TBWA\Toronto has named Allen Oke executive creative director as the agency continues to shift senior employees around TBWA\Worldwide’s newly implemented global network of digital specialists. Oke has worked at the agency’s Toronto office for almost nine years, the last four as creative director.

Oke says his main mission will be to raise the agency’s creative profile, with an emphasis on bringing home more hardware. “We haven’t won at Cannes since 2004. We’ve been shortlisted several times, but we have to get back on the board,” says Oke. “I’m really aiming for that.”

For the immediate future, Oke plans to continue his work with Infiniti and Nissan, including digital and experiential work in the pipeline set to hit the market in January. He plans to build out the digital offering on all the agency’s accounts.

He will lead the creative group of 35 people and work closely with recently hired director of digital production Jennifer Simpson and Tasha Dean, who moved from Toronto to the agency’s New York office this summer to take on a senior role in TBWA\Worldwide’s digital operations.

While TBWA’s Digital Arts Network is only a few months old, Oke says the Toronto office has already made use of the new organizational structure, bringing in specialists from different TBWA offices around the world this summer to work on various client pitches.

“Allen has proven over and over again that he has the kind of disruptive thinking and media arts skills that not only wins awards, but more importantly wins audience connection and strong brand loyalty for our clients,” said Jay Bertram, president TBWA\Latin America & Canada, in a release. “Creativity today has to span multiple media and any means necessary to create that indelible connection between a brand and its audience.”

Oke’s work has been recognized at Cannes, the One Show, Clios and the Bessies among others.