ASIA-PACIFIC – MAY 16, 2012 Former Publicis Thailand chief creative officer Paul Grubb and former Cheil Worldwide global creative director Jeff Curtis joined forces to form new creative agency Red Pill.
The agency’s name is in reference to the sci-fi movie The Matrix’s Blue Pill and Red Pill, in which the former provides delusions while the latter gives reality.
According to Grubb, the agency’s venture is all about creativity. "We don’t promise every marketing discipline available (and some that don’t even exist) – we do one thing, and do it brilliantly: Creative work."
This creative endeavor also leads the agency to the kind of clients they would want to work with. "We’d be looking for clients that need great creative solutions above everything else – I know that sounds slightly odd, but some clients are looking for hand holding throughout long processes, which is fine, but that’s not us."
In terms of structure, Grubbs describes it as "very straightforward." "We don’t plan to have layers of hierarchy at any time, and clients will deal directly with us because we’re only talking about creative work. Of course, how any company develops is to a degree out of one’s control and you have to evolve with it, but that simplicity and directness is the plan."
Grubb worked at Gold Greenlees Trott for 10 years, winning two D&AD Pencils during that time and becoming a board member and shareholder. He then started Duckworth Finn Grubb Waters in 1989, which became a very successful independent doing great creative work for big clients like BBC, COI, Daewoo, Pizza Hut. DFGW also won two D&AD Pencils.
In 2005, he became regional executive creative director of Lowe across Asia, based in Bangkok, handling Unilever account.
Curtis, on the other hand, started in Lowe Howard Spink in 1990. There he worked on a wide range of clients including Smirnoff, Tesco, Heineken and GM.
After 10 years, he became executive creative director of Thailand’s largest ad agency Lowe Lintas. During his stint, the agency won more creative awards than ever before plus new business including Coca Cola and all its sister brands such as Fanta, Coo and Nescafe RTD.
After completing the agency restructuring he became regional creative director on Unilever being responsible for writing and producing 360 ad campaigns for regional and global brands.
In 2010 he became regional creative director at Cheil in Seoul producing global advertising for their biggest client Samsung.
Currently, Curtis is a freelance creative consultant and has produced creative work for two successful agency pitch wins in 2011.
