Deep Focus, a global digitally-led creative agency, has promoted Kara O’Neill from managing director to president of its New York office. She reports directly to Ian Schafer, founder and chairman.
A marketing vet with more than 20 years of experience, O’Neill joined Deep Focus in 2014 from Y&R NY, where she led the agency’s food practice for clients such as Hillshire Farm, Campbell’s Soup and Pepperidge Farm. Prior to Y&R, O’Neill spent 11 years at BrandBuzz as the general manager, where she managed a team of 60 responsible for creative and strategic planning for the likes of LG, the Nets, the NBA, Jim Beam Brands and SONY.
O’Neill’s background working at Y&R, BrandBuzz, Ranch 1 and Clarion Performance Properties has allowed her to represent many iconic brands, including Coca-Cola, Perrier, NASCAR and General Mills. Originally from New York, she earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Marketing from Saint John’s University’s Peter J. Tobin College of Business.
Forsman & Bodenfors Shifts Its Singapore Group Creative Director Ivan Guerra to Its NYC Hub
Forsman & Bodenfors (F&B) has expanded its creative leadership in New York by relocating longtime group creative director Ivan Guerra from the Singapore office to the Big Apple to support a quickly growing list of new client wins.
As a group creative director in Singapore, Guerra racked up numerous accolades and participated in a myriad of new business wins that fueled the agency’s growth year over year. He explained why now was the right time to come back to the states, adding more nuance in the process. ”Singapore is the business hub of Asia, New York is the business hub of the world,” he said. “Our office in Singapore was small when I arrived. Since then, we’ve more than tripled in size, and became the [number one] most creative agency in the country, and work with more and bigger clients than ever before. There’s always more to be done, but the agency I’m leaving behind is in fantastic shape and ready to take on the world, as I know they will.”
For Guerra, there’s an opportunity to replicate in New York the success he had in Singapore. During his career, he repositioned and promoted businesses and products across a wide variety of markets and industries including P&G, Coca-Cola and Booking.com. Some of his well-known work includes a campaign that increased Samsung’s sales in the Middle East by almost 200%, one of the most iconic films in the history of Converse, Verizon’s most successful sports partnership program “Data Dunk” with the NBA, and a “Proud Whopper” campaign in 2014 that reignited Burger King and garnered 13 Cannes Lions and a Grand Clio.
Coming back to New York after 15 years in the business, including a stint where he spent time at the likes of top-shelf agencies like R/GA,... Read More