Thomas Schmid

Managing Director and Executive Creative Director Friendly Fire Creative Services

Thomas studied law in Salzburg, Austria and wrote his thesis about “Freedom of Speech” in Phoenix, Arizona.

In 1992 he started as a Copy Writer at Ogilvy & Mather. 5 years later he became Creative Director. During this period he also lectured at the University of Innsbruck.

In 1999 Thomas joined Publicis Vienna as Creative Director Alpine Region for Coca-Cola. Three years later he became Managing Director of Publicis. In the following 2 years Publicis became one of the most creative agencies in Austria.

In 2004 Thomas and two partners founded Friendly Fire - a totally new type of production house focused on conceptual thinking. Within one year Friendly Fire became the most creative production house of Austria.

Soon numerous international agencies like Publicis in London, Paris, Seattle and Singapore, Modem New York, Mother or Leo Burnett in London were on the client’s list.

In 2007 Friendly Fire founded an office in London and in 2010 in Sofia. Besides the geographic expansion the company worked on its digital portfolio. Roadeo – a company specialized on mobile, social and web and Friendly Fire Shoots – a digital film production were founded to fulfil the industries need for a real digital brand experience.

Thomas won numerous national and international awards like Golden Drum or ADC*E with several publications in Luerzer’s Archive.

Workshop: Sink, swim or become the Water. How liquid storytelling will transform our industry.