“As Halo continues to grow, it has been critical to not lose sight of our long-term vision of becoming the most spoken about creative agency in Africa. It’s essential that every single person that is part of our team buys into the culture of work that is brave and independent in thought. On that note, we’re incredibly excited to welcome Charles Foley as our co-creative director at Halo,” said Dean Oelschig, MD at Halo.

Foley has over 20 years of experience within the industry, and brings with him a world of knowledge and perspective. He joins Greg Harrison as joint creative director of the agency as of Sunday, 1 November 2015. Foley and Harrison together form a formidable and highly complementary creative leadership team. Where Harrison comes from a design and below-the-line background, Foley originates from the writing and above-the-line space.

Foley has been freelancing at Halo since June 2015 and has already worked on most of the agency’s key client brands such as Virgin Atlantic, King Price, Elliott International and CBA in Kenya.

“Charles is an unbelievable creative. He was part of the team that won South Africa’s very first Grand Prix at Cannes for work he did on Lego in 2006. His creative success demonstrates a few things you need to know about him: his drive for excellence, the time and experience he has in this industry, and his ability to execute great ideas beautifully. What has made this such an exciting appointment is just how complementary Greg and Charles are together and how quickly they have warmed to working as the creative leaders of this agency. I believe they drive each other, and as the saying goes, ‘excellence breeds excellence’ - I can already see how this has filtered through to the entire creative team as well as the agency as a whole,” adds Oelschig.

Foley has worked locally and abroad, and his career has seen him working at many highly creative agencies such as Hunt Lascaris TBWA, DDB, FCB, Network BBDO, Ogilvy & Mather, Blackriver FC and Joe Public among others.

“It is with this invaluable experience and collective knowledge of best practices from some of South Africa’s most awarded agencies, that I now join Halo as co-creative director. I’m really looking forward to doing brave and meaningful work and being part of a team that believes in and executes great ideas,” notes Foley.

The people, culture and vision of the company were just a few of the elements that attracted Foley to Halo. Halo is a fully independent, 100% South African owned agency, which Foley views as a big strength, adding that Halo also has the right mix of people who embrace change and believe in making great & brave things happen.