AGENCIES:

BrannWorldwide has beefed up its Toronto office with a series of recent hires and promotions.

Newcomers include Debra Sharp, Josephine Camilleri, Lauren Reimer, Eric Shapiro, and Matt Fabian, while moving up the ladder are Jennifer Trant, Paul Walmark and Deirdre Swatman.

Sharp, formerly group creative director at Impiric, takes the post of creative director, while Fabian is now senior strategist of database marketing. He had been director of database engineering for Polk Canada before the move.

Camilleri comes to Brann from a position as senior account manager for Rapp Collins Worldwide. She will be on the CIBC account team as an account supervisor. Joining her on the account are Reimer and Shapiro. Reimer, formerly marketing manager at Household Finance, is a strategist on the team, while Shapiro is an account executive. He comes over from Impiric, where he was account co-ordinator.

Meanwhile, Trant is now director of client services and will be overseeing the CIBC, Enbridge Consumers Gas and ADP Canada accounts. Walmark has been promoted to senior copywriter and Swatman moves up to account executive from co-ordinator.

SUPPLIERS:

Ina Balys recently joined Toronto-based Compusearch Micromarketing Data and Systems as a client services representative. Balys, a geographical information systems specialist, comes from the government side, having worked for both the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and with the Canadian Embassy in Lithuania.

Ralph Bain has been appointed vice-president and general manager of Wood & Associates Direct Marketing Services, a Toronto-based direct marketing service bureau. Prior to joining Wood & Associates in January 1999, Bain, whose experience spans more than 30 years in the financial services sector, was senior vice-president and director of Midland Walwyn.

The Garden promotes two creative directors

ACDs Lindsay Eady and Francheska Galloway-Davis have taken over responsibility for day-to-day creative leadership at The Garden after being promoted to creative director roles.

The pair will also help develop the agency’s creative talent, formalizing mentorship and leadership activities they have been doing since joining the agency four and three years ago, respectively. In addition to creating the agency’s internship program, the pair have worked on campaigns for Coinsquare, FitTrack and “The Coke Challenge” campaign for DanceSafe.

Eady and Galloway-Davis will continue to report to The Garden’s co-founder and chief creative officer Shane Ogilvie, who is stepping back from daily creative duties to a more high-level strategic role, allowing him to focus on client relationships and business growth.

Naked Creative Consultancy names new creative and strategy leadership

Toronto’s Naked Creative Consultancy has hired Yasmin Sahni as its new creative director. She is taking over creative leadership from David Kenyon, who has been in the role for 10 years and is moving into a new role as director of strategy, leading the discipline at the agency.

Sahni is coming off of three years as VP and ECD at GTB’s Toronto office, where she managed all the retail, social and service creative for Ford Canada. She previously managed both Vice Media and Vice’s in-house ad agency Virtue.

Peter Shier, president of Naked, says Sahni’s hiring adds to its creative bench and capabilities, as well as a track record of mentorship, a priority for the company. Meanwhile, Kenyon’s move to the strategy side, he says, makes sense because of his deep knowledge of its clients, which have included Ancestry and The Globe and Mail.

Digital Ethos opens a Toronto office

U.K. digital agency Digital Ethos is pursuing new growth opportunities in North America by opening a new office in Toronto.

Though it didn’t disclose them, the agency has begun serving a number of North American clients, and CEO/founder Luke Tobin says the “time was right to invest in a more formal and actual presence in the area.” whose services include design, SEO, pay-per-click, social media, influencer and PR,

This year, the agency’s growth has also allowed it to open an office in Hamburg, Germany, though it also has remote staff working in countries around the world.

Moray Hickes was the company’s first North American hire as VP of sales, tasked with business development in the region.