Hasta La Creative!

AKQA promoted three group creative directors — Masaya Nakade, Jason McCann and Sung Chang — to roles as executive creative directors, The Drum reports.

Nakade joined AKQA London back in 2004, eventually working up to the group creative director role. McCann joined the agency’s New York office in November of 2011, following a six year stint at TAXI Toronto, where he served as vice president and executive creative director. Prior to joining TAXI, he spent six years at ICE Integrated Communications & Entertainment as an associate creative director. An eighteen year veteran in the advertising, digital and design sector, Chang joined AKQA New York in June of 2012, following an almost five year stint at Ogilvy & Mather as an executive creative director and senior partner. Prior to that, he was a senior partner and group creative director at OgilvyOne following his departure from contempt, “a small agency specializing in branding, design, marketing and technology” which he co-founded and served as a partner.

“With the tremendous growth that we’ve had in our New York office in the last couple of years as well as stronger partnerships with various clients such as Verizon, the promotions of Jason and Sung are an obvious recognition,” AKQA chief creative officer Rei Inamoto told The Drum. “They will be taking even greater leadership duties in New York and beyond in the coming months.”

Well, the time has come and with this, we’ll put the ADC coverage to bed for a while. Yes, the fifth and final installment of the ADC’s video series highlighting the happenings from last year’s first-ever Portfolio Night All-Stars event. Perhaps you saw episode 4 featuring AKQA CCO Rei Inamoto yesterday and now, the finale takes us to the presentation portion where the six all-star teams actually pitch for Ford representatives. The peculiar thing about this clip is you really don’t see/hear any of the actual pitches being made (we assume because Ford wants to keep things close to the hip). Well, at least this entire series still has a quick runtime than one actual episode of AMC’s The Pitch. FYI, the winner’s announced just past the 5:00 mark. You can check out the full series here, and in case you were wondering, this year’s PN event takes place May 21.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

As we wrap up summer (went too fast, but FALL IN NY!), we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the happenings during the 2013 Art Directors Club Porfolio Night All-Stars. During the weeklong event from a couple of weeks ago, creative types from 24 countries were tasked with a brief to create a global platform for the Ford Focus to ensure the auto brand we see here in North America is the same we would see overseas. Here are just a few recollections from the All-Stars who made it to the event, which kicked off on August 5 and featured the likes of DDB Worldwide CCO Amir Kassaei, Barbarian Group co-founder/CEO Benjamin Palmer and AKQA CCO, Rei Inamoto. First up to bat, we have Sean Collander, copywriter and PN11 Chicago All-Star.

“Camaraderie is not exactly what you would expect when pitting 23 young creatives against each other in a competition to create work for one of the world’s biggest car brands, but that is exactly what I’ve found over the last few days here at the Portfolio Night 11 All-Stars competition. Now, don’t get me wrong, we all want to win, but it’s coming out in the work, not in our relationships with each other. I’ve had conversations about the future of advertising, European politics, the merits of both Texas BBQ and Kansas City BBQ, rap videos, and Robin Thicke’s hair. Different teams will regularly get together to play a game of Pictionary to let off steam. At the end of a full day of concepting, we will all get together for a few drinks, and have made the bar down the street the unofficial after party location of the week.

I think I can speak for all 23 participants when I say we’ve experienced a lot over such a short amount of time, and it has been more incredible than any one of us imagined it could be. The Art Directors Club has been extremely gracious with their knowledge and resources, managing to bring together an unbelievable list of guest speakers, judges, and sponsors.

When I attended Portfolio Night 11 in Chicago back in May, I went simply looking to get feedback on my work and maybe, If I was lucky, a job. I had no idea that a few months later I would be selected to work on a brief for Ford with 22 other creatives representing countries all over the world. I can honestly say that this is one of the most fun and stressful experiences I have ever had, and am truly humbled to be a part of the very first Portfolio Night All Stars.”

After the jump, check out more from Isabelle Osterlund, another PN 11 All-Star from Stockholm.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.