Red Tettemer O'Connell & Partners shuffles creative leadership

Red Tettemer O’Connell & Partners is reshuffling its creative leadership by promoting Steve O’Connell, longtime executive creative director and partner, to co-chief creative officer. He shares the role with Steve Red, the agency’s founder, chief creative officer and president. The shop has also elevated Todd Taylor to replace O’Connell in the executive creative director position. Taylor was senior VP, group creative director. Together, the three will lead creative for the agency across clients such as Dietz & Watson, Keurig, Dr Pepper, Reyka Vodka and Craftsman. While O’Connell will be taking on additional responsibilities as co-chief creative officers, Red said that the move will not result in him “stepping back.” “I love the agency and what we do too much for that,” Red said. “The plan is for both of us to re-prioritize and collaborate around bigger agency initiatives like innovation, talent and culture applied to three areas.” He continued, “First, we’ll look at where ideas live through media and experiential. Secondly, we’ll examine how ideas are realized by seeing how we can be more resourceful about making ideas come to life in our time-starved and budget-challenged world. Finally, we’ll focus on how our ideas get proven by continuing to invest in our analytics practice.” Red founded the agency as Red Tettemer in 1996. O’Connell, a former creative at Crispin Porter & Bogusky and co-founder of Stick and Move, joined the agency in 2010. Taylor, Red said, is “an art director by trade” but a “hybrid creative with an ability to think like a planner, write, design and compose music, among other talents. His discipline and aesthetic is at the highest level, so he’ll set the standard for our product as we continue to evolve forward.” He credited Taylor with guiding such work as the Dietz & Watson launch campaign for its Dietz Nuts meat snack starring Craig Robinson, and the “Devil vs. Angel” campaign for Halo Top that included a creepy ad where a woman is force-fed vanilla ice cream by a robot. As Taylor rises in rank, VP and Creative Director Ari Garber and Creative Director Chris Plehal were promoted to group creative directors. The reshuffling comes on the heels of several new business wins for the agency—it has added clients Sierra, The TJX Companies, Nic & Zoe, Tullamore Dew and Chipotle to its roster. The wins have also led to four new hires. The agency recently brought on Guy Helson from R/GA as executive integrated producer; Christina Castaldo from Anomaly as group account director; Colin Smith from London-based shop Dare as senior copywriter; and Christine Benner from 160over90 as experience producer.

Red Tettemer O'Connell & Partners shuffles creative leadership

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