Remember Nick Johnson, the Venables alum who joined MDC-owned Redscout, oh, say six months ago? Well, he’s already jumped ship to take on the role of chief marketing officer at IPG shop, Gotham. Johnson replaces Greg Fujimoto, who will remain at the agency but is taking on a senior role in account management to ramp up and lead certain recent new business wins.
Johnson will be tasked with marketing (duh) all aspects of the 150+ person shop, which counts clients like Best Western, Denny’s and Hitachi America. During his eight years at Venables, Johnson helped win accounts including Intel, Barclays and Audi and was part of the team that grew the agency from a small boutique into a $275 million full-service operation.
According to the announce, the new hire has had his eye on Gotham for well over a year and states, “[I] have been really impressed by the momentum that Peter and Marty (Orzio) have been able to achieve, especially their new business track record.” Prior to VB&P, Johnson held management roles at GSD&M and Zimmerman. Meanwhile, Gotham promises that it’s also adding creative staff in the near future from the likes of JWT, W+K and Ammirati. We’ll keep you posted.
Update: Sources familiar with MDC tell us that Johnson was only at Redscout from May 10th to June 14th and he left by mutual agreement.