Culver City’s Pitch, which recently created a very colorful 3D/CG trip for the San Manuel Indian Bingo & Casino, “raised the stakes” for GoToMeeting and brought back The King for BK, has named a new chief creative officer.
Xanthe Wells, who joined the shop as ECD in 2013 after seven years at TBWA\Chiat\Day and got promoted to the chief creative role two years ago, will be leaving to explore other opportunities.
In her place, the agency has hired Michael Kadin, who is best known for spending more than a decade at Deutsch, where he primarily worked on the VW and DirecTV accounts alongside Matt Ian (who is now with Droga5) and others. According to our own readers, he is one of five creatives who can legitimately claim to have played a formative role in developing “The Force.”
From an agency spokesperson:
“We are incredibly excited to welcome Michael Kadin to Pitch as CCO. The combination of Michael’s creative pedigree, business intelligence and passion for inspiring and leading teams makes him the perfect fit for Pitch.
Michael replaces Xanthe Wells, who we will miss tremendously. Xanthe’s future plans are unknown, but she’s excited for what’s ahead.”
Interestingly, Xanthe replaced one Eric Springer, who also worked on VW with Kadin while the two were at Deutsch. Earlier this week, Hyundai’s Innocean hired Springer as its first chief creative officer.
Kadin’s work at Deutsch won several awards, and since leaving that agency in early 2015 he has worked on campaigns/content-based projects for such brands as Jeep and Budweiser as a freelancer. Here’s a nice bit from the release:
“Whereas many creatives live for their “side projects,” his first love and greatest passion is advertising. His home is filled with vintage advertising collectibles he hunts down at flea markets. About the only thing he likes to do more than make ads is to spend time with his wife and two amazing daughters.”
Regarding the new position, Kadin writes, “I’ve never met a more passionate, driven group of people. I can’t wait to walk in to Pitch every day.”
The agency, which is part of the Project:Worldwide network, most recently earned some attention from our colleagues at AdFreak for creating a set of cookies illustrating 2015’s biggest memes. (We liked the Cookie Monster one.)
Beyond BK and GoToMeeting, its client roster includes Nestle Waters, Netflix, Pepsi, Citrix, Waldorf Astoria and Konami, among others.