Pereira & O’Dell, an award winning advertising agency, announced today that it has hired Matt Herrmann as Chief Strategy Officer, effective immediately. Herrmann will lead an integrated team of behavioral, digital, social and content strategists across all of the agency’s North American brands.
Originally from Oklahoma, Matt came to advertising in 1995 after studying film and economics at the University of Chicago. Matt began his career at Leo Burnett in Chicago, and then moved on to New York to join the creative shop Cliff Freeman and Partners and later BBH New York, where he developed the global strategy for the Johnnie Walker “Keep Walking” campaign.
“While others have talked about the agency of the future, PJ and Andrew have been zealously building it. It’s stunning to see what an agency looks like when you build it from scratch to create the kind of ideas that work in an on demand world,” said Herrmann. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to take this opportunity to reinvent a model of strategy that’s dedicated to inspiring and spreading compelling commercial content.”
"As we evolve the agency into a sophisticated set of clients, we had to up our strategic game,” said PJ Pereira, Founding Partner of Pereira & O’Dell. “Matt brings the right balance of experience, passion and intelligence that will allow us to be a proficient partner to any advertiser in the world."
In 2005, Matt arrived in San Francisco at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners to become the Deputy Director of the Brand Strategy group, building memorable campaigns for many brands; most famously, the Hyundai “Think About It” campaign and “Assurance” promotion. Matt left GSP to become the North American Chief Strategy Officer at McCann, and shortly after joined BBDO SF as the Director of Strategy, building a diverse strategy group and a thriving agency in his four years there.
Matt has lectured and taught account planning at the 4A’s Account Planning Group, the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, Miami Ad School, Golden Gate University, and the San Francisco Academy of Art. Matt’s efforts have yielded 8 Gold Effies for the effectiveness of his campaigns, a Gold Jay Chiat Award for outstanding account planning, and a Gold Cannes Lion for Branded Content.
About Pereira & O’Dell
Pereira & O’Dell (www.pereiraodell.com) is an international award-winning advertising agency that combines techniques from traditional advertising, digital, PR and design to create innovative campaigns, programs and products that are in sync with how consumers behave today. In January 2014, the agency was named among Fast Company’s 10 Most Innovative Companies in Advertising as well as Standout Agency of the Year by Advertising Age's A–list based on the company’s business performance and impact on client business and was also featured in Creativity’s Top 10 Agency Innovators for its industry leadership and innovation. Among the Pereira & O'Dell client roster are Skype, Intel, Fiat, Fox Sports 1, New Era, BevMo!, Airbnb, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Henkel North America, and Realtor.com. Pereira & O’Dell has offices located in San Francisco, New York, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
