Agencies are taking a back seat to the Olympics this week, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some gold medal new hires, account wins, new partnerships, product launches, sponsorships and awards announcements.
Leap through this week’s revolving door to see who’s winning the race.
AAF
The American Advertising Federation (AAF) announced the honorees for its 29th Annual Advertising Hall of Achievement, celebrating those individuals 40 years of age or younger who are making a notable contribution to the advertising industry through both their work and philanthropic community activities.
The seven inductees were chosen by the AAF’s distinguished Advertising Hall of Achievement Council of Judges. Winners will be inducted at luncheon ceremonies on November 17.
The class of 2021 includes: Arielle Garcia, chief privacy officer, UM Worldwide; Emily Giannusa, vice president, program marketing, HBO; Jeff Miller, senior director, global creative strategy, Snapchat; Christena Pyle, chief equity officer, Americas, Dentsu; Rachel Tipograph, founder and CEO, MikMak; Nick Tran, head of global marketing, TikTok; Tina Wells, founder and CEO, RLVNT Media. Pyle will also receive the Jack Avrett Volunteer Spirit Award.
AbelsonTaylor
AbelsonTaylor has promoted Christopher Mauck to senior director of interactive technology. He will lead the interactive development, digital production and QA teams in creating and deploying digital projects, application development and quality assurance across all digital accounts.
Mauck joined AbelsonTaylor in 2010 as a front-end interactive developer.
Amobee
Adtech company Amobee has hired Nick Brien as CEO. Most recently, Brien was chief executive officer of the Americas for Dentsu International, leading 15,000 people across 40 operating units that served some of the world’s largest advertisers.
Arts & Letters
Arts & Letters Creative Co. has hired Nick Kaplan as executive creative director. Kaplan joins Charles Hodges, Danielle Flagg and Jed Grossman as the agency’s fourth ecd.
Kaplan joins Arts & Letters from Grey where he was an executive creative director on Volvo, Gillette and McCormick’s. Prior to that, he was a group creative director at 72andSunny and Barton F. Graf. Kaplan was also a copywriter at Wieden+ Kennedy New York and began his career at BBH New York.
BSSP
Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners (BSSP) hired Mark Yee as its new head of account management. In this role, Yee will oversee the agency’s growing account management department and will lead the Blue Shield of California account.
Yee brings over 27 years of marketing communications experience working in both agencies and dot com startups. Most recently, he served as group account director at Phenomenon.
Citipost Mail
Mail management specialist Citipost Mail will be the headline sponsor of the Data & Marketing Association (DMA) Awards for the next three years, taking over from Royal Mail, which has headlined for the last seven years.
Cornett
Cornett has hired 18-year advertising veteran Chris Finnegan as vp, integrated media director, a new role at Cornett. Most recently, Chris was vp, integrated media director at Tombras.
Elmwood
Global design consultancy Elmwood has named Paul Collins executive director of strategy in the New York studio. He will build on the momentum created by James Cockerille, Elmwood’s acting executive director of strategy, who will continue to consult with the agency in a strategic advisory capacity.
ForwardPMX
Global data and technology marketing services company ForwardPMX has appointed Hattie Whiting as its first chief growth officer for Europe. In this new role, Whiting will lead ForwardPMX’s growth strategy in EMEA and oversee the region’s business development opportunities and wider expansion plans.
Whiting was previously UK chief client officer at PHD, and before that held senior roles at Digitas, Chemistry Communications and EHS Brann.
Grey
Sara Worthington and Armando Flores have joined Grey’s flagship office as executive creative directors. They served most recently as group creative directors at McCann New York.
Worthington has worked in New York, Miami and San Francisco at such agencies as JWT, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Pereira O’Dell. Flores has worked at Huge Inc. in New York, Goodby Silverstein in San Francisco, SS+K and JWT in New York, La Communidad in Miami and SCPF in Barcelona.
Hart
Ohio-based independent marketing and advertising agency Hart has promoted Marc Paulenich to president. Formerly chief operating officer and senior vice president of strategy, Paulenich will succeed Mike Hart, Hart’s president and CEO since 1993. Hart will continue to serve as CEO of the agency.
Paulenich has more than two decades of agency management and marketing strategy experience, and nearly 17 cumulative years at Hart. During his role as COO and svp of strategy, the agency more than doubled in revenue.
Hyundai Canada
Christine Smith will leave her role as svp at Innocean to lead the marketing department at Hyundai Canada as director of marketing, replacing Lawrence Hamilton, who was promoted to executive director of Genesis Canada in May. Smith previously led the Hyundai Canada account at Innocean for the past four years.
Labelium
Global ecommerce performance agency Labelium has entered into a multifaceted business partnership with Skai (formerly Kenshoo), a market intelligence, media activation and measurement technology company. The partnership is intended to integrate Skai’s data-driven automation processes into Labelium’s suite of marketing services.
McCann
McCann Canada has promoted Gail Pak to vp, creative director, and has made seven key hires in the creative department. The moves represent an ongoing expansion of McCann’s creative talent pool across Canada as the agency continues to grow.
Pak joined the McCann team in 2019 from Zulu Alpha Kilo. She and her creative partner, Mike Shuman, have been leading the work for Petro-Canada and Mastercard for the past two years.
The agency also added Amy O’Neill, Athina Afton Lalljee, Steven Davenport and Andrew Strachan as associate creative directors; Jayme Fairbridge as senior art director; and Jon Dick and Olivia Hashka as copywriter and art director, respectively.
Motive
Marketing and ad agency Motive is launching a new brand experience studio and has hired Elizabeth Seltzer to be the svp of brand experience to lead the new studio.
Seltzer has a diverse entertainment and music background having started her career with World Wrestling Entertainment, and most recently serving as managing director for Match Marketing Group. Prior to that she spent 14 years at Amplitude Marketing Group.
Public Label
Creative and integrated marketing agency Public Label has appointed three new senior hires in Canada. Lynn Sivec joins as director of strategy while Tim Binkley and Marjorie Mackenzie join as senior account directors. The executives will work across Public Label’s Canadian client roster, which includes Scotts Miracle-Gro, Church & Dwight and Mars.
RBB Communications
RBB Communications has named Tom Bolger as director of its newly created content studio. Prior to this, Bolger served as the director of studio operations for The Community, working with clients like Verizon, Samsung, and Amazon among many others.
Sibling Rivalry
Independent creative production company Sibling Rivalry recently added Jeff Bitsack to its roster of filmmakers. Most recently Bitsack directed for Eleanor Films, working with Blue Diamond Almond. Before that Bitsack worked for Weiden+Kennedy as associate creative director, JWT as executive creative director, and Humble TV and Caviar.
TracyLocke
Commerce and communications agency TracyLocke was named strategic and creative agency of Dallas-based restaurant chain la Madeleine. TracyLocke sister agency, Haygarth U.S., was named in-store marketing and merchandising agency for CKE Restaurants.
Versus
Creative agency Versus launched its new original content division and hired Mark Grande to lead the department as head of original content. Grande will lead the company’s strategy and execution of long-form original programming and production.
Grande brings more than 20 years of content strategy, development and production experience to Versus. Prior to joining Versus, he led content at hip-hop legend Nas’ multi-cultural focused entertainment company, Mass Appeal, where he oversaw digital, film and television programs,
You & Mr Jones
You & Mr Jones Media, the new division of the global brandtech group, has made two more senior hires. New York-based Jess Nachtigall is joining as associate partner. She will help build a transparent reporting and measurement environment for media and establish a new approach to media optimization. Nachtigall joins from Omnicom’s media network Hearts & Science.
San Francisco Bay-based Rachel Adams joins as director, media services. She will develop client service operational processes and management systems and provide client-perspective inputs to the development of the group’s proprietary brandtech. Adams spent more than four years at Mighty Hive in New York and San Francisco as head of media activation.