Karpat Polat

Karpat Polat recently sold his shares and stepped down as President and Chief Creative Officer at DDB Istanbul Group to open up his own advertising agency: K A R P A T
Polat started his advertising career as a copywriter in 1998 at Manajans Thompson JWT. After several years at JWT, he moved to Medina Turgul/DDB and shortly thereafter brought home Turkey’s first ever Cannes Lions. Looking for further challenges Karpat was attracted to the dynamic Brazilian creative scene and joined legendary ad agency DM9DDB in Sao Paulo in 2004. At DM9DDB he became one of the most awarded creatives, contributing to its Global Cyber Agency of The Year at Cannes 2005.
In 2006, he was called back to Istanbul to lead the newly-established DDB office, DDB&Co Istanbul. Starting in an empty office with one employee he turned the company into a power house, attracting blue chip clients, winning awards and bringing global attention to Turkish Advertising.
In 2009 DDB&Co. Istanbul ranked third in the Agency of The Year listings at Cannes Lions and Polat became one of the top five most-awarded creative directors globally. In 2010 the agency again became one of the most globally awarded agencies at Cannes Lions and Karpat held his rank among top creative directors of the world. Today Polat has 53 Cannes Lions including Turkey’s first Gold Lion.
Under Karpat’s leadership his team has won over than 300 national and international awards, including Turkey’s first-ever international Grand Prix at Epica Awards. The agency was named Agency of the Year in 2010 with three Grands Prix, at Golden Drum Festival.
Besides he was a member of DDB Worldwide’s Creative Council and a board member of Turkish Advertising Association.
He was recognized in the Top 50 Creative Turks list of Turkish Times and was the only adman in Turkey Fortune’s Top 40 Under 40 list.
Karpat was interviewed by Michael Weinzettl in Lürzer’s Archive magazine: www.luerzersarchive.net