients included Kia Motors, Lindt&Sprungli and Prudential Portfolio Managers. I co-founded the agency with fellow Directors from leading agencies The Jupiter Drawing Room and Lowe. While no longer involved, the agency continues to operate successfully.
Client Service Director
The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town
2002 - 2006 (4 years)
Led the client service/account management team which grew from 9 people at the start of my tenure to 22 people in two cities: Cape Town and Johannesburg (at Black River FC, another agency in The Jupiter Group). In this role was responsible for the improvement of operational standards in client service and the building of a defined team with it's own 'culture-within-a-culture'.
Strategic Planner
The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town
2000 - 2002 (2 years)
One of two strategic planners in the organisation responsible for supporting the account management and creative departments in implementing communication strategies on existing clients and developing communication strategies for new clients.
Account Manager
The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town
January 1998 - December 1999 (1 year 11 months)
Managing a variety of projects and accounts including Times Media Limited, Galaxy Jewellers and M-Web. Actively involved in several new business pitches and web projects.
Brand Manager
Forwardslash (now Digital Outsource Services)
January 1999 - October 1999 (9 months)
I was responsible for the positioning and marketing (both 'online' and 'off') of one of the online casinos that Forwardslash marketed: www.riverbellecasino.com - at the time one of the most popular online casinos globally. This involved engaging with a series of internal departments including: a design studio, online display media buying, analytics and a call centre.

Education

Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing and Advertising - Marketing and Brand Management

1997 (1 year)
Top Account Management Student.

B.Bus.Sci [Bachelor of Business Science with Honours in Finance] - Finance (Honours)

1993 - 1996 (3 years)
The Bachelor of Business Science is a four year degree programme including a post-graduate honours year, that at the time, was uniquely offerred by The University of Cape Town. Majors included Economics and Finance. Other subjects studied included Calculus, Applied Business Statistics, Accounting, Production and Operations Management, Business and Company Law, Human Resources Management and The Environment and Structure of Business.

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