Hasta La Creative!

After a decade in the city, The Martin Agency hired Amber Guild to serve as the first managing director for its New York office, Adweek reports. Guild began the position last week, reporting directly to The Martin Agency CEO Matt Williams.

The office’s client roster includes Kayak (for which it won creative duties back in February), Sunglass Hut and Optimum.

“Martin New York has grown dramatically in the past couple of years, but we’ve been eager to find just the right person to help lead that office to an even higher level, and Amber is that person,” Williams said in a statement. “She will bring her extensive expertise and be a great partner to executive creative director James Robinson and director of brand strategy John Gibson as they grow and shape Martin New York.”

Guild joined The Martin Agency form brand consultancy Collins, where she served as president since December of 2014. Prior to Collins she spent five years at full-service agency T3, rising to managing director of the agency’s New York office after joining as a group account director in September of 2009. Before that she spent two years as a senior account director with Swift Integrated Marketing, following a year as an account director with Y&R. She has also held account management positions at Saatchi & Saatchi and Ogilvy & Mather.

“I’ve had a crush on Martin since my early days as an account executive,” Guild told Adweek. “When I was growing up in account management, my job was to become a trusted adviser to our clients by understanding their business, building and creating affinity for their brand, and creating an environment for my team that inspired great, effective work,” she said. “If anything, as I’ve become more senior, I put even more attention to building environments and cultures that allow for people from different backgrounds (diversity!) to thrive—it’s not just the right thing to do, it’s business critical.”

“It’s important to point out that Martin New York has already been here for several years and has steadily grown since it first opened its doors,” she added. “We live in one of the most diverse cities in the world—a city I was born and raised in—and our opportunity is to make sure our talent and our work reflect the creativity, diversity and complexity of the world we live in.”

Guild’s arrival follows the office expanding its creative team with a series of new hires at the beginning of the year, about a month ahead of the Kayak win. The office added executive creative director James Robinson in March of 2015.

Ferrara & Company hired former Publicis New York chief and 35-year industry veteran Joe McCarthy as its new president and chief client officer.

“We’re thrilled to have Joe join the team and share his vision and expertise to helping our clients continue to grow their business,” said Ferrara & Company president and CEO Art Ferrara in a statement. “His industry knowledge, leadership and drive for success will create an even stronger operation.”

The Princeton, New Jersey agency specializes in serving retail “challenger brands,” and its roster includes such clients as Arm & Hammer, Allegra, Heinz and the New Jersey Lottery. Atlanta-based PureRED Integrated Marketing acquired Ferrara for an undisclosed sum last summer, and the shop currently employs between 50 and 200 according to its LinkedIn page.

“I firmly understand and believe in the power of creativity to drive clients’ business. It’s what I believe in my heart,” said McCarthy in the press release. The same release credits him with helping to facilitate double-digit growth at Publicis during the height of the Great Recession by signing new clients such as Hilton Worldwide, Merck, TGI Friday’s, AXA and Lens Crafters.

PureRED CEO Michael Minasi said, “Joe’s varied background and his impressive list of creative credentials will be an asset to PureRED as we continue our growth trajectory,” citing McCarthy’s “breadth of experience, ranging from top leadership at one the industry’s biggest agencies to client leadership at some of the world’s most powerful brands.”

McCarthy joins Ferrara & Company from New York design firm Collins, where he served as president beginning in 2013. Before that, he spent four years (2008-2012) as CEO of Publicis New York.

After beginning his agency career with a 13-year stint at Saatchi & Saatchi New York, he left the agency to go client-side as vice president of worldwide advertising at Nike 1993. He then spent three years there before leaving to found his own brand strategy and creative consultancy, The McCarthy Company, whose clients included Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams), j.crew and Leo Burnett.

After subsequently co-founding McCarthy Mambro Bertino (MMB) in 2001, he joined Johnson & Johnson as vice president of global advertising in 2005 and held that position for three years before leaving to join Publicis.

Bridget Collins est une photographe américaine originaire de Minneapolis dans le Minnesota. Avec des clichés s’amusant à souligner des petits détails étranges et insolites, ses photographies permettent de se plonger dans un monde où les objets dialoguent avec l’environnement. Plus d’images ans la suite.