Seriously ping-pong

The sign of any decent, hard-working ad agency is how good its staff are at ping-pong. So it is with interest that Dr Mumbo hears how seriously Sydney’s creative agency scene is taking Noise International’s inter-agency ping-pong competition, announced earlier this month.

Not only has the list of agencies involved grown to 11 (agencies can still enter via Noise’s website – and the deadline has been extended to May 10), with JWT, Host, Leo Burnett, DDB, US Sydney, Three Drunk Monkeys, Sapient Nitro, M&C Saatchi, BMF, Holler and MercerBell in the running. But a number of agencies are holding internal competitions to select their best players.

Some teams have already been decided. Here’re five of them:

Host

• Andrew Guirguis
• Wes Hawes
• Will Miles
• Gary McCreadie

DDB Sydney

• Malcolm Caldwell
• Mark Parry
• Simon Veksner
• Dave Shirwell
• George Kacevski

Three Drunk Monkeys

• Justin Drape
• Dan Beaumont
• Naomi Iland
• Jed DePyper
• Ted Bergeron

JWT

• Declan Byrnes-Enoch
• Nima Idelkhani
• Blair Kimber
• Warren Marshall

Leo Burnett

• Gary Clarke
• Patrick Fileti
• Misha MacDonald
• Brad Grey

Leo Burnett’s head of creative services Gary Clarke has sounded off an early round of chest beating about his team, saying: “Patrick is the Roger Federer of ping-pong. Misha is ambidextrous – makes him hard to play against. Brad and I are on the table at least once a day – if the work doesn’t get in the way.” Heaven forbid.

Noise is taking the whole thing very seriously too, which is just as well seeing as there’s $1,500 at stake for the winner. Working with M&C Saatchi, they’ve even produced a making-of video to explain the thinking behind the promotional video.

The Making of Ping Pong – Creative Team from Noise International on Vimeo.