With Latest Promotions, 22squared Focuses on Building a Strong Creative Team

Atlanta-based agency 22squared announced today it is elevating current president Richard Ward to chairman and CEO, and current chief client officer Brandon Murphy to president.

Murphy began working at the agency 12 years ago as the director of planning in the Tampa office. In 2007, Ward and Murphy got together and relaunched the agency, with the name 22squared. Since then Murphy has focused on developing media, analytics and account management practices for the agency.

In the last 10 years Murphy has helped triple the size of 22squared across clients, employees and revenue. For this next chapter he said he will focus on “taking the agency to that next place.”

“In the coming months really my new responsibility is building up our creative capabilities. Not that it hasn’t been great for years and years but I’m going to be elevating it a bit and taking it to the next level,” Murphy said. “I will focus on making us a very creatively-driven centered enterprise, integrating more technology into creative solutions is really my key focus at least for the first six months or so.”

Murphy noted that on the technology side the agency will look to make a few new hires, “both from a leadership perspective and a capability perspective.” At the moment 22squared has technology integrated into its media and analytics offerings for clients, but not so much on the creative side–which is something Murphy and his team will look to change in the coming months.

Added Ward: “Our agency is recognized for our unique culture and thoughtful, methodic, strategic transitions. Unlike most agencies, we take a very long view of our business which facilitates the lost art of growing and grooming leaders from within an organization. For the past 12 years Brandon has held leadership positions in every department in the agency, and earned both the loyalty and passionate commitment of our staff. This is the perfect next move for Brandon, at precisely the right time for 22squared.”

Katie Richards

@ktjrichards

Katie Richards is a staff writer for Adweek.