McCann NY/London creative boss Linus Karlsson has lured a fellow Swede over to his agency as Andreas Dahlqvist is leaving Stockholm for New York and joining up with McCann to take on the newly created post of vice chairman, executive creative director. Dahlqvist has spent the past seven years as ECD/managing partner at DDB Stockholm and led the agency on campaigns for McDonald’s as well as VW’s “Fun Theory” and the Swedish Armed Forces online recruitment test efforts.
Before Dahlqvist officially took on his ECD/partner post at DDB Stockholm, he served as creative director for four years at its predecessor agency, Paradiset. The new vice chairman, who started his ad career as an art director back in Sweden, waxes a bit dramatic about his move to McCann, saying, “We are on the cusp of a creative renaissance. Formulas are dying and a fundamental transformation is coming. As I thought about the next stage of my career, I realized that when McCann shifts, the entire industry shifts. The agency’s scale and DNA offer the opportunity to help set new creative benchmarks and standards, which is very exciting.”