MullenLowe U.S. has hired Frank Cartagena as CEO. He will lead the agency of more than 400 people across offices in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. By appointing a former chief creative officer to the highest rank, the agency reinforces its commitment to ideas, creativity, and craft.
“As CCO, Cartagena led multicultural agency The Community to earn top accolades and industry respect,” said Kristen Cavallo, CEO of MullenLowe Global. “His new business track record, creative chops, and galvanizing leadership style make him an appealing choice for CEO and another important change for us as we modernize our leadership structure.”
Cartagena’s appointment adds to recent leadership announcements that include ADCOLOR Beacon award winner Jordan Muse being named president of MullenLowe East, Javier Passerieu being promoted to president of MullenLowe West, and Kelly Fredrickson taking on the new role of chief culture officer.
“More than a job title, this role is about seizing an opportunity to drive a culture of creativity that is much greater than just a department,” Cartagena said. “I’m ready to help shape and define the next chapter of MullenLowe for our people, our clients, and the industry. I love the agency’s challenger DNA and new modern positioning. I look forward to building on their momentum and becoming a place that consistently puts out some of the best work in the world.”
Over his 16-year career, Cartagena has made a mark by creating breakthrough work designed to get real consumers talking. Under his creative leadership, The Community produced this year’s most effective Super Bowl campaign for Netflix and GM. Before that, Cartagena served as executive creative director at 360i, where he led a creative transformation and converted 90% of new business pitches. Some of his greatest hits include the “Doomsday Vault” and “Thins Protection Program” for Oreo, “The Maze” for Westworld and HBO, and the “Four-Year-Old’s Bucket List” for WATERisLIFE.
Cartagena’s appointment as MullenLowe’s U.S. CEO comes on the heels of the agency’s global rebrand, winning Agency of the Year at the Art Directors Club, and a streak of new business wins, including the recompete for the Department of Defense’s $454M JAMRS contract, GEICO social, global investment firm Invesco, and Ghirardelli.
Vatican, Microsoft Create AI-Generated St. Peter’s Basilica–For In-Person and Virtual Visitors
The Vatican and Microsoft on Monday unveiled a digital twin of St. Peter's Basilica that uses artificial intelligence to explore one of the world's most important monument's while helping the Holy See manage visitor flows and identify conservation problems. Using 400,000 high-resolution digital photographs, taken with drones, cameras and lasers over four weeks when no one was in the basilica, the digital replica is going online alongside two new on-site exhibits to provide visitors -- real and virtual -- with an interactive experience. "It is literally one of the most technologically advanced and sophisticated projects of its kind that has ever been pursued," Microsoft's president Brad Smith told a Vatican press conference. The project has been launched ahead of the Vatican's 2025 Jubilee, a holy year in which more than 30 million pilgrims are expected to pass through the basilica's Holy Door, on top of the 50,000 who visit on a normal day. "Everyone, really everyone should feel welcome in this great house," Pope Francis told Smith and members of the project's development teams at an audience Monday. The digital platform allows visitors to reserve entry times to the basilica, a novelty for one of the world's most visited monuments that regularly has an hours-long line of tourists waiting to get in. But the heart of the project is the creation of a digital twin of St. Peter's Basilica through advanced photogrammetry and artificial intelligence that allows anyone to "visit" the church and learn about its history. The ultra-precise 3D replica, developed in collaboration with digital preservation company Iconem, incorporates 22 petabytes of data โ enough to fill five million DVDs โ Smith said. The images have already identified structural... Read More