Cheil Worldwide’s McKinney has hired Mike Pierantozzi to lead its creative team in New York as an executive creative director.
Pierantozzi joins the agency from Saatchi & Saatchi, where he had led the Walmart account since Publicis Groupe won that business away from The Martin Agency without a review last summer. Moving forward, he will partner with the New York office’s new CEO Joe Maglio.
Chief creative officer Jonathan Cude said the new hire has “a rare combination of skills that make him uniquely suited for McKinney in New York,” citing his experience working for “nimble, scrappy creative shops in New York” and calling him “the Rocky Balboa of advertising: humble, authentic and honest—and from Philly.”
Prior to joining the Saatchi & Saatchi organization in 2013, Pierantozzi was an ECD at Taxi New York and The Brooklyn Brothers. He’s also worked at Ogilvy and Red Tettemer of Philadelphia, and his portfolio includes campaigns for such brands as Luvs, IBM, Kraft and the New York Rangers. The Walmart campaign “The Receipt” won a Bronze lion in the Promo category at this year’s Cannes festival.
“One of the priorities since my first day at McKinney was to find the right creative partner to lead New York—someone not only with a great track record but also the intensity to dig in and grow an office, day by day,” said Maglio, adding that the new ECD “exemplifies the leadership style and work ethic that we were looking for.”
Pierantozzi said, “I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the McKinney team.”
Earlier this year, McKinney New York moved its team of approximately 15 staffers into the headquarters of The Barbarian Group as Maglio joined from Havas in the CEO role.
McKinney’s clients currently include Cheil parent company Samsung along with Sherwin-Williams, CarMax, Norwegian Air and DuPont.