Former Ogilvy and Saatchi creative lead Robin Smith has been appointed as the first creative director at Receptional – the Bedford-based digital marketing agency, which specializes in the finance, sports and gaming sectors. At Receptional, Smith will lead the development of a new creative services offering to complement the agency’s existing strengths in SEO, search and social advertising, content marketing, digital PR and linkbuilding.
Welcoming Smith to the team, Justin Deaville, managing director at Receptional, said, “Digital marketing is becoming increasingly multi-channel and we’re seeing growing demand for creative campaigns that span owned, earned, paid and social media. Robin has so much experience of delivering these stand-out ideas and we’re excited for the new dimension he’ll bring to our work.”
On taking up the new role, Smith said, “Receptional is full of smart, friendly people who know their channels inside out and are passionate about delivering highly effective work for clients. I’m looking forward to bolstering its strengths in design, video and creativity more broadly, and supporting its already strong growth and retention rates.”
Smith brings over 35 years of experience across design and creative leadership roles in some of the world’s top agencies. His work – for clients such as Audi, Ikea and Sprite – has won more than 100 creative and effectiveness awards since 2008, including Cannes, Clio, D&AD and Effies. Smith was most recently group executive creative director for Geometry and Ogilvy in Budapest, Hungary. Before that he spent 11 years in Dubai, establishing OgilvyAction and Geometry’s Mena presence. He took it from zero to $5.6m, 44 people and 66 awards in six years, making it the most-awarded office in the Ogilvy network three years running. Smith has also held creative leadership roles at M&C Saatchi and Imagination in Dubai, plus multiple London agencies.
