Ken Erke to Lead Cramer-Krasselt Chicago Creative

Ken ErkeCramer-Krasselt’s Chicago office has named Ken Erke to lead its creative department.

The new position marks a return home of sorts for Chicago native Erke, who served as group creative director at Cramer-Krasselt in 2006 before leaving for an ECD position at Y&R Chicago, where he eventually advanced to the chief creative officer role.

At Y&R, Erke helped win various pitches including Double Tree and Hotels.com while working on award-winning campaigns for Sears, The National Parks, and more. He moved to R/GA in October 2010 after spending more than three years with the Y&R organization; the agency hired him, along with fellow ECD Matt Marcus, to help build out a Windy City office that had just over a dozen employees at the time.

Erke replaces former SVP/ECD Derek Green, who left the agency in December and returned to his native Australia; he now serves as ECD at Ogilvy’s Sydney office. He will report to Vice Chairman/CCO Marshall Ross.

Accounts led by Erke will include Corona. In case you missed it, Cramer-Krasselt survived the October pruning in which the beer-maker’s parent company parted ways with GS&P and Constellation.

R/GA Chicago Hires New ECD

5de7d298808ae03d623a462564158087R/GA, the self-described “world’s most award-winning digital agency”, announced the hiring of a new creative co-lead for its Chicago office.

MDavid Low arrives from San Francisco tech/design consultancy Nurun (formerly Odopod), where he served as associate technical director; he will work closely with VP and executive director of copywriting Ken Erke and report to VP/MD Jeff Brecker.

Prior to working with Nurun, Low was chief creative technologist at Eleven, Inc., where he helped create Skippy the rock-skipping robot for client Sun Valley.

Brecker describes Low, who has worked with rock bands in addition to brands and counts motorcycle repair among his hobbies, as:

“…both a thinker and a maker – someone who doesn’t just understand design needs, but also the technology and production levers to develop and implement solutions for our clients.”

Before you ask: yes, that is his real name.

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