Hello there, and welcome back to Agency Brief. This week, we’ve got the exclusive on Gut New York’s first executive creative director, along with another Stagwell acquisition. Want to be included in a future edition? Reach out to [email protected] and [email protected] for consideration.

Mojo Supermarket has a new leader

Indie agency Mojo Supermarket named Armando Turco its first president. Turco returns to agency life after a stint as executive creative director at Oatly North America. Earlier in his career, he worked at BBH New York and McCann New York. 

“For my next move, it was less of a question of agency side vs. brand side, and instead a question of where I could do the best, most innovative work, free of the usual complexity or big-company-bullshit,” Turco said in a statement. As well as Turco, Mojo hired David Barron as chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Both roles are new. Barron had spent nearly a decade at creative agency Manifest.

ICYMI:

Here are a few of Ad Age’s biggest agency stories this week:

• Why private equity firms are investing in creative agencies
• IPG plans $250 million restructuring after quarterly revenue and profit fall
• Slap Global’s Lyndsey Corona joins WPP 

Stagwell’s latest deal

Stagwell has acquired Gold Rabbit Sports, a sports marketing agency that has worked with the Kansas City Chiefs, Red Bull, FIFA World Cup and the Olympics. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

Gold Rabbit Sports will become a subsidiary of Stagwell’s experiential agency called Team. The deal follows the holding company’s January announcement of its plans to acquire ADK Global.

A new role at Gut

Gut New York hired John Parker as the first executive creative director for its New York office, which opened in September. Parker previously held the same role at Havas, according to Gut. 

As well as Parker, Gut has named DDB executive John Hansa as executive creative director in Los Angeles. While at DDB Chicago, where he was also executive creative director, Hansa helped run the McDonald’s family business and Reynolds Consumer Products. 

Quote of the week: 

“While we understand that our competitors are trying to disrupt what we are looking to build, it bears repeating that the integration will remain very focused and not get in the way of the services we deliver to clients every day.”—Interpublic Group of Cos. CEO Philippe Krakowsky on the holding company’s deal with Omnicom Group. 

Just briefly

The One Club for Creativity added Chris Beresford-Hill, worldwide chief creative officer at BBDO, and Kaleeta McDade, VML global chief experience officer, to its board of directors, the organization said.  

After uncovering that only 36% of Black-owned businesses have physical stores, Putney, the Black-owned agency within BarkleyOKRP, created digital storefronts for 34 online shops in Chicago. “Black Shop Friday,” aims to increase sales and awareness.