A new creative director is among the new additions at Innocean Worldwide Canada as the agency continues to prioritize skills that will help it navigate shifts from traditional to digital media.

Stephen Stahl has been hired to lead creative for the agency’s Hyundai Canada account, working alonside fellow creative director Bill Newbery, who joined the agency last year. Ian MacKellar, ECD at Innocean Worldwide, adds that Stahl will also help “elevate the creative potential” of Innocean.

Prior to joining Innocean, Stahl spent ten years on the creative team at Leo Burnett before going freelance in 2017.

MacKellar says work with key clients Hyundai and Kia have remained busy. To that end, the agency has also made additions to its client service team, bringing on digital account supervisor Sneha Dalvi and account supervisor Kelsey Davidson in Toronto, with account coordinator Neila Aoudia joining in Montreal. All three joined in August and are working on the Kia account.

In its full-service studio, Innocean has hired Michael Thomas to oversee quality assurance. And in its media division, it has hired media coordinator Labeeb Mirza, coordinator of performance digital Raymond Acebo, junior programmatic manager Yining Jin, ad operations coordinator Connor Gaskell and media strategy intern Tamara Vujic.

The hires comes as the agency looks to go digital-heavy in terms of investment, prioritizing digital insights, content, customized and automated consumer experiences and digital retail.

“We believe our primary task in 2021 will be to continue to manage the shift from traditional to digital media,” says Norm Melamed, COO of Innocean Worldwide Canada.  “This includes the shift from off-line business transactions to on-line [and] e-commerce transactions…[the agency] fundamentally believes in investing in people and talent, and in turn, growing our capability is the secret to long term [success], enduring profitable growth.”