30 from 30. The people who helped shape the industry and Campaign Brief: John Davis

For Campaign Brief WA’s 30th anniversary, over the thirty days of June we’re looking back on 30 people who helped shape the industry and us.

John Davis was one of the great men of WA advertising – if not the greatest. Over a forty year career that started in the 60s, Davis scaled the heights twice first with Paton Davis Australia, acknowledged as on of Perth’s top agencies in the early 80s, then again with John Davis Advertising, Campaign Brief’s Agency of the Year in 1998.

It was JDA that was around when CB started. It was there and thereabouts in our first decade, in the news for various account wins and losses. That changed in mid 1996 when, sick of seeing other agencies grab the creative limelight, Davis hired Matt Cullen and Gary Tranter and told them to shake the town up.

Over the next three years, they along with Jason Schragger and Tony Williams, produced a succession of award-winning work that threw down the gauntlet to other agencies with more established creative reputations.

We have referred previously to this time as a golden age for Perth advertising. It seemed like there was something brilliant to write about in every issue of Campaign Brief. We loved it and so did Davis. He was tremendously proud of the work his agency was producing and made sure everyone at JDA enjoyed their success. His sense of fun and love of a good time was legendary.

Schragger wrote a short tribute for a feature we did on Davis to mark his 40th year in the industry in 1998. We’ve used it a few times since then but it’s worth repeating because it sums up John Davis the man and JDA the agency perfectly:

“I’ve only known John for two years so I can’t talk about the good old days. I am restricted to the good new ones. When I started at JDA someone told me that if you don’t hear a boisterous laugh by 10am, something’s up. That’s the culture John Davis injects into the agency and the one he protects fervently. JDA is a very different place to work. In fact, JD hates it when you call it work. To him, JDA is a place where you come to get away from everyday life. His attitudes are infectious and you soon  start thinking you can do anything. Nothing is unachievable. Like when I first started at the agency I couldn’t sing to save myself. Well, after a year of intensive training, dancing on the boardroom table and some encouraging words from John, miraculously I still can’t sing. The difference is I believe I can.”

Since leaving JDA, Schragger has had a stellar career around the world and is now Chief Creative Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles.

Sadly, Davis died suddenly of a heart attack in 2000. That nearly one thousand people across three generations attended his funeral showed he was one of the industry’s most beloved figures.

In so many ways, John Davis made WA advertising better.