Old Friends, Young Talent, also known as OFyt, has appointed Gotz as its new national creative director. He joins the advertising team as both a partner and shareholder. As he worked for the same agency for 15 years, Gotz has built up wonderful client relationships and made lifelong friends with some of his agency colleagues. Now, his very fresh start at OFyt gives him the chance to do all of that again, a prospect he finds very exciting
On what attracted him to OFyt, Gotz says, “The people, for a start. They really are Old Friends. At various stages in my career I’ve worked very closely with Sonke Dandala, Greg Burke, Rohan Reddy, Kelly Putter and Gary Leih. So it felt like home from home for me.”
Leih adds, “Many of us at OFyt know Chris well - having worked with him in the past. He is focused, committed and incredibly talented. He also has that rare ability to put the client's needs ahead of the agency's agenda - very rare and very powerful… What's really exciting is that Chris is neither [old friend nor young talent]. He is a young old friend. In other words, he is succession!”
Gotz confirms: “The fact that the agency is very sincerely committed to developing young talent was important to me. I also think working for a smallish independent agency will be a breath of fresh air for me, having spent most of my life on the decks of big network supertankers. One of the things that happens at really big agencies, as you get more senior, is that you get further away from the coalface, the day-to-day work, which is the part of my job I really love. Now I get all that back. There’s an agility and a communal gees in OFYT that you just won’t find in a 300-person shop. It feels like I’ve found a whole bunch of people who I really like and respect, who are at the beginning of something really great, and I just kind of feel privileged to be part of it.”
Pressed on what we can expect from the agency in the next few months, Leih promised: “Surprises” – watch this space!
