People on the Move

Michael Canning has joined the creative leadership team at agency 72andSunny as group director. He arrives in Los Angeles after four years as managing partner, executive creative director at Leo Burnett New York.

A native of Sydney Australia, Canning began his career when he won a scholarship to Central Saint Martins University of the Arts, London. He then joined Lowe Hunt Sydney, where his work for Unilever’s “Lynx Jet” catapulted the agency to #1 agency in Australia, winning the Cannes Media Grand Prix. Canning then joined Leo Burnett’s Sydney office where his work for Canon, Diagio and World Wildlife Fund again catapulted it to the #1 ranked creative agency in Australasia in 2010, winning the Cannes Media Grand Prix for the second time.

Burnett then invited Canning to launch an office for the network in New York. He left Sydney in 2011 and relocated to the USA as a founding member of Leo Burnett New York. Under Canning’s stewardship, the agency quickly grew to 40 staffers with work for brands including the Village Voice, United Nations, Kellogg’s, Samsung Digital Appliances, Chobani and FiLIP Technologies. Canning has most recently led the creation of a New York Off-Broadway play for the Village Voice, titled “8 Million Protagonists” which brought New Yorkers’ real stories to life on stage, and the design and launch of “FiLIP”–named technologies at CES in 2014.

“Launching an agency in New York was an invaluable learning experience for me but I’m really excited to move on to the next chapter in my career,” said Canning. “LA has emerged as the new epicenter of branded content, tech and entertainment, and 72andSunny is right in the middle of that. I feel a genuine optimism here that we can make great things and take the industry to exciting new places.”

Canning’s work has collected 39 Cannes Lions including two Cannes Grand Prix honors for Media (Unilever’s “Lynx Jet” and Canon’s “Photochains”), two Cannes \Media Agency of the Year titles, 12 Gold Lions, the inaugural Cannes Gold Lion for Branded Entertainment, D&AD pencils, the One Show Entertainment Best of Show and International.

Audio postproduction company Sound Lounge has launched Sidecar, the in-house on-camera arm of Sound Lounge’s casting division.

Sidecar will be led by newly hired on-camera casting director Anthony Pichette, who joins Sound Lounge’s veteran VO casting director Carrie Faverty at Sidecar from Kipperman Casting, where he worked on numerous network campaigns, regional commercials, industrials, promos and webisodes. Pichette’s experience includes casting for major brands, including Coke, Nintendo Wii, Olive Garden and Six Flags. Pichette also assisted in-house casting departments at networks such as Nickelodeon (Blue's Clues) Food Network, Spike and MTV.

The Sidecar name, a play on the motorcycle attachment (as well as the cocktail), is symbolic of the growing family under the Sound Lounge name. Understanding the importance of collaboration when translating a director’s vision, Sidecar will allow Sound Lounge’s casting division to be a one-stop shop for all casting needs--giving dedicated direction, hand-selecting talent and bringing a fresh perspective to the casting breakdown.

“Our casting division at Sound Lounge continues to grow and we’ve recognized the need to expand and diversify our offerings and capabilities for clients,” said Sound Lounge COO Marshall Grupp. “Being based in New York, we’re in a unique position to tap into the city’s incredibly diverse talent pool.”

“Given Sound Lounge’s larger role within the advertising community and the relationships we’ve cultivated throughout the years, launching Sidecar was the best way for us utilize our network and deliver the best talent to match our clients visions and needs,” said Faverty. “Providing on-camera casting will allow us to streamline and simplify the client experience from start to finish. We’re thrilled to be able to offer this unprecedented access to talent, and work with clients in this capacity.”

As casting director at Sound Lounge, Faverty has cast voiceovers for TV and radio commercials, web content and digital apps, as well as for webisodes, animated pilots, narrations, promos and the award-winning short film They Say. In a continuing effort to find and develop new talent, she has also become a teacher of voiceover classes.

BETC London has made seven hires: the sr. creative team of Ash Ghazali and Jon Kallus; the creative duo of Nat Cantor and Neil Gurr; head of design Rafe Greenlaw; art director Gareth W. Rice; and director of creative services Kate Blumer.

Sr. creative team Ghazali and Kallus come over from BBH London where their where their professional partnership began, creating films for Barclaycard and Mentos. Before their fortuitous meeting in London, Kallus was based in San Francisco, teaching at Miami Ad School and working at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, where he was part of the team that brought the world a 50 foot vending machine for Doritos at SXSW. Before that, he wrote the first big DirecTV campaign at Grey NY, shooting an eccentric Russian billionaire and his mini pet giraffe.

Ghazali started his career at Ogilvy Singapore in 1999, bringing them awards success with his FHM print and Levi’s Reborn online campaigns. He moved to BBH Singapore in 2008, transferring to BBH London two years later, where he was the creative director on the Google account. He oversaw the Google Voice Search billboard campaign, which earned gold at Cannes as well as a Media Grand Prix. He also helped launch Google Chrome with a film starring SBTV’s Jamal Edwards, which picked up 4 million views in just three days.

The AKQA creative team of Cantor and Gurr brings to BETC 14 years of creative experience on such brands between them as Nike, Xbox, Heineken, Volkswagen, Mazda and Fiat. The pair started working together in 2012, a partnership which saw them lead the award-winning Nike Barbershop campaign for Euro 2012, which allowed football-obsessed fans to emulate some of football’s most iconic hair styles online, and even get their hair chopped for real at pop up barbershops around the world. Cantor and Gurr also worked together on Nike’s “The Chance,” an innovative campaign that gave young, unsigned footballers the opportunity to put themselves in the spotlight and earn a professional contract.

Greenlaw joins BETC London as head of design after seven years as a designer at Mother London, where he worked on an extensive portfolio of brands including Ikea, Stella Artois, Motorola, Becks, Schweppes, Boots, Intel-Acer, Travelodge, Pot Noodle, Coca-Cola and Diet Coke.

Art director Rice hails from New Zealand. He moved to Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam in 2009, where he worked on the global re-launch of Coke Music, Heineken and the Film Institute Netherlands. Gareth moved to London in 2012, where he spent time at Mother boutique agency Wednesday, working across a range of fashion and luxury clients, before heading to BETC London.

Blumer becomes director of creative services at BETC London. She brings 13 years of experience to her new roost. Blumer spent the first four years of her career at AMV BBDO, before moving to BBH London, where she spent five years as traffic, producer and art buyer on Audi, eBay, Barclays and British Airways. Her next move took her to Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam and Coca-Cola, ESPN and Nike, before heading back to the U.K. to be head of project management at Havas London.
 

Mat Jerrett has joined Translation as creative director. He comes aboard to lead creative initiatives for Champs Sports and McDonald’s, kicking off his tenure with Champs’ back to school campaign, “Game Loves an Audience.” Jerrett is the latest in a spate of significant additions this year, which began in February with newly installed CCO John Norman, and includes ECDs Jay Berry and Marc d’Avignon, as well as creative duo Nick Sonderup and Andy Grant.

“I first met Mat at Wieden+Kennedy,” recalled Norman, “and even then it was clear he had a highly-developed creative vision. He’s made quite a name for himself since those days, and it has been a pleasure to watch his work continue to mature over the years.”

Jerrett joins Translation from Anomaly, where he served as lead creative director on the agency’s Converse account. Prior to that, he served as creative director at Sid Lee--overseeing their work for adidas Men’s Training--and as a sr. art director on Nike and Levis at Wieden+Kennedy.

Unlike most creative directors, who generally begin their careers with a focus on either copy or design, Jerrett started his career in film. He amassed a number of directorial credits before transitioning to the agency side--helming television spots for VCCP’s D&AD awarded UK Home Office campaign, fashion films for Victoria Beckham’s debut collection, and a number of projects in his native country for MTV Sydney.