Rethink hires Saatchi NY creative chief Daniel Lobatón as New York CCO

Canadian independent agency Rethink has hired Daniel Lobatón, the Saatchi New York Chief Creative Officer behind award-winning campaigns such as “It’s a Tide Ad,” to be its new chief creative officer based in New York. Lobatón will start his new role in January, and will work alongside Rethink Chief Operating Officer Caleb Goodman, who will relocate from Canada to New York. The pair will oversee the growth of Rethink’s U.S. clients, and continue to build the team and office in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, which it opened in late 2021 in response to more demand from U.S. clients such as Kraft Heinz and Molson Coors. Lobatón has been at Saatchi & Saatchi New York for five years, and in the role of chief creative officer for the past two. The Peruvian native was featured as an Ad Age Creative You Need to Know back in 2018 and his work was recently featured by Ad Age as part of Hispanic Heritage Month. “I’ve been an admirer of Daniel and what he’s been doing in the CPG space for years,” said Aaron Starkman, global chief creative officer and partner at Rethink. “He makes work that actually resonates with people, and from the moment we started talking about the role, I could tell Daniel was a creative kindred spirit. He also comes with a well-rounded point of view honed by his global and U.S. experience. We can't wait to get started.” "Hiring someone as incredible as Daniel simply makes us better," he added. "He's bringing really fresh thinking in the broadcast space. When people describe his work, they start the sentence with: "did you see the spot where...?" There is talk value in everything he does." See all of Ad Age's 2023 Agency A-List winners here 'Geeking out' Lobatón is best known for his work on Procter & Gamble's Tide detergent. As well as the “It’s Tide Ad" campaign, which ran in the 2018 Super Bowl and subsequently won multiple awards including the Cannes Lions Film Grand Prix, he was also behind its 2021 Super Bowl spot “Jason Alexander Hoodie” and its “Cold Callers” campaign. His other work at Saatchi has included Campbell’s Goldfish’s “Go for the Handful,” which helped to reinvent the brand and land it on Ad Age’s 2022 Hottest Brands list. He has worked on TikTok campaigns such as “You Have to See It” and TikTok Taught Me,” and most recently on Downy's new ad with the Backstreet Boys. A spokeswoman for Saatchi & Saatchi said: “We are incredibly grateful for all of Daniel’s contributions to the agency and our clients. His leadership will continue to shape our future success, and we wish him the best in future endeavors.” The agency has no announcement as yet on his replacement. Lobatón said he was “geeking out” about joining Rethink, “having been a fan for so long.” “Every time someone asks me about great creative work out there, I ask if they’ve seen what Rethink is doing with Heinz," he said. "I always end up coming back to that work. It's so on-brand, strategic and dead simple. It's almost like a sitcom where you come in and write the next chapter; I was very intrigued to come in and join the writers' room at Rethink.” Rethink currently has 40 employees working on U.S. business, with the bulk of those still based in Canada; Lobatón and Goodman will now set about hiring more U.S. staff for the New York office. Clients of the agency, which won Ad Age's Creativity Agency of the Year in 2021, include Molson Coors, Kraft Heinz, RXBar, Upside Foods and Ikea. Its other offices are in Vancouver, Toronto (where it has just named Mike Dubrick as chief creative officer) and Montreal.

Rethink hires Saatchi NY creative chief Daniel Lobatón as New York CCO

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