180NY Continues Its Global Evolution by Naming Evan Weissbrot Chief Experience Officer

Agency 180 has named 180NY president Evan Weissbrot to the new position of chief experience officer (CXO). His promotion comes as 180 Global has attracted clients—including Conagra, Sony Electronics, Slim Jim, DHL and Mountain Dew—looking to lean on the agency’s strength of talking with and building audiences. Over the past year, 180 has transformed its operations as one global ecosystem of creativity, versus a traditional network, across major hubs in Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles and specialist hubs in Paris and Tokyo. Weissbrot told Adweek that his new position is a culmination of his career to date, from comms planning and strategy on the media side with agencies including Universal McCann, OMD and Mindshare, to creative and the service of more progressive audience experiences with TBWA. “The way we behave as an agency is to build brands from the audience up, a lot of that is predicated on knowing these people better than vertical specific research … We're seamlessly weaving the brand's narrative into [the audience] narrative in a way that just oozes with credibility,” said Weissbrot. Meat and Memes: How Slim Jim’s Long Boi Gang Surged to 1.2 Million Members Weissbrot described his new job as one that allows the agency to help brands find a sweet spot between what the audience is interested in and what the brands want to be famous for. “I can now kind of be that charge as someone who is the sharp tip of the spear for finding out what people care about, and then putting it in that wrapper that's going to be the most impactful [for the brand],” Weissbrot said. Weissbrot will work closely with Sander Volten, global CEO of 180, New York managing director Angela Kosniewski, who recently returned to the Omnicom network after being on the brand side for several years and Mikko Pietilä, who recently joined as executive creative director/innovations and partner. A global way of approaching business With Weissbrot’s elevation, 180 keeps evolving into a global ecosystem through the combined assets and talents of its individual offices. “We're calling ourselves an ecosystem because we have abilities in some places that we don't have in other places,” Volten told Adweek. 180 Global’s mission is to create the “World As It Could Be,” which is a lofty way of saying that it wants to produce work with impact for its clients, but Volten added that Weissbrot’s new role “cements our commitment to creating with audiences rather than just for them, bringing a fresh perspective to all that we do.” The New York office, where Weissbrot is based, is positioned as a creative agency that utilizes audience-led brand building to create relevant worlds and experiences for clients, from traditional and social to Web3 and IRL. Slim Jim leads the way 180 has had considerable success with its business for meat snack Slim Jim, so much so that many brands the agency works with want to replicate the work. But the agency is quick to note that every brand need is different and 180 does not offer cookie-cutter solutions. The way Slim Jim rose up the cultural ladder—and won Adweek’s “March Adness” last year—was by starting as essentially a meme creator. That became an identity for its community, the Long Boi Gang, which became a new product that led to a whole new way for the business to operate, according to Weissbrot. 180 turned Slim Jim’s Instagram account into a meme account, growing its followers from 10,000 to 1.2 million, and did so by talking with its audience through social. The fans felt that they were being heard by the brand, and that became a key point in not only building the brand, but in how 180 approached audiences for other brands. “There's tangible business value associated with that. But more importantly, there's an entire generation of folks now that are invested in a relationship with a meat stick,” said Weissbrot, who said that the exciting thing about the Slim Jim example is that it turned its audience into a focus group and change agents for the brand. “This narrative is a North Star for how we want the brands to live and breathe ... ,” said Weissbrot. He added that 180 takes comments on social media, complaints, data and other feedback to articulate a brand story so the audience is invested. “It’s very much a dialogue in a relationship that we're building.”