At the beginning of the month, we reported that Arnold Worldwide executive creative directors Pete Johnson and Andy Clarke would be leaving the agency. Johnson officially landed at Deutsch New York shortly after, but Clarke’s plans were unknown at that time.
Now Publicis New York has announced the hiring of Clarke as executive creative director for the agency’s Cadillac account. In the newly-created position Clarke will report to CCO Andy Bird, who was appointed to that position last June. (Bird had previously been ECD on Cadillac while based in London.)
Clarke had served as executive creative director at Arnold Worldwide since January of 2014, leading global creative on the agency’s Jack Daniel’s and Ocean Spray accounts. Prior to joining Arnold, Clarke focused on freelancing for fashion and luxury brands including Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and Lincoln. That followed a five and a half year stint at JWT New York as executive creative director, leading the global Rolex account while also working on the De Beers account in the U.S. Prior to that he spent a little over two years as executive creative director with Carmichael Lynch, working with clients including Porsche and Harley Davidson. Before that, Clarke spent over eight years with Saatchi & Saatchi, serving as a senior art director and then creative director.
“I’m delighted to have Andy joining us. He’s a real talent and has a fantastic pedigree of producing great work on iconic brands,” said Bird. “And, he’s another Brit, and will be able to understand some of what I say.”
“I’m always attracted to luxury brands, as well as iconic brands, and Cadillac is a summation of both those,” added Clarke. “There is a tremendous spirit about Publicis New York and it feels like Andy Bird and Carla Serrano could be onto something quite special. I want to be part of that.”
Coincidentally, the luxury auto brand also announced today that it has hired Kovert Creative–which was recently founded by veterans of PMK*BNC–as its new PR agency of record.