A colleague of Erich’s once said, “Funke is like water, if there is a way through, he will find it.”
As co-founder of a women owned business, NineLives Group, Erich is currently leveraging his talent, leadership skills and access to A-list talent from all over the world to offer clients better, more streamlined and cost-effective solutions using data.
Prior to NineLives, Erich led branded entertainment, digital, integrated and innovation teams on some of the world’s most iconic brands. His experience includes creating masses of digital content across most channels, experiential, publishing books, staging events, creating TV, poster, print, OOH and radio. Many of which have appeared in case studies worldwide.
As Chief Creative Officer of Garage Team Mazda he spearheaded the worldwide rebranding of Mazda achieving unprecedented ongoing sales growth. Erich established Garage Team Mazda as the creative center of excellence for Mazda worldwide and developed the model for global multiple-agency collaboration. He transformed the creative department from traditional to digital-first and led the agency to win the most awards in its history and the most awards of any single agency in the history of the OC AAF awards.
Erich’s 11 years at Saatchi embodied the motto "Nothing is Impossible".
He helped Toyota become the best-selling car brand in America,
led the agency to receive the highest number of awards in their history,
and developed integrity-based processes and methods for collaborating with multi-cultural, multi-agencies on behalf of Toyota which remain in place today.
Advertising icon Lee Clow invited Erich to move from South Africa to Los Angeles to run Infiniti Auto at TBWA Chiat Day, where he also worked on Apple, Sony PlayStation and Harmon Kardon.
In South Africa, Erich worked at TBWA Hunt Lascaris, where he led the creative team on the political campaign for the successful election of Nelson Mandela, SA’s first black president, and was an integral part of the team that helped Hunt Lascaris achieve Agency of the Year.
Erich’s has diverse brand experience in many categories including auto, packaged goods, banking, pharma, insurance, alcohol, consumer tech, political, hospitality and apparel. Brands include Toyota, Jim Beam, Apple, Sony PlayStation, Hilton Hotels, Nando’s, Weleda, Infiniti, Mazda and Wonderbra.