Luca Pannese and Luca Lorenzini recently joined Publicis New York in executive vice president, executive creative director roles, following over a decade at Saatchi & Saatchi.
“It is terrific to welcome Luca Lorenzini and Luca Pannese – or ‘The Lucas’ – to Publicis New York…where they will be working primarily on Heineken,” Publicis New York chief creative officer Andy Bird said in a statement. “A great couple of blokes professionally and personally, they have collaborated for 16 years and have won 20 Cannes Lions between them. We know they are going to make exciting contributions to the agency and we are lucky to have them.”
Pannese and Lorenzini have worked together since 2000, when Pannese served as an art director with Ad Maiora and Lorenzini as a copywriter. After a brief divergence of paths, when Pannese went on to McCann Erickson and Lorenzini to Gruppo Roncaglia, they reunited at Y&R Milan in late 2002. Around two and a half years later they moved on to Saatchi & Saatchi Milan. After receiving promotions to creative director roles, they joined Saatchi & Saatchi New York as global creative directors in January of 2015.
At Saatchi & Saatchi New York, the creative duo worked on a reimagined “Hush Little Baby” for Pampers, “Expecting” and “Chew Treats” for Fiber One and “How Do You See Me?” for Italy’s national organization for people with down syndrome, CoorDown.
Pannese and Lorenzini’s departures are the latest in a long string of exits at Saatchi & Saatchi. Last August, Saatchi & Saatchi New York CEO Brent Smart and CCO Jay Benjamin left the agency, while global CEO Robert Senior prepared to step down last month, appointing Magnus Djaba to the newly-created position of global president. Last month, Saatchi & Saatchi unveiled its updated, open concept New York office, now located entirely on the seventeenth floor of 375 Hudson Street and also picked up global lead creative agency duties for HSBC.
Pannese and Lorenzini’s arrival at Publicis New York follows staffing cuts at the office this past October, shortly following the agency unveiling a new open-concept office of its own, with no assigned desks.
Image: Cargo Collective