Award winning creative Stuart Shepherd has returned to Redhanded, rural and regional communications specialists, as their new Creative Director. After a 2.5 year stint as CD at Noisy Beast, and many years of experience in mainstream agencies, Stuart is back to work in a category he feels incredibly passionate about noting, “As a country boy, for me it’s about being involved in a category that really matters, one that’s incredibly important to all our lives – no matter where we live. The opportunities within the rural and regional markets are extremely exciting, as it becomes more and more mainstream and technology driven. Both personally and professionally I’m passionate about finding innovative ways to help our clients expand and revitalise their offerings, across all markets.”
MD Jim Gall and ECD Paul Hand, Redhanded’s co-founders, both agree that Stuart’s return as CD is a critical step in the Agency’s next phase of development. “Stuart understands our business, our clients and the vision for the Agency, which is to assist our clients cross the great divide that exists between the city and the country. His appointment complements our expanded specialist offering in rural and regional, following on from former Newspoll Head of Strategy, Lachlan Drummond, who joined the Agency in 2014.”
Jim and Paul are also excited to welcome a new senior writer to the Redhanded stable, Georgie Hanby, another country girl, from the dairy region of South Gippsland. With over 20 year’s experience in advertising, she’s worked on a vast range of categories in major agencies both BTL and ATL, including agribusiness, giving her a solid understanding of the challenges faced by people living and working in rural and regional Australia. Georgie’s passion is working strategically to solve real world business problems, noting “Being part of the evolution of accountable, measurable creative results, enabled by the rise of digital is gratifying – clients want to see evidence of intelligent problem solving, not a pretty picture and a clever headline. I’m thrilled to be working at Redhanded to support their vision for rural and regional businesses and communities.”
Of Stuart and Georgie, Paul says “Their understanding of content and integrated campaigns bring a complete dimension to our creative offering, as we move into a new era for this agency.” With Jim concluding “We now have a powerful management team consisting of senior and experienced personnel in Strategy, Creative, Digital and Media.