Executive Creative Director
Profero
It’s not often that an advertising executive answers a question about the future of the banner ad with a limerick, but Damian Claassens has a natural way of guiding people to think differently. (He recently devised his impromptu poetry to offer new perspectives on industry issues at an Internationalist/ANA Think Tank in New York.)
He’s also considered one of today’s sharpest digital thinkers. He created the “Mixhibit” app for Profero’s Smirnoff client, which is the first tool that allows users to “DVR their night” by pulling content from all their social networks. By selecting photos from Instagram or Facebook, Twitter updates, and Foursquare check-ins, and choosing from among the app’s custom music tracks, users can create a one-of-a-kind video in just a few clicks.
“We are firm believers that there’s a great canvas for people to showcase their lives,” says Claassens, “But it also starts to split apart across the channels. In an age of oversharing, 'Mixhibit' makes it easy to streamline the documentation of the morning after the night before,” he says.
A native of Australia, Damian Claassens certainly qualifies as a true internationalist. He has worked in his home country, as well as in London, Copenhagen and the U.S., for agencies large (Ogilvy & Mather, Leo Burnett) and small (Blueberry, Framfab).
He joined Profero from Publicis Modem, New York, where he headed up creative on the agency's LG Global account; prior to that, he was group creative director at AKQA New York. There, from 2005 to 2010, he helped to grow the office's digital capabilities and staff, overseeing creative for such clients as Coca-Cola, Nike, Google, DoubleClick, Smirnoff and more. His earlier European assignments at Blueberry in London and Framfab in Copenhagen gave him responsibility for award winning work for clients like Nike, Carlsberg, Electrolux, Volvo and Sprite.
He started his career as a Graphic Designer in his hometown of Sydney with branding, packaging and magazine assignments. He soon made the jump into digital and helped to start both Leo Burnett’s and Ogilvy’s digital offerings in their Sydney offices with websites, online advertising, kiosks, games and installations.
Throughout his career, Damian has been responsible for winning a number of industry awards at Cannes, the One Show, LIAA and Clio.