They say summer is the slowest time for the advertising industry, but that doesn’t hold true this year when it comes to agency moves. People have been hopping into new jobs and getting promoted, and agencies are creating new positions and filling them with top candidates.
In addition, agencies are landing new clients, opening new shops and merging with other like-minded companies to further growth. Take a spin through this week’s revolving door and see all the changes.
9Rooftops
Marketing agency 9Rooftops recently welcomed Tim Woitkun as the company’s group media director. Woitkun is responsible for overseeing the development, execution and assessment of digital media strategies for Cogniscient Media clients such as the Maryland Lottery, Pennsylvania Lottery, Glanbia Performance Nutrition and Qdoba.
Prior to joining the Cogniscient Media team, Woitkun was responsible for managing all marketing and team-related facets of Lupoli Companies, a mixed-used real estate company.
AFX Creative
Multidisciplinary content creation studio AFX Creative has added executive producer Nicole Fina. Most recently the executive producer of advertising and games at digital domain, Fina has also held key producing roles at MPC, Psyop, Method Studios, Troika and Grey Worldwide.
Allen & Gerritsen
Allen & Gerritsen, an independent, creative-led advertising agency in Boston and Philadelphia, has partnered with the Riverfront Alliance of Delaware County (RADC), a consortium of businesses and non-profit groups working together to implement physical, economic and social programs to stimulate the development of the Delaware County waterfront and the adjoining city of Chester, Pennsylvania.
ArtClass
Bicoastal production company ArtClass has signed directing team Jamaal Parham and Bashan Aquart, popularly known as Jams x Bash. From commercials to interactive experiences to TV shows, Jams x Bash have spent the last decade working for brands including Adidas, ESPN, HBO and Vogue.
Augustine Agency
Sacramento area marketing agency Augustine Agency has been retained as the official agency of record for the North Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative, the official destination marketing and management organization for the North Lake Tahoe region. Since 2016, Augustine has primarily led brand development, creative strategy and design and search engine optimization for North Lake Tahoe, and will now manage all strategy, content development, creative and branding work and marketing tactics for the destination.
Bailey Lauerman
Bailey Lauerman has named Jessica Jarosh managing director of BLNE. In her new position, she will be overseeing the agency’s critical systems, technical processes and suite of capabilities. She previously held the roles of group account director and head of account leadership.
In addition Megan Storm, Aaron Jarosh and Emily Mazurek are the newest members of the leadership team at Bailey Lauerman.
BCW
Global communications agency BCW has added Federico “Fede” Garcia as global chief creative officer. Garcia joins BCW from IPG agency Huge. A copywriter by training, Garcia spent four years with Huge, most recently as global executive creative director with creative oversight of the agency’s Brooklyn headquarters and key global accounts. Before that, he was group creative director at Translation in New York. Prior to that he spent four years with Ogilvy Tokyo.
Cramer-Krasselt
Cramer-Krasselt has added Amy Gozalka as vice president and group creative director. Gozalka joins executive creative director G. Andrew Meyer to lead the Chicago headquarters’ creative team.
Gozalka comes from Ogilvy where she was creative director. In her new role, she will lead the agency’s PepsiCo brand accounts, which include Tropicana and Naked Juice.
Curious Plot
Minneapolis-based agency FLM Harvest has rebranded as Curious Plot, a marketing, communications and consulting agency in the food and agriculture industry. The agency’s ownership, leadership, team members, clients and services remain unchanged.
Deutsch
Deutsch New York has promoted Matt Baker to president. Reporting directly to Val DiFebo, CEO of Deutsch NY, Baker is tasked with establishing short and long-term goals for agency growth. Baker will also ensure proper allocation of resources, refine processes and best practices, optimize partnerships within the IPG network and will continue oversight of Deutsch NY’s fully integrated brand planning, data analytics and social teams. Baker joined Deutsch NY in 2018.
At Deutsch NY, the president role hasn’t been reprised since it was last held by DiFebo in 2009, prior to her being appointed CEO of the agency. Baker’s previous agency experience includes leading JWT New York’s strategy department, as well as senior leadership roles at Anomaly, Arnold Worldwide and RAPP.
Fifty-five
Data company fifty-five has promoted Robin Clayton to managing director and has appointed Alicia Arnold to managing director.
Arnold brings 20 years of experience working at the intersection of digital, marketing and technology, and will be responsible for overseeing the operations and performance of fifty-five in the U.S. across new verticals. Prior to joining the team, Arnold founded a global consulting firm and held client leadership and executive roles at Cognizant, Forrester and Hill Holliday.
Clayton has worked with fifty-five for the last two years—most recently holding the position of executive director, where she led the U.S. consulting practice. In her new role, Clayton will focus on balancing growth with building out the right team and organizational structure to sustain and enable that growth.
Fox Entertainment
Fox Marketing executive Darren Schillace has been promoted to president, marketing for Fox Entertainment. In this role, Schillace will lead the marketing strategies for all business units within Fox Entertainment, including Fox and Tubi, as well as projects from Bento Box, Fox Alternative Entertainment and Blockchain Creative Labs.
Funworks
Oakland creative agency Funworks, which uses psychology, neuroscience and fun to generate collaboration and progressive design thinking, has brought on two new directors with extensive agency experience. Strategist and comedian Monica Loomba has been named director of strategy and Fiorella Juarez has been named global brand director.
Loomba brings brand experience from Digitas North America, where she worked with eBay, Sephora, Taco Bell, and Walmart. She is also an actor, writer and comedy director on platforms like Smosh, Whohaha, College Humor and Funny or Die. Juarez spent nearly a decade leading global accounts at Crispin Porter + Bogusky,
GlueIQ
Creative consultancy GlueIQ has been tapped to manage the marketing, communications and strategy for the democratized crowdsource travel platform Flugy.com.
GlueIQ will be leading the strategic and creative vision of the brand including go to market strategy and growth plan as well as conceptualizing and executing a brand and product launch campaign.
Handsome
Branding and experience design agency handsome has partnered with meal delivery service Snap Kitchen to modernize its ecommerce and brand experience in the face of Covid-19.
Beginning as a brick-and-mortar business with several locations across the southern United States, Snap Kitchen needed to pivot its business to lean more heavily into an online market and looked to handsome to reshape its brand experience.
Hooray Agency
Southern California-based Hooray Agency has been named the website and digital advertising agency for The Garland Hotel, continuing its footprint into the Hollywood hospitality market. Hooray is tasked with elevating, promoting and driving revenue for the property through an aggressive brand development, optimization and revenue-focused website development strategy.
IdeateLabs
Independent Mumbai agency IdeateLabs won the 360 marketing mandate for Planet Marathi OTT in a multi-agency pitch. The company will be responsible for the launch of India’s first Marathi OTT channel and manage the brand’s end-to-end marketing duties, including creative communication, content marketing and media strategy, planning and buying.
IHeartMedia
Audio network iHeartMedia has named Kevin LeGrett as president of iHeartMedia Sports. In his new role, LeGrett will work closely with all groups within the company to coordinate its sports assets across all iHeart audio platforms.
Prior to his current role as division president and president of the L.A. region for iHeartMedia, LeGrett served as division president and executive vice president of operations for the iHeartMedia Markets Group overseeing Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Diego, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Washington, D.C. He is a 20-plus year media veteran who joined iHeartMedia in 2010.
Also, Alexis Ginas has been named president of the iHeartMedia Los Angeles region.
Known
Fitness technology company Mirror has chosen marketing company Known as its agency of record. Recently acquired by lululemon in 2020, Mirror transforms any space into a personal fitness studio. With Known’s appointment, Mirror has consolidated its marketing needs under one umbrella. Known will be responsible for delivering strategy, creative, media buying, planning and optimization services on behalf of the brand.
ListenFirst
Social analytics solution ListenFirst has appointed David DiGiacomo as CEO. As CEO, DiGiacomo will focus on accelerating growth and leading the executive leadership team.
DiGiacomo co-founded and led SaaS communications technology company, Emergency Communications Network (now Onsolve). Additionally, DiGiacomo was brought in to help lead PowerDMS.
Mano Copenhagen
Mano Copenhagen is partnering with jewelry brand Pandora to establish a new internal marketing framework. The work will create a platform for more effective campaign development and management and efficiency when bringing campaigns to market.
Mediastruction
Media agency Mediastruction has tapped veteran executive Jenna Umbrianna to lead the data-first organization alongside founder and CEO Marilois Snowman. Umbrianna first joined the agency in 2020 as chief development architect to drive its solution strategy, architecture and corporate growth initiatives. Her new title is partner and chief development architect.
Umbrianna previously held key leadership roles at Hill Holliday, Havas and Anagram and was designated a Media All Star by Adweek.
Mojo Supermarket
Hydrow, a leading at-home connected exercise rower, has named Mojo Supermarket as the lead creative agency of record following a competitive review. Together, Hydrow and Mojo will partner in building a series of full-scale campaigns launching later this year to continue to accelerate growth, innovation and creative brand building.
“We’re incredibly excited and honored to partner with Hydrow as the company brings positive change to the connected fitness category. Hydrow is a future-focused brand that people really care about,” Mo Said, chief creative officer of Mojo said in a statement.
Momentum Worldwide
Momentum Worldwide has appointed Patrick Bennett as executive creative director, New York. Bennett’s most recent role was as evp executive creative director at iCrossing. Bennett previously worked at agencies including Ogilvy, Digitas and R/GA. He also co-founded and built an experiential travel media company called Uncommon Caribbean.
The new addition follows the recent appointments of James Robinson, chief creative officer, NA and David Chamberlain, chief experience design officer, NA.
In the past 12 months, Momentum has hired a slew of creative appointments across North America. Additional new hires include: Hanna Choi, art director; Kevin Coval, executive creative director; Yuri De Castro, associate creative director; Rache Dolinsky, creative director; Julius Im, copywriter; Julie Kutler, associate creative director; Deja Mays, art director; Bryanna McNeal, art director; Liam Murphy, 3D experiential designer; Priyanka Pai, art director; Kari Peck, vp, creative director; Kevin Pham, art director; Michael Porfirio, copywriter; Khalil Reid, copywriter; Austin Rettinhouse, art director; Austin Rutledge III, art director; Harpreet Singh, senior art director; Erica Stisser, senior copywriter; Nicholas Taubes, copywriter; Laura Vardy, art director; Joy Yu, art director; Christopher Zarb, copywriter.
Mother
Independent creative agency Mother has hired Micheline Grace Lewis as its first chief people officer. In this newly created position, Lewis will lead Mother U.S.’s talent recruitment and retention strategy, guide diversity, equity, inclusion and human resource actions and foster an environment that establishes more connected ways of working.
Ahead of the opening of Mother New York’s new home in Gowanus this fall, Lewis will lead a campaign to attract talent from a diverse pool of creative industries.
Prior to joining Mother, Lewis was the executive director for talent development within consumer and community banking at JPMorgan Chase. She also held the position of head of human resources at eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions.
Prosek Partners
Global marketing and communications firm Prosek Partners has hired Daniel Allocca as a managing director. Allocca’s experience as global head of brand and digital for TIAA, Nuveen and TIAA Bank, and head of digital transformation and strategic Initiatives at PIMCO was the reason for his hiring.
Rebel & Co
Rebel & Co, a research and strategy agency in the Tampa Bay area, has hired Meg Welch as its first chief marketing officer.
In the role, Welch will be responsible for driving sustainable and profitable growth, personalized customer experiences and leading creative, brand and communication strategies. Welch joins Rebel from AgAmerica Lending, where she was chief marketing and strategy officer. Before AgAmerica, she served as executive director of Catapult Lakeland, an entrepreneurial center.
SEO Works
Sheffield based digital marketing agency The SEO Works has named Nadine Warburton as HR manager. Warburton, who previously ran HR at Split the Bills, will be responsible for driving The SEO Works’ people plan, talent attraction and overall HR procedures.
Sprinkles
Well known dessert bakery Sprinkles has hired Michelle Wong as chief marketing officer. In this newly created role, Wong will lead all consumer and product marketing programs.
Wong moves to Sprinkles after serving as the first female president and managing partner at creative ad agency Dailey. Wong brings nearly 20 years of extensive experience leading innovative, fully-integrated marketing programs across culinary, travel and consumer products.
The Marketing Arm
The Marketing Arm (TMA) has promoted Harris Wilkinson to chief creative officer of the agency. He was previously svp of creative. Since joining TMA in 2016, Wilkinson has led new business creative and overseen the development, presentation and production of broadcast and social content for clients such as State Farm, NBA/WNBA, Goodyear, and Advance Auto Parts. Prior to TMA, Wilkinson was creative director at TBWA\Chiat\Day LA. In a career spanning advertising and film and television, Wilkinson has served as a writer and producer, working with studios and networks including Universal, New Line, FOX, NBC and A&E.
TripleLift
Adtech company TripleLift has appointed Jaison Zachariah to the company’s executive leadership team as senior vice president, technology. Zachariah, an eight-year veteran of TripleLift, will oversee the company’s technology organization. Dan Goldin, TripleLift’s vice president, platform engineering, will assume the new position of chief architect.
Valiant Pictures
Bicoastal production company Valiant Pictures and branded content production company FreshFly have partnered to represent both companies’ roster directors for scripted and non-scripted branded content opportunities. Valiant Pictures will utilize the FreshFly directorial roster with non-scripted branded content projects, while FreshFly will turn to the Valiant directorial roster with scripted commercial projects. The partnership allows both companies to remain independent while also offering further support to top brands and agencies.
Wheelhouse Labs
Wheelhouse Labs, the branding and creative marketing arm of Wheelhouse founded by Brent Montgomery in partnership with Jimmy Kimmel, has brought on Joseph Saroufim as the head of creative development. In this new role, Saroufim will oversee the creative output of the growing in-house team. Prior to joining Wheelhouse Labs, Saroufim honed his marketing skills at 72andSunny, as well as CAA and Observatory.
Who Wot Why
Who Wot Why is expanding its account and creative services departments by poaching two talented individuals to fill pivotal roles at the agency. Chris Doggett joins as senior account director from DentsuMcGarryBowen, where he held the same role. He will work on accounts including The Gym Group, Spotify, Tofoo and Pip & Nut. He previously worked at agencies including VCCP, CHI and Ogilvy.
Jo Vine joins Who Wot Why as creative services manager, working across all accounts. Vine comes from FutureBrand London, where she was creative services and operations manager. She previously worked at Marks Design and before that at branding agency Haines McGregor.
Wunderman Thompson
Wunderman Thompson, a WPP agency, has appointed Paul Shearer as global creative client leader. He comes to the agency from BBDO to bolster the creative momentum on the network’s roster of global clients.
Scottish native Shearer, best known for his Nike work with sports celebrities at various agencies, will lead creative for global clients at Wunderman Thompson. Key global clients include Microsoft, HSBC, Dell, Pfizer, Shell, Nestle and Unilever. Shearer will also join Wunderman Thompson’s global inspiration council, the forum that drives creative excellence across the network. He will be based in London.
Prior to Wunderman Thompson, Shearer served as CCO and creative council chairman of BBDO across the EMEA region. He previously worked for BBH London, Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, Ogilvy and was a founding partner at the global agency Nitro.