Dentsu Aegis Network’s “global mobile-first agency” Fetch is opening a new office in Los Angeles, led by Ruairi McGuckin as managing partner, West Coast.
The expansion follows recent business growth for the agency’s New York and San Francisco offices, including the additions of Travelocity, GSN Games and Yelp to its client roster. McGuckin will be responsible for overseeing accounts for the Los Angeles based client roster, including the recent addition of Hulu, while reporting directly to executive vice president, U.S. managing director Guillaume Lelait.
“LA is a natural progression for Fetch. We have several clients in this market and it offers a wealth of access to talent and technology innovation – a critical component to continuing to grow our US presence,” said Lelait. “Our expansion into LA also speaks [to] our move towards delivering mobile-first strategies to the growing entertainment economy coming out of that region and we believe Ruairi’s experience will allow us to tap into this and many other facets of the market to further enhance overall North American offering.”
McGuckin arrives at Fetch from Criteo, where he has served as head of account strategy, mobile since October of 2013, following under a year as director of marketing, customer acquisition with Kabam. Before that he spent two and half years with Fox Mobile Group as vice president, digital marketing and a year with SGN Games as vice president, marketing.
“Fetch’s expertise is strategically aligned with the challenges and opportunities mobile advertisers face in today’s increasingly fragmented marketplace,” said McGuckin. “LA is ripe with brands who take a mobile-first approach, but may need help figuring out the best place to invest time and resources. I am thrilled to be leading Fetch’s brand expansion into this market and look forward to where we are headed as an industry.”
Additionally, Fetch announced a series of senior hires, including U.S. executive creative director Octavio Maron, account director Natalie Robinson and head of programmatic Joshua Niederriter.
Maron will be responsible for the “overall direction, strength, profile, output, and distinction of the agency’s creative brand.” He joins Fetch from Pontomobi (part of Dentsu Aegis Network Brazil), where he has served as CCO since July of 2013. Before that he spent four years as executive creative director with AG2 Publicis Modem.
Robinson will serve as the regional lead for Hotels.com North America, AOL and upcoming new business wins. She joins the agency from Essence, where she has served as an associate account director in New York since last April, following around a year and a half as a senior account manager in London. Prior to that she spent a year and a half as a digital account manager with Neo@Ogilvy.
Niederriter arrives at Fetch from AKQA, where he has served as associate director, media technology since July of 2014, following stints as a campaign manager and technical supervisor with the agency.