Ad legend departs in agency shake-up

Adland faces a shake-up with key admen coming and going from creative agency Whybin\TBWA - the agency which holds the Tourism New Zealand 100 per cent Pure account.

Veteran adman David Walden is stepping down as chief executive. He played a key role maintaining the high-profile Goldstein campaign when Whybin TBWA held the ASB Bank advertising account. He is the last of the larger than life admen from the 1980s and 1990s.

Walden is being replaced by Todd McLeay - a marketing executive and newcomer to ad agencies - who recently left his role as chief operating officer of APN News and Media, publisher of the Herald. The move was confirmed to the Herald yesterday amidst media speculation.

Perhaps more significant in the creative world is the return of Toby Talbot - one of New Zealand's most awarded advertising creatives.

Talbot replaces executive creative director Andy Blood. Talbot is a former executive creative director of DDB New Zealand and is returning after a year in London where he was executive creative director of major agency Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe Y&R.

Talbot's leadership at DDB is credited in large part with the top creative output of DDB during a period it grew from the third-placed New Zealand agency to the biggest.

Before joining APN, McLeay was chief executive of NZ Lotteries, where he worked with DDB and Talbot on a series of ground-breaking commercials.

David Walden declined to comment on the change, which has been rumoured for some time. It is understood he will stay on for several months.