Ralf Heuel

Ralf Heuel (born April 23, 1967 in Werdohl ) is a German copywriter , creative director and entrepreneur. He is co-owner and creative director of the Hamburg advertising agency Grabarz & Partner.

Life

Heuel completed his training as an advertising clerk , studied at the Düsseldorf Academy for Marketing Communication, completed a trainee program with the ex-GGK advertiser Burkhard Apholz and then worked as a copywriter at the Swedish agency Brindfors. There he met Andreas Grabarz. When Brindfors was sold to the Lowe Network, Ikea Grabarz offered sole support for the German advertising budget. Afterwards, Grabarz 1993 made in Hamburg independently , Heuel led the creation. In addition to IKEA, the agency won a. a. the budgets of Volkswagen, Porsche, Burger King, Mobilcom Debitel. In 2017, Grabarz & Partner had almost 300 employees and was one of the most award-winning agencies in Germany. Heuel invented well-known advertising slogans such as "We love food" for Edeka and "Radio goes into the ear, stays in the head" for the radio center, the generic initiative of the German broadcasters. Since the founder's departure in 2012, Heuel and other managing directors have held all shares in the Hamburg agency and run it with a group of partners.

honors and awards

In 2015 Grabarz & Partner developed under Heuel's responsibility together with the agency GGH MullenLowe the project "Rechts gegen Rechts". The work won 12 gold medals at the Art Directors Club , 6 gold medals at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the Grand Prix at the Clio Awards. In the same year, Heuel was named “Creative Leader of the Year” by the Lead Academy; the Grabarz & Partner agency as “Agency of the Year” and Heuel and his partners as “Men and Women of the Year”. The "The Big Won" report listed Heuel among the four best creative directors in the world in 2015, the agency Grabarz & Partner in 3rd place. Grabarz & Partner was named "Independent Agency of the year" by the "Eurobest Festival of Creativity" 2017 ., In 2018, according to "The Big Won", he was one of the 20 most awarded Chief Creative Officers in the world, Grabarz & Partner became one of the 15 most awarded agencies in the world under his creative leadership in the same year. In January 2020, the trade magazine HORIZONT selected Grabarz & Partner among the "10 top advertising agencies of the decade". In 2019, Heuel himself was voted one of the "5 Doers of the Year" in the agency category by the Meedia Yearbook. In 2020, the Canne Lions counted Grabarz & Partner among the 10 "Cannes Lions Independent Agencies of the Decade".

Heuel was three times juror at the "Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity" and twice at the British "D&AD". In 2017 he was appointed to the Executive Jury of the “New York Festivals”. In 2019 he is the jury president of the Loerie Awards in South Africa.

He is a member of the German ADC, the British D&AD and the One Club / New York.