The new year has already been a doozy, from snowstorms and awards show cancellations to Covid-19 surges and one saucy ass-eating tweet. One thing doesn’t change, however, and that’s the fact that there will always be more people and contracts changing hands in the ad and marketing industry, especially as the Great Resignation keeps people on the move.
Take a step through the first revolving door of 2022 and see all the recent new hires, promotions, acquisitions and client wins.
11 Dollar Bill
Post-production studio 11 Dollar Bill has appointed René Steinkellner as executive producer at its Chicago studio. Steinkellner, who served as executive producer at FCB Chicago for 12 years, will lead post-production, business development and client relations.
Steinkellner brings deep experience in post-production on both the agency and facility side. At FCB, Chicago, Steinkellner led Lord+Thomas Post, the agency’s in-house production/post unit. She built Lord+Thomas into a complete post-production unit.
22Squared
Independent creative agency 22Squared has named 22-year Ogilvy veteran Doreen Fox as vice president, group creative director. Fox will help lead creative for the company’s AdventHealth client, as well as expand the creative team beyond Atlanta and Tampa.
Fox has led work for clients including American Express, Kotex, Siemens, Pitney Bowes and IBM.
62Above
Destination marketing experts Jeff Burghardt and Nicole Doré have joined independent agency 62Above. Burghardt will be senior director, accounts and strategy and Doré will be design director.
Burghardt spent the last two years as vice president, destination marketing and creative strategy at Madden Media. Doré’s background includes two years at Madden Media as creative director, following 10 years as creative director and partner at Burghardt+Doré.
The team brings four clients that will be added to the agency roster, including Visit Carmel-by-the-Sea, Go Lake Havasu, Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and The Tickle Pink Inn.
Above+Beyond
Above+Beyond has been appointed by Pure Electric as the U.K. e-bike and e-scooter manufacturer’s first creative and strategic partner. The agency’s first engagement is to create a global positioning and strategy that will serve as a platform for Pure Electric’s campaign activations, supporting the brand’s ongoing innovations and new product rollouts, commencing in Spring 2022.
AICP
The AICP’s (Association of Independent Commercial Producers) national board of directors elected a new leadership slate at its 2021 year-end meeting.
Lisa Mehling, owner/president of Chelsea, was elected chairperson and Tabitha Mason-Elliott, partner/head of production at Bark Bark, was elected vice chairperson. Additionally, Robert Fernandez, CEO of Moxie Pictures, was re-elected treasurer.
Mehling previously held the post of vice chairperson and is the first woman to be elected chairperson of the national board. In addition to serving as vice chair, Mason-Elliott continues in her role as chairperson of the equity and inclusion committee. Fernandez is a former chairperson of the AICP national board. Rich Carter of brother, outgoing board chairperson, continues in the role of immediate past chairperson.
Baldwin&
Baldwin& has hired Kelly M. Reed as senior brand strategist. Reed will lead strategic creative teams across new business and agency clients, including Lansinoh, Kioti Tractor and Downtown South.
Reed joins Baldwin& from the brand side, where she led the copy efforts for Curology in San Francisco. Prior to Curology, Reed was marketing campaign manager for Chicago-based music gear marketer Reverb.com. On the agency side, she has held creative leadership positions at Aisle Rocket in Chicago and Rule29.
Along with the new hires, the agency also announced key promotions and additions to its leadership team. Emily Watson and Katharine Belloir have been named group creative director and group account director, respectively.
Bold Strategies
Ecommerce agency Bold Strategies announced two new additions to its leadership team, head of client strategy Lee Sherwood-Esmond and executive creative director, Cassie Wenger to deliver new capabilities to its clients.
Sherwood-Esmond, who most recently led over 20 accounts as Mosaic North America’s head of shopper marketing, was also recently recognized by the Path to Purchase Institute as a 2021 “Women of Excellence” award winner for mentorship.
In her new role, she’ll lead Bold’s growing team of ecommerce strategists, while also helping to shape its service offering.
Wenger, who joins Bold from Arc Worldwide, brings nearly 15 years of retail and CPG experience to the team, and will lead Bold’s entire creative and web development team. She will also provide strategic advice to clients to help shape digital shelf, acquisition marketing and other efforts.
Broadhead
Broadhead, an independent, integrated marketing agency in Minnesota, has acquired HMH Agency, a Portland, Oregon-based firm working with transportation brands including Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Buses and Detroit.
For broadhead, the addition of HMH Agency complements and diversifies an agency known for its work in the agriculture, food and wellness channels. With combined capitalized billings in excess of $120 million, the acquisition of HMH Agency increases broadhead’s overall business by 50% and expands its talent base to include 150 total employees in three offices: Minneapolis, Portland, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Following the acquisition, the broadhead and HMH Agency brands will continue to operate independently. Broadhead and HMH will also combine resources in data science, predictive analytics, experience design, public relations, media, consumer research and insights.
Collins
Independent strategy, design and communications agency Collins has developed a comprehensive and symbolic new brand system for audience relationship platform OpenWeb.
To reflect both OpenWeb’s evolution and its mission to fuel relationships between publishers, audiences, and advertisers through healthy online conversation, Collins was invited to drive a full-on reimagination of the brand.
Crosby Marketing
Crosby Marketing Communications has promoted three staff members to senior positions.
Sarah Honig has been promoted to associate vice president to support one of Crosby’s largest clients, the Department of Defense Military Family and Community Policy.
Gabrielle Weber has been promoted to associate vice president, strategist to oversee the strategic development and execution of innovative digital marketing public health outreach programs for clients, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Promoted to director, integration management, Katie McCubbin is tasked with overseeing national public awareness and activation campaigns for Disabled American Veterans, and USDA’s Hungry Pests program. She also manages digital fundraising campaigns for Shriners Hospitals for Children.
Dentsu
Dentsu International has appointed Keith Camoosa as chief addressability officer, dentsu Media Americas, a first of its kind role for its network of agencies.
Camoosa will unify and further develop dentsu’s addressable media practice and suite of products—powered by M1 and Merkury in lockstep with Merkle.
In this new role, Camoosa will drive proficiency across dentsu’s agencies to ensure each are coordinated in delivering on an addressable future for clients. He will work to find innovative ways in building infrastructure to connect first-party data to supply sources. He will also partner closely with Merkle and dentsu product leaders to elevate existing solutions.
Gale
Creative media consultancy Gale has been named lead agency spearheading growth strategy, media, and social for Wells Enterprises, the parent company of Blue Bunny, Halo Top and Bomb Pop. Creative duties will be split between GALE and Stagwell sister agencies Observatory and Wolfgang for Bomb Pop, Blue Bunny and Halo Top, respectively.
Gale will bring its audience-first approach to integrated marketing to help the Wells brands grow in modern and purposeful ways. The agency’s first work for the brands is expected to roll out in April 2022, including a national creative campaign for Bomb Pop.
Harmelin Media
Bea Leung has joined Harmelin Media as vice president. This is Harmelin’s first-ever vp-level hire. In her new role, Leung will serve as Harmelin’s consumer packaged goods practice lead. She will be managing Harmelin’s Blue Diamond, Krusteaz and Turkey Hill businesses, while also focusing on team management and growing Harmelin’s CPG business.
Prior to joining Harmelin Media, Leung held senior positions at different agencies in New York City and led teams to deliver on campaign successes.
Human Design
Independent brand and communications agency Human Design has appointed Lou Pinto as executive director, people and operations. In this role, Pinto will be responsible to find, develop, motivate and retain talent; identify and adopt efficiencies to help transform the agency; and drive the agency DE&I efforts.
Pinto most recently served as a consultant to start-up and small agencies across the country, such as Green Stone, Colossus Creative, Spectacle Strategy and The Venturous. Previously, she was the HR and operations lead at WorkInProgress and associate director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
Intersection
Vince Amalfi has been hired by Intersection, an experience-driven OOH media and technology company, as the vice president of national sales. He is based out of Los Angeles and will oversee Intersection’s national sales organization across its L.A., San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, Austin and Dallas markets as it continues to expand its footprint across the West Coast and Midwest regions.
Amalfi previously served as the vp of national advertising sales, West Coast at ScreenVision, and prior to that held leadership roles at Music Choice, Dennis Publishing and Comcast.
Iris Chicago
Iris Chicago has brought on Jayson Szott as its new executive creative director. The hire is part of the exponential growth happening across Iris North America.
Szott joined Iris in July of 2021 and has already developed strong client relationships—empowering teams and leading campaign developments across the Chicago office—and has also been a key piece in new business pitch development.
Previously, Szott was the group creative director at dentsu mcgarrybowen. He also worked for Razorfish, Digitas, Edelman Digital, Organic and Doner.
Momentum Worldwide
Experiential advertising agency Momentum Worldwide is expanding its sports sponsorship expertise with the appointment of Parisa Howard as Verizon sports partnerships lead and NFL expert, who joins from Octagon.
Howard formerly worked at the NFL, Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers. In her new role at Momentum, Howard will lead strategic planning and execution of Verizon’s NFL partnerships.
Publicis Groupe
Publicis Groupe has acquired Tremend, one of the fastest-growing and largest independent software engineering companies in Central and Eastern Europe. Tremend, based in Bucharest, Romania, will serve as the newest global delivery center for Publicis Sapient.
Tremend serves a large and diverse client base that includes companies such as Carrefour, ING and Orange. The addition of Tremend will expand Publicis Sapient’s engineering capabilities and diversify its geographic footprint.
SmartBug Media
SmartBug Media, a marketing agency that assists businesses in generating leads, increasing awareness and building brand loyalty through inbound marketing, digital strategy, design, marketing automation, revenue operations and public relations, has promoted Jen Spencer to chief executive officer.
Spencer’s promotion represents the next chapter in her highly successful career at SmartBug, where her efforts as a senior leader have contributed to several important milestones at the company.
Prior to SmartBug, Spencer built several demand generation and sales enablement programs from the ground up and has experience working within technology startups, publicly traded companies, mid-market organizations and the not-for-profit space.
Ryan Malone, SmartBug’s founder and current CEO, will continue serving the company in his role as chairman of the board.
Stagwell
Stagwell has acquired Goodstuff, a full-service media planning and buying agency based in London. The Goodstuff team will join the Stagwell Media Network, a group of leading multichannel agencies home to more than 3,000 experts with an expansive global footprint across 20 countries and 40 offices.
Goodstuff brings complementary and additive client services, including communications strategy, full-funnel media delivery and inventive solutions for premier clients, including Ovo, AA, On The Beach, Yorkshire Tea, Cazoo and Hello Fresh. Goodstuff will further extend the media network’s innovation, scale and creative thinking.
Terri & Sandy
Independent creative agency Terri & Sandy has been chosen as the first agency of record for Universal Nutrition, a sports nutrition supplement manufacturer in the weightlifting and fitness community. This win reunites Universal Nutrition CEO Bob Levi with the leaders of Terri & Sandy, who previously worked on the Kraft business together.
Known for its Universal and Animal brands, the company will look to Terri & Sandy for strategic and creative leadership to help take Universal Nutrition to the next level in the brand’s evolution of digital marketing and social media.
Who Wot Why
Who Wot Why has won the Wealthify account after a three-way pitch run by the AAR. Wealthify is an online investment service that aims to make investing easy and accessible. The partnership will see Who Wot Why creating work for Wealthify throughout the year.
Wunderman Thompson
Wunderman Thompson has appointed Carrie Philpott as chief client officer for North America. She takes on this role in addition to her role as president of Atlanta. Philpott joined Wunderman Thompson in 2019 as president of Wunderman Thompson Atlanta. Prior to joining Wunderman Thompson, Philpott was the managing director of Huge Atlanta, where she led a team of 100-plus employees and was responsible for leading the office’s growth and direction.