VICE Media's VIRTUE names group creative director for SG

VIRTUE has appointed Chris Gurney as group creative director. He joins from ADK Connect Singapore where he was the chief creative officer. Gurney (pictured)  joins VIRTUE’s Singapore regional hub to build and define the agency’s creative vision, lead regional pitches and grow its creative teams to make work that stands out and gets recognised in culture.

During his time there, Gurney was responsible for implementing and leading key creative business initiatives and acquiring new client partnerships across the Asia and South Asia regions. According to VIRTUE, he has spent the past 16 years working at leading agencies across the region developing creative platforms around social change, shopper activation and engagement and innovating brand experiences for consumers through new media, sneaker apparel and installation art. 

Gurney’s appointment follows Nuno Dores joining as associate creative director and Zoe Chen as strategy director in the past two months. Gurney said that the opportunity to work for an agency that places culture at the heart of how it operates was too good to pass up. "VIRTUE offers a new approach on how brands should not just talk at people, but actively engage with them, and I’m looking forward to working with the team and our clients to build brands from the inside of culture," he added.

Ciaran Bonass, executive creative director APAC and MEA at VIRTUE said Gurney is a highly experienced, senior creative leader, who has built innovative brand experiences and creative platforms for major international companies across categories. "He joins our team in Singapore at a time when brands are looking to harness culture to reach consumers across the region and is a great addition to our growing creative team in APAC," Bonass added. VIRTUE in APAC creates global and regional work for clients including Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and Diageo across its offices in Singapore, India and Japan.

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