Director Jeff Kaumeyer has signed with Cylo, the bicoastal/international commercial production and new media house under the aegis of CEO/founder Julie Atherton. Formerly a bicoastal spot company known as Atherton, Cylo was born several months ago, with a broadened scope and geography as reflected in a diversification into emerging ad forms and the opening of a London office (SHOOT, 3/17,).
Kaumeyer comes aboard Cylo after a brief stint at Boxer Films, Los Angeles. Boxer was launched last November by executive producer John Clark, who had previously headed up Culver City, Calif.-based t minus 30 Films (SHOOT’s Street Talk, 12/17/99). T minus 30 was Kaumeyer’s former-and first-spot roost; the company repped him from ’93-’99.
Kaumeyer is currently being bid for his first assignment under the Cylo banner, which he wasn’t at liberty to discuss at press time.
Cindy Akins, president of Cylo’s commercial division, Cylo TVC, said she was drawn to the "honesty and subtle, believable performances" in Kaumeyer’s work, as well as its visual appeal. While the focus of the company’s deal with Kaumeyer is U.S. spot representation, Akins noted that Cylo will also explore new media opportunities for the director. "Because of our new media division, we’ve been looking for directors that come from a creative background and are conceptual by nature," she said, referring to Kaumeyer’s background as an agency creative. "In that new [media] space, there’s going to be a need for directors to wear different hats."
Kaumeyer’s final assignment at Boxer was a campaign for CIBC banks out of Toronto ad agency Padulo. He also recently directed spots for Hilton Hotels via FCB, Santa Ana, Calif.; and Talbot’s stores out of Arnold Communications, Boston.
Prior to leaving t minus 30, Kaumeyer helmed a multi-spot package for the U.S. Census Bureau (SHOOT, 12/17/99). The multicultural, multilingual and multimillion dollar campaign was spearheaded by Young & Rubicam, New York, and involved five additional ad agencies and numerous commercial helmers. New York-based Kang & Lee created the Kaumeyer-directed ads, which targeted the Asian-American community.
Kaumeyer said he was attracted to Cylo for "a number of reasons," including the rapport he developed with Akins, the shop’s focus on developing directors and its move into the uncharted new media landscape.
Kaumeyer began his career as an agency creative, and spent 12 years as an art director, and eventually an associate creative director, at such Los Angeles shops as Dailey & Associates, FCB, and Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos. During his two-year tenure at FCB, where he served as associate creative director, Kaumeyer worked on such accounts as Universal Studios, Albertson’s supermarkets and Giorgio perfume. As VP/associate creative director at Hill, Holliday, he worked on Infiniti, the Los Angeles Times and the Ernest & Julio Gallo winery.
After exiting Hill, Holliday, Kaumeyer began working on a freelance basis with the idea of making the transition to directing. In addition to taking on agency assignments, he accepted some client-direct jobs, which he helmed himself. In the process of building up his reel, he learned that Clark, a former agency creative, had become an executive producer and was heading up a new production company, t minus 30, which was launched by Los Angeles agency Suissa Miller Advertising. Shortly thereafter, Kaumeyer signed on with t minus 30 as a director.
Kaumeyer, who specializes in ads that involve real people, artful vignettes and storytelling, began exploring his production house options prior to joining Boxer, and said that he and Clark parted ways amicably. "I started out with t minus 30 when that company was just getting off the ground," the director said. When Clark launched Boxer, he added, "I just wasn’t sure I wanted to do that again."
Kaumeyer’s additional directorial credits include ads for Mercedes via Tatham (now Euro RSCG Tatham), Chicago; Jackson Hewitt tax services out of Grey Advertising, New York; Sarasota Hospital via Dallas agency The Richards Group; and Reebok via DDB Dallas.
Kaumeyer rounds out a Cylo spot director roster that also includes Graeme Burfoot, Rachel Harms, Edouard Nammour, Vadim Perelman, Les Sharpe and Mark Valentine. Cylo TVC is repped on the East Coast by New York-based Marc VanDermeer; in the Midwest by Chicago-based Tracy Bernard; and on the West Coast by Los Angeles-based Carol Biedermann. The company has additional representation in the South and Southeast via an alliance with Concrete Films, Dallas, and its Dallas-based rep Fran Montoya.
