Ronny Northrop Leaves Y&R for gyro San Francisco

By Patrick Coffee 

Ten months after being promoted to lead all West Coast creative for Y&R, Ronny Northrop has moved to the San Francisco offices of gyro, the independent New York-based direct marketing/b2b-focused agency that currently employs “600 creative minds spread across the globe.”

In the new role, Northrop will serve as executive creative director, replacing Steffan Postaer who left the agency in September and appears to be freelancing at the moment. He reports to agency president Drew Myers.

Prior to joining Y&R last year, Northrop made his name in the industry as a copywriter at CP+B during some of its most productive years (2002 to 2005). While at Crispin, he worked on campaigns for such clients as Burger King, IKEA and Virgin Atlantic. He then spent nearly six years as a copywriter and CD at GS&P, where he contributed to the Sprint pitch and later served as GCD on that account in addition to Anheuser-Busch, HP and others.

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Northrop rose quickly through the ranks at Y&R. He started freelancing there last February, was officially promoted to ECD in October, and got CCO promotion in January to replace the outgoing Mimi Cook (who had been his superior and currently serves as creative director and brand strategist at San Francisco design shop Rindal, Ritt & Co.).

He has worked on campaigns that earned Cannes Lions, Clios and the lot, but Northrop says he’s most proud of the “hacking autism” project for HP, which encouraged the creation of software designed for those with ASD or autism spectrum disorders.

gyro sees Northrop–who also taught at Miami Ad School and founded Y&R’s “Wrestling Club” innovation lab–as a mentor of sorts for its less experienced employees. The agency’s CEO/CCO Christopher Becker says he has “already made an immediate impact on our valued client partners,” adding, “I expect only great things from him as gyro San Francisco continues to propel its creative excellence forward.”

Northrop says:

“I’ve been lucky enough to work at a few places that were taking off over the years. That’s the type of energy you feel at gyro San Francisco the moment you walk into the building. I’ve always loved that kind of vibe. I look forward to seeing how far this office can go.”

So what sort of work does gyro do? The agency includes BlackBerry, Cars.com, DuPont, eBay, Time Inc. and others among its clients, and this summer it combined drones and notebooks in a campaign promoting Oxford’s SOS Notes app.

Here’s a sizzle reel that the shop posted earlier today.

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