Cashmere has hired veteran thought leader and strategist Aki Spicer, as its chief strategy officer. In this newly created role, Spicer will be charged with driving the agency's strategic campaigns and initiatives while capitalizing on current growth of existing client relationships, as well as spearheading the course for future partners. He will report to Cashmere president and chief creative officer Ryan Ford.
Spicer’s appointment comes at a critical time of growth for Cashmere, as the demand for the agency's unique foundation of culture & community skyrockets. In 2021, the agency was named the world’s first Culture Agency by Taco Bell and this past year became the creative agency for Amazon Music’s Hip Hop team, the Social AOR for STARZ, and the Culture PR AOR for Michelob.
Spicer joins Cashmere from Leo Burnett, Chicago, where as chief strategy officer, he helped update the strategic approach for brand, digital, and data integration. There, he introduced innovative forays in AI, Web3, and multicultural intelligence for brands like Samsung, Kelloggs, Jim Beam, Bank of America, Messenger, US Cellular, and more. Spicer also co-led a strategic resource and accelerator for all the creative agencies across Publicis – to operationalize 'general market' teams that are increasingly challenged with how to become more culturally-fluent in an era of an increasingly-diverse mass market.
Spicer exits Leo Burnett which was recently recognized as “2022 Agency of the Year” at One Show, ADC and Clios, “Best in Show” at One Show, Addy, Communication Arts and AICP, Titanium and Grand Prix at Cannes, as well as a wealth of gold, silver and bronze strategy and effectiveness awards across 2022 Effies (incl 2nd Most Effective Agency Network – Leo Burnett Worldwide), WARC Awards for Effectiveness, ARF Ogilvy Awards for Research, and Jay Chiat Strategy Awards.
Spicer is currently an advisor and jury chair for the NYFestivals’ AME Awards first-ever Equality category. He actively co-chairs the Cultural Collective committee with ANA AIMM (Alliance for Inclusive Multicultural Marketing) where he has recently shaped industry guidance on “embedding inclusive norms into the creative process end-to-end,” and also serves as a Trustee for Advertising Research Foundation (ARF).
Prior to Leo Burnett, Spicer served as chief strategy officer and chief digital officer of TBWA/Chiat/Day NYC, and director of digital strategy at Fallon Worldwide spanning a career servicing clients like Nissan, Hilton, Adidas, Apple, GM, H&R Block and McDonald's.
Maggie Smith, Star of Stage, Film and “Downton Abbey,” Dies At 89
Maggie Smith, the masterful, scene-stealing actor who won an Oscar for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" in 1969 and gained new fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in "Downton Abbey" and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died Friday. She was 89. Smith's sons, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens, said in a statement that Smith died early Friday in a London hospital. "She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother," they said in a statement issued through publicist Clair Dobbs. Smith was frequently rated the preeminent British female performer of a generation that included Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench, with a clutch of Academy Award nominations and a shelf full of acting trophies. She remained in demand even in her later years, despite her lament that "when you get into the granny era, you're lucky to get anything." Smith drily summarized her later roles as "a gallery of grotesques," including Professor McGonagall. Asked why she took the role, she quipped: "Harry Potter is my pension." Richard Eyre, who directed Smith in a television production of "Suddenly Last Summer," said she was "intellectually the smartest actress I've ever worked with. You have to get up very, very early in the morning to outwit Maggie Smith." "Jean Brodie," in which she played a dangerously charismatic Edinburgh schoolteacher, brought her the Academy Award for best actress, and the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) as well in 1969. Smith added a supporting actress Oscar for "California Suite" in 1978, Golden Globes for "California Suite" and "Room with a View," and BAFTAs for lead actress in "A Private Function" in 1984, "A Room with a View" in... Read More