Hires and promotions
Naked Creative Consultancy continues to grow heading into 2019 with the addition of Meagan Younger as director of planning and Bryan Crisostomo as lead developer. Joining from Mosaic, where she was a strategist, Younger has worked with global brands including Labatt, Clorox, Hershey, Kraft Heinz and Church & Dwight. She previously held account service roles at Hunter Straker and Tracy Locke. Before joining Naked, Crisostomo worked at global firm SGSco, managing digital projects for Pepsi Worldwide, Cadillac Fairview, Microsoft and Diageo.
Rahim Kamani joins Toronto’s Chameleon Digital Media, a subsidiary of Adapt Media, as a senior national account executive. Kamani worked in senior and executive sales roles at TMT Kleanr Cleaning Services, Addictive Mobility, Atdra, HostHero and Olive Media.
Former Loblaw SVP of corporate affairs and communication Bob Chant has joined StrategyCorp as a senior strategic advisor. Chant’s experience spans the private and public sectors. In addition to his former role at Loblaw, he was director of corporate affairs at Labatt Brewing and has worked in the offices of several prominent politicians.
New business and other news
Flore-Anne Ducharme and Jack Latulippe have launched Supernormal Agency, a Montreal shop offering strategy, creative, digital, social media, content development, experiential and influencer strategy. Ducharme, who hails from Montreal creative shop Les Évadés and Restaurants Hà, will serve as general manager. Meanwhile, Latulippe, who has worked at Sid Lee & Anomaly Toronto, is taking leadership of creative as chief creative officer. Supernormal l opened its doors in October as the agency of record for the Montreal hospitality group A5 Hospitality.
Lisa Greenberg, VP and creative at Leo Burnett, has been named chair of the Advertising & Design Club of Canada. In addition, Andrew Simon, chief creative officer at Edelman Canada, has been appointed president, and Claire Dawson, co-founder and creative director at Underline Studio, steps in as secretary of the non-profit organization.
After 11 years in the business, Hamilton, Ontario-based Kitestring Creative Branding Studio, has rebranded. The worked included developing a new brand narrative, clarified positioning, visual identity, colour palette, and tagline – everything except the brand name. Going forward, Kitestring has made “sparkle, heart, wisdom, craft and joy” the pillars of its approach, the result of a recent client survey and competitor review.
A trio of Canadian creative leaders have been selected to serve as judges for the global ADC 98th annual awards, part of The One Club for Creativity. They are: Anthony Chelvanathan, CD at Leo Burnett Toronto (advertising jury), Anna Goodson, president of Montreal-based Anna Goodson Illustration & Motion based (illustration jury), and Laura Stein, CD at Sid Lee Toronto (brand/communication design jury).
Dx3, the annual conference for retailers, marketers and tech innovators, has retained ClutchPR as its public relations AOR. The Toronto-based shop will lead public relations and manage media accreditation for the event, which will take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on March 6 and 7.
Storage provider Bluebird Self-Storage has hired Toronto-based Tcgpr as its public relations AOR, following the company’s addition of 11 locations in the Greater Toronto Area.
Media
President Andrew MacLeod has officially taken over from Paul Godfrey as CEO of Postmedia, a leadership change previously announced last year as a part of succession plan. Meanwhile, Godfrey will remain executive chair of the media co. MacLeod, for his part, will be working to change perceptions of Postmedia being a “legacy dinosaur.” (second story for Media in Canada subscribers only).
Verizon Media (formerly known as Oath) has entered into a multi-year global native advertising deal with Microsoft. Advertisers who buy spots through Verizon’s Oath Ad Platforms will now have access to formats on Microsoft News/MSN. The deal expands Verizon’s available inventory by 20%, but does not include Microsoft’s professional networking site LinkedIn (for Media in Canada subscribers only).
