Woo, an independent, woman-owned creative agency based in Los Angeles, has named Chelsea O’Brien Kauth as its executive creative director. Kauth joins Woo from Omelet where she served as group creative director and partner, overseeing creative across the firm’s Walmart, YouTube, Asana and Princess Cruises accounts.
Kauth brings extensive experience leading major campaigns for brands including PayPal, YouTube, Hulu and Infiniti to her new role, where she will be responsible for guiding the agency’s overall creative direction and process. Kauth will report to Valerie Moizel, CEO and chief creative officer at Woo. She will work across all clients, including Lenovo, LG, Bosch Home Appliances, Heal, LA Fitness, Niagara Water, De’Longhi, Braun, Chamberlain and Whipshots.
“As the aspirations for the agency have grown, we wanted to bring in some additional, high-powered creative thinking. Chelsea is a perfect fit, bringing a great mix of agency expertise and a phenomenal feel for multi-platform storytelling to the role. As an agency, our goal is creating marketing that gets consumers to ‘feel more’—and I think Chelsea has the vision and smarts to make that happen for our clients in a way that’s natural, meaningful and evocative across the full emotional spectrum,” Moizel told Adweek.
Previous career highlights for Kauth include creating PayPal’s first ever Super Bowl ad, “New Money,” YouTube’s “All YouTube, No Interruptions” campaign and leading the City of Los Angeles’ award-winning “Louder Than Guns” campaign focused on ending gun violence.
Earlier, Kauth was creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, where she co-created the .GIFYS, the first award show for the animated gif.
The new hire builds on the agency’s momentum over the past year, which includes new campaigns for clients LG and Lenovo, as well as the launch of Cardi B’s new vodka-infused whipped cream, Whipshots and an interview series with Dr. Ruth on the art of wooing in celebration of the firm’s 25th anniversary.
“What drew me to Woo was the opportunity to take the reins of a creative department that’s been turning out great work for the past 20-plus years and help shape its culture, process and output to deliver meaningful and modern narratives,” said Kauth in a statement. “I was very impressed with the agency’s ethos and track record—and hope to lead the way for the next generation of creatives who want to make impactful, inspiring work in an empathetic, healthy work environment. I’m thrilled to join the very smart crew here in this next phase of Woo’s growth.”
Kauth’s hiring brings the agency to 45 employees.