Andreas Dahlqvist is joining Grey’s flagship New York office as chief creative officer. He will oversee the 500-plus Grey NY creative department and work closely with Tor Myhren, Grey’s worldwide CCO, and Michael Houston, CEO of Grey North America.
“Few people in this industry have done what Andreas has. He’s run giant global brands for giant global networks. He also started his own agency from scratch and built it into the best digital agency on the planet,” Myhren said. “Andreas is a rare breed who has both the vision of where to go, and the personality that makes you want to follow him there.”
Dahlqvist most recently served as president of the McCann Creative Leadership Council and CCO at Commonwealth/McCann, the global business unit built for General Motors. He joined McCann New York in 2011 as vice chairman, executive creative director, leading the agency to its most awarded year ever, and went on to become deputy chief creative officer for global brands. Earlier he founded DDB in Sweden and the Nordics in 2004.
“Andreas has done the kind of work that impacts marketing and alters the way entire categories advertise,” said Houston. “He does work that becomes part of the cultural conversation, and that’s the kind of leader we need to help guide our creative product into the future.”
Dahlqvist has won every major creative award including Cannes Titanium and Grand Prix Lions. He has created groundbreaking campaigns across the communications spectrum for such clients as McDonald’s, General Mills, Diesel Jeans, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, The Swedish Armed Forces, Skoda, Panasonic and Volkswagen whose “Fun Theory” work became the most viral campaign ever at its time.
Grey New York has doubled in size, enhanced its talent ranks, creative product, digital prowess and new business performance in recent years. The office is on pace to achieve its seventh year of record financial and creative performance in 2014. Key new business wins this year include: Papa John’s Pizza; J. M. Smucker’s Folgers and Millstone coffees; Nestle’s Stouffer’s Lean Cuisine and Haagen Dazs (digital); and The Whitney Museum of American Art.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More