Andrew Begg
CEO & National Creative Director
When creating Traffic, Andrew discarded the traditional advertising agency structure to deliver increased shareholder value and ROI – not just advertisements. His first major appointment was with Cossette, Canada’s Agency of the Year in 1990 where he worked on some of the world’s largest brands – Coca Cola, General Motors, SAAB and Canadian Tourism. He returned to Melbourne in 1994 to work for Saatchi & Saatchi.
In 1999 he joined Belgiovane Williams Mackay in Sydney as senior creative on Aussie Homeloans, CSR, Freedom, Alfa Romeo Citroen and Suzuki. He won many local and international industry creative awards including – Australia’s Writers & Art Directors “Award School”, “Best Newspaper Campaign” for Tooheys Gold at the New York Festival and many awards for the Freedom Furniture “Think outside the square you live in” re branding campaign.
In 2000, Brett Blundy (BRAZIN Limited) recruited Andrew to create & launch Sanity.com business via an IPO. It was listed on the ASX raising $17 million. Andrew went on to build Sanity.com into the No.1 entertainment and e-commerce site 6 months after it went live. He presided over Australia’s first WAP e-commerce platform with Telstra and the Pepsi Live Music Television program.
On February 12, 2002 Traffic was registered as a company with Champion as the foundation client.
Austin Begg
Chairman.
In 2003 The Australian Financial Review calls Austin ‘industry stalwart’ after a 40 year career creating and transforming some of Australia’s best known brands including Sorbent , Cadbury, Shell, 7-Eleven, Yakka, Ansett, GloWeave, Honda & NEC. Austin is best described as an ‘entrepreneurial strategist’ with proven specialist skills in branding/positioning and retailing/franchising.
Austin established the Melbourne office of Y&R from scratch in 1972 and created his own agency in 1975. Begg Dow Priday became Australia’s 20th largest and was sold to J Walter Thompson in 1980. Bob Jane T Marts was his foundation client and he transformed the original 7 discount tyre shops into Australia’s most successful tyre retailer.
In 1983 Austin Begg & Partners opened and was sold/merged with Lintas Melbourne. He was Managing Director and Australian Board Director and built the business from $15m to $31m in seven years. Career highlight was the transformation of Racing Victoria and the Spring Racing Carnival in 1995.
In 2000 Austin moved into private equity working with RMB Capital Partners and Worldmark. He successfully transformed the TintaCar/SOLACE franchise network and a negotiated a royalty concept that has generated over $1m for Cancer Council Australia. He joined Traffic in 2006.
Samantha Begg
Sydney Creative Director
Samantha has won considerable industry recognition and respect for her creative capabilities for big brands and retail clients. Career highlights include winning a prestigious Silver Lion at the Cannes Advertising Festival, a Gold Pinnacle (Best of Show) at the AFA Advertising Effectiveness Awards and being ranked in the Top 50 Creatives in Australasia (Campaign Brief). Her award winning work includes numerous local and international awards, including D&AD, AWARD, Folio, London International and New York Festivals. Prior to Traffic, Sam has worked on an impressive client list, including Coca-Cola, Lion Nathan, Uncle Toby’s, Pepsi, Smiths Snackfood Company, Holden, Telstra, Rice Growers, Ingham, Reckitt & Colman & Carter Holt Harvey. She gained valuable retail experience on Coles, Kmart, Mazda and Portmans at Clemenger Harvie Melbourne. Sam moved to McCann Erickson Sydney and after 3 years joined Clemenger Sydney where she created the highly awarded campaigns for Twisties, Hahn Premium Light and Doritos. Sam joined Traffic as Sydney Creative Director in 2004.
