Creative Profile: Damon Stapleton

For chief creative officer of DDB Auckland, Damon Stapleton, change is run-of-the-mill and risk is the safest place to be. With his peripatetic childhood as inspiration, he’s embraced the unexpected and rejected routine in his country-hopping career. But, he tells Carine Buncsi, living on the edge doesn’t mean hogging the limelight. He likes to step back and let his creatives start their own fires

For Damon Stapleton, chief creative officer of DDB Auckland, the world of advertising is no run-of-the-mill, working nine-to-five existence –just like his unconventional upbringing. Stapleton’s family moved around a great deal, venturing across the globe, living in various hotels and exotic locations.

As a child he enjoyed the perks of room service, and garnered a collection of short stories that were set in hotel lobbies to include in his memoirs. Forever the new boy at school, he attended 16 academic institutions and proudly remarks he was only expelled twice.

On the plus side, he learnt how to adapt and thrive in various environments whilst immersing himself in different cultures, dealing with all sorts of people, which became a pivotal element in his life and eventually his career. “Growing up wasn’t always easy,” he remarks. “When you’re young, you don’t know that it’s abnormal to live an existence constantly on the move, yet when you’re older you look back and think, ‘That was pretty wild.’”

Embrace the crazy

A day in the life of Damon Stapleton is, in one word, unpredictable. “Every day is different. That’s probably one of the reasons why I like the advertising business,” he says. “It could be anything from a television shoot to a big meeting or travelling somewhere; every day differs and has its challenges.

Most people’s jobs tend to be routine, or can be. In the advertising world there is no routine. I’m used to the unconventional. I suppose it stems back to my childhood. I’ve learnt to embrace the craziness.”

Strolling down memory lane, Stapleton candidly talks about his hotel-hopping days, “I never really lived in houses, mostly hotels, and that was the norm for me whilst growing up.

My father was a rock star in the 60s [he was in a band called Mike Shannon and the Diamonds, later Mike Shannon and the Strangers] and then my late mother, together with my father, worked in the hotel business, at one point running a hotel by the name of Chobe Game Lodge, in Botswana.” The hotel was made famous by Elizabeth Taylor, who secretly wed Richard Burton there. “Peter Sellers would also come and hang out,” Stapleton says. “The hotel was in a far-off village in the middle of nowhere, attracting a lot of celebrities. It was kind of a strange existence back then.”

While growing up, did he ever see himself ending up in the advertising industry? “I wouldn’t say I thought about a career in advertising [but] I always knew I wouldn’t be a chartered accountant,” he quips. “Instinctively I knew I would be a creative and pursued a number of activities in my twenties to figure out what it was I wanted to do.” A man of many talents, before his foray into advertising Stapleton dabbled in filmmaking, fashion and war photography.

So what eventually attracted him to advertising? “I suppose I was pretty broke at the time,” he laughs. “When you’re a freelancer, like I was, every day you’re on struggle street, trying to make a buck. Back in the late 90s I walked into a well-known agency in South Africa. It just amazed me that you could go in every day and come up with ideas, and then make them happen. That’s something that fascinates me.”

Yet, Stapleton believes advertising doesn’t always get the credit it deserves. “Just think of all the countless ideas that are thought up and happen every day around the globe,” he exclaims.

Stapleton references a John Hegarty talk in which he mentioned that The Rolling Stones can rest on their laurels, they can still sing a song from the 70s and everyone thinks it’s fabulous, but that if you’re in advertising you need to have a new idea every day. “It’s cheeky but it makes the point,” says Stapleton. “It’s a real discipline to have to come up with new content every single day and can be quite scary, but also exciting and invigorating. That’s why I’m so attracted to the industry.”

Top brands and trillion dollar notes

Stapleton has worked with a collection of great brands, including Heineken, Jameson, Visa, Cadbury and BMW, and is a highly awarded creative, but the work he is often recognised for is The Trillion Dollar Campaign, for the South African-published newspaper The Zimbabwean, in 2009. Then with agency TBWAHuntLascaris, Stapleton helped promote the newspaper, as well as increasing awareness of Zimbabwe’s problems with hyperinflation, by creating an outdoor campaign printed on Zimbabwean money – expressing how the currency was effectively cheaper than the cost of paper.

The campaign was a huge success and won a slew of national and international awards. Throughout his career, Stapleton has produced world-class work that cannot be ignored, with a bunch of prestigious awards to boot. His career highlights include a D&AD Black Pencil and international awards ranging from a Cannes Grand Prix and several Grand CLIOs to an ADC Black Cube.

After his stint working in South Africa, Stapleton felt he had done everything he could at the agency. “It was time. I was seeking a new adventure. I wanted to test myself and see if I could be creative in another country.” Not short of offers, Stapleton had various agencies calling from London, Singapore and Sydney.

Crazy times called for some big decisions and in the end, “after flying to London for one day and sweating for a weekend in Singapore, I chose Sydney because it felt right for my family and secondly for the connection I had with the CEO who was starting at Saatchi & Saatchi at the same time.”

Stapleton left South Africa at the end of 2011 and embarked on his Aussie adventure in 2012 to explore the creative landscape. “I always admired the great work that has come out of Oz. It has a scale as well as a sense of freedom to it.”  

Sydney without the traffic jams

Since he left Sydney and joined DDB Auckland in 2014, the agency has been flying high, winning two Grands Prix at Spikes Asia for BMW’s memorable Reverse April Fools campaign, and Unforgotten Soldiers, a film and installation project for Sky’s History Channel.

Recently DDB’s Pop’s Gift Lotto film captured the nation’s heart and imagination, voted by New Zealand’s public as the best ad in the country for 2015. “What I’m most happy about is the quality of work we are doing at DDB Auckland in different areas.”

How has he found the move from Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney to DDB and life in Auckland? “Well for one thing the weather is better for me because Sydney is designed for thin people,” he laughs. “Sydney is a great town but there is a fair amount happening in Auckland.

Think of it as a smaller version of Sydney, without the traffic jams. In a nutshell, moving to DDB was a question of creativity and doing more of it. Shane Bradnick [ECD at DDB Auckland] was working at DDB already so that was a big part of why I went to the agency. I knew if we worked together again we would create some really out-there stuff.”

Stapleton and Bradnick both began their careers in South Africa, almost 20 years ago. Partners in crime since their early days at TBWAGavinReddy, they displayed considerable ingenuity and madcap humour and are finally reunited at DDB Auckland. “I’m aware of New Zealand’s reputation for creativity, it punches above its weight,” Stapleton says. “There’s probably a little less red tape here, you get stuff done faster. I asked myself, what’s the best place for me creatively? And at the moment that’s NZ.”

Being the band manager not the star

Stapleton’s approach to being a chief creative officer is simple, yet profound. “I think the first thing is not to compete with your own creatives. When people become creative directors or executive creative directors, they think they can do better than their own creatives,” he says. “As time rolls on you have to learn how to allow [your creatives] to be the people who have the ideas.”

His primary role as CCO is to create a space and environment where creatives can do just that. “Maybe the best way to look at it is, you go from being the lead singer in a band to switching to the role of band manager.

There are so many people in this business that can take away your confidence and it’s normally done under the guise of having high standards.”

Stapleton tends to write about what’s on his mind in his blog damonsbrain.com. “There are a lot of things out there written by marketers or suits in the business,” he says. “However there isn’t all that much from the perspective of how it is to be a creative. The thing that bugs me most about advertising is there are a fair amount of people who break other [people] down. I actually believe creatives should build each other up.”

Magic Moments

When it comes to key moments that have impacted on his life, Stapleton has a couple that spring immediately to mind. “I have never felt more pathetic and more grateful to be alive [than] on a pier in Cannes,” he explains. “To put it into context, my grandfather called me out of the blue. Feeling glum, I mentioned the agency I was running hadn’t done that well and that I was feeling the pressure. After a moment of silence he said, ‘What, you get awards for advertising? That’s ridiculous. In my late teens, most of my squadron died in the Battle of Britain, but we had a saying – keep pulling the trigger until you see the fuckers smoke.’ Simple, succinct, honest words that really put it into perspective.”

The other moment which he cherishes as one of the best moments of his career is when he walked on stage with Wilf Mbanga [editor of The Zimbabwean] at the D&AD award ceremony. “He appeared like a wise old African Buddha,” Stapleton says. “So debonair, wearing a tuxedo as we received the Black Pencil for The Trillion Dollar Campaign.

It’s only a single moment but when you realise what it meant to him, the impact it made, it’s so much more important than an award. Wilf was so gracious and brave after everything he had been through, enduring death threats, arrests, living in exile. Our team was overjoyed that we could make a difference in his life and the lives of others, whilst also restoring lost confidence in the agency.”

For Stapleton, seeking out the creativity that lives in the cracks – for it’s the cracks that let the light in – is where opportunities lie. Embrace the fear, tackle it, move forward and replace it with opportunity. “As a creative force, it’s all about being bolder and braver in our choices and when we are, we do work that often surprises the world.”