Rowan Dean left Australia in 1978 and headed to England, where he found gainful employment as a messenger boy in an ad agency. Success came quickly when, as a junior copywriter, he was single-handedly responsible for launching Fosters Lager (and Paul Hogan) onto an unsuspecting British public in the most successful UK alcohol launch of the 80's. He then went on to work for legendary London agencies Ogilvy and Mather and Collett Dickenson Pearce, winning Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions and other major international awards for work for Shell, British Telecom and Hamlet Cigars - including co-writing Photobooth, the ad twice voted "the best ad of all time." Switching to directing commercials, Rowan won a Silver Lion at Cannes for his German Aids commercial, before returning to Australia and setting up his own production company, Rowan Dean Films, which was one of the leading Australian production companies throughout the 90's, creating a raft of much-loved commercials for Twisties, McDonalds, Spray 'n Wipe, Mitsubishi, Cadbury's and many others.
Between 2000 and 2003 Rowan was voted Chairman of AWARD (the Australasian Writers And Art Directors Association), where he was responsible for doubling the membership and launching industry 'firsts' such as AWARD-for-Clients and AWARD Pie Night. In 2006 he joined Euro RSCG as Executive Creative Director, where he has passionately pursued his dream of creating a genuinely fully integrated agency. Under Rowan's stewardship, Euro were triple finalists at Cannes with their Test Drive Dating project for Volvo, Cancer Council "Save Our Skin Campaign", and the multi-award-winning "Quantum Code" campaign for Sony. They have also created numerous highly visible ads such as the Veet Bush ad (a global viral phenomenon).
Rowan is a panellist on the AFI award winning TV show The Gruen Transfer, as well as advertising consultant to 2UE's Michael Smith Drive Program.
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