By continually enhancing their leadership and creative teams, and investing in world-class talent, our agency partners are able to hold their position as some of the most creative and innovative independent advertising agencies in the world. Check out a few of the recent hires at our partner agencies.
Tombras
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Tombras has made two new hires in recent months--one industry veteran with decades of experience in big name agencies, and another fresh face with decades of opportunity in front of him.
Jeff Benjamin is the veteran. A former chief creative officer at JWT North America and Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CPB), and ECD at Barton F. Graf, Jeff joins Tombras as the agency’s first CCO. “Jeff is a different type of creative leader. If you look at his work, it’s a greatest hits of advertising over the last 15 years,” Dooley Tombras, president and owner of Tombras, told AdWeek. “And it’s not a portfolio of TV work, but a bunch of big, culture-busting ideas. Jeff is the total package and the [best] CCO we could ever hope for.”
Dooley Tombras, President, Tombras & Jeff Benjamin, CCO
Harrison McNeill is the fresh face. A former high schooler who started the @goodbeanjokes on a lark, Harrison joins Tombras to work on various social media accounts for clients, notably the Twitter account for Bush’s Beans. Tombras has had their eye on Harrison for sometime because @goodbeanjokes frequently engaged with their MoonPie tweets. Dooley Tombras said they’d been laughing at @goodbeansjokes for months.
“Eventually, I asked (Tombras social media creative director) Patrick Tice to DM @goodbeanjokes and feel out who it was and find out if they’d be open to talking about working for us,” Tombras told Fast Company. “Patrick comes back and says, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news was that it’s a guy named Harrison and he lives in Florida and he’s interested in talking about working with us. The bad news is that he’s still in high school!’ That was a little over a year ago and we decided to wait and reach back out when Harrison started college.”
R&R Partners
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
R&R Partners has hired Silicon Valley veteran Nathan Reuss as the agency’s new Content Creative Director. Nathan brings more than 20 years of advertising experience to his new position, working at tech giants Google, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Most recently, he was Facebook’s Creative Shop Strategist for Global Accounts in the Entertainment Industry, helping brands like Red Bull, Netflix, Budweiser, Burger King and Volkswagen develop innovative solutions and bring creative concepts to life through the social network’s various platforms. He’s also worked for Google and YouTube. At R&R Partners, Nathan will lead all creative efforts for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), Anheuser-Busch, and R&R’s roster of client partners.
“Nathan’s platform experience at Instagram, Facebook and Google gives R&R and its clients a distinct advantage on digital and social campaigns,” Matt Mason, R&R’s Chief Strategist, told 4A’s. “In addition, he is an incredible blend of strategy and creative, which means we have zero translation issues from business objectives to creative expression.”
FUSE Marketing Group
Toronto, Canada
Another step the development and evolution of FUSE Marketing Group’s creative growth, the Toronto-based agency has appointed Bridget Westerholz as Managing Director. Previously, Bridget was VP, Director of Client Services at DDB Vancouver, leading and mentoring teams to work on successful campaigns for PepsiCo (Tositos and Crispy Minis), Emerald Health and Rocky Mountaineer.
“We’re incredibly lucky to have Bridget on board.” says Stephen Brown, FUSE President. “We love the curiosity Bridget ignites in our team and her strong leadership skills will help propel this agency forward.”
Greater Than One
New York, NY, USA
Health and wellness digital marketing agency Greater Than One (GTO) has hired Andrew Bast as Chief Strategy Officer. Andrew joins GTO from Concentric Health Experience where, over a successful seven-year period as Executive Vice President, Director of Strategic Integration, he led dynamic, multidisciplinary, strategic consultancy teams to create transformative solutions for companies like Novartis, Lundbeck, Novo Nordisk, Sunovion, and Sage Therapeutics.
“Andrew is a passionate innovator of the strategic process, always working outside the box. This aligns with our vision of creating the most imaginative solutions in health and wellness for our clients and customers,” said Kieran Walsh, President of GTO.
Congratulations to these folks and our agency partners!