Paddy Power in search for new Advertising Director

Distinguished Career

Mr Robertson has been with Paddy Power for the past 18 years and said that he plans to set up a creative advertising business targeting social media. “I will be taking a lot of my learnings from Paddy Power and looking to put them into practice,” he said. “The intention is to produce high-quality creative advertising at quite a low cost.”
Ken Robertson will remain at Paddy Power for another six months. He was the first marketing professional recruited by the Irish bookmaker, having been hired by Paddy Power co-founder and then-chief executive Stewart Kenny. His time with the company has involved a number of roles, including as head of communications, head of “mischief”, and head of branding at Sportsbet, Paddy Power’s Australian subsidiary.

Did you get the memo?

In a note to staff on Thursday announcing Mr Robertson’s departure, Paddy Power described him as a “key part of the company’s brand magic”.
“Ken is a unique person and filling the void that he leaves will take a special talent, so I’m delighted that he will be around for quite some time to come,” staff were told.
“He will be sorely missed and closer to the time, we will take the opportunity to celebrate a quite brilliant career.”
Mr Robertson stated his all-time favourite marketing campaign related to the Oscar Pistorius trial in South Africa, which became the most complained about ad in the UK and was pulled by the company.

Paddy Power had offered “money back if he walks” on the trial of Pistorius over his shooting dead of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. This resulted in a record 5,525 complaints being received by the UK’s advertising watchdog. “I’m most proud of that for a variety of reasons,” he said.

Another favourite was Danish footballer Nicklas Bendtner showing off his Paddy Power underpants during a match at Euro 2012, which led to him being fined.

About Paddy Power

Paddy Power is an Irish-based bookmaker founded in 1988 in Dublin, Ireland. The company conducts business through a chain of licensed betting shops in Ireland and the United Kingdom, and by operating Ireland's largest telephone betting service. On the internet, it offers sports betting, online poker, online bingo, online casino and online games. It merged with Betfair to create Paddy Power Betfair on 2 February 2016. The bookmaker is known for offering odds on controversial markets in order to garner publicity, e.g., in November 2008, 16–1 was laid that U.S. President Barack Obama 'would not finish' his first term (this was widely interpreted as his odds of assassination).