Dentsu's 360i Taps M&C Saatchi's Pierre Lipton as New Creative Lead

Pierre Lipton, a founding partner and chief creative officer at M&C Saatchi, will leave the shop to lead creative for Dentsu's 360i. At 360i, Mr. Lipton will succeed Chief Creative Officer Adam Kerj, who is set to leave the shop in the coming weeks. Mr. Kerj joined 360i two years ago as the shop's first chief creative and is responsible for some of the popular work for clients like Oreo and Oscar Mayer that helped put the shop on the map. Prior to joining the agency, he was exec creative director and founding partner of Saatchi & Saatchi Sweden, where he spent 10 years. "The timing is right," said Mr. Kerj. "I'm very proud of all the groundbreaking and award-winning work that has helped our clients grow their businesses. I couldn't be prouder of the team and we part as great friends." Now, 360i is looking for a new perspective as it continues to take on business that exceeds the pure-play digital and search for which it's been known. The shop recently won Pernod Ricard media planning and buying, on top of the Clinique digital content and Anheuser-Busch InBev global digital accounts. "We're at a pivotal point at the agency," said 360i CEO Sarah Hofstetter. "Adam and I have been speaking for a while about what we want to do next. He's done some great work during his two-year tenure, but we both said we're ready for something new." Mr. Kerj declined to discuss his next move. For 360i, that "something new" is a creative lead with experience working across media and agencies. Prior to joining M&C Saatchi, Mr. Lipton was an executive creative director in AKQA's San Francisco flagship office, overseeing a department of over 125 people and working on clients such as Visa, Target and Audi. He also had served in senior creative rolls at Omnicom creative giants BBDO and TBWA/Chiat/Day. "One of the things I really liked about Pierre is the diversity of his portfolio and combination of agencies and clients he's worked with," said Ms. Hofstetter. "He brings that [experience] to the table as we move to be more diverse as an agency." His portfolio is also diverse, spanning an interactive campaign for HBO's Big Love, YouTube branding work for a new channel and the "In an Absolut World" campaign for Absolut vodka. M&C Saatchi is grappling with other recent changes at the top. Former New York CEO Jeff Brooks left this summer to join MDC media agency Assembly, and U.K. CEO Camilla Harrisson also left this month to run Anomaly, London. M&C Saatchi didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Dentsu's 360i Taps M&C Saatchi's Pierre Lipton as New Creative Lead

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