Following an infusion of new business (including winning the Beats by Dre account) since recently opening its L.A. office, Anomaly has recruited 25 staffers across all departments with another 15 open positions to be filled.
With bases of operation in New York, Toronto, London, Amsterdam and Shanghai, Anomaly further extended its reach with a Southern California office, explained global CEO Carl Johnson, “for long-term strategic reasons enabling us to access the depth and breadth of amazing talent that L.A. offers. Rather than open a new office to service the needs of any particular client, we opened with a vision, an ambition and one awesome guy we know and love–Aisea Laungaue–now a partner and CSO of Anomaly LA.”
Previously Laungaue served as head of planning at Anomaly NY, followed by three years in marketing at CAA. The new recruits joining Laungaue come from three key sources: previous Anomaly NY employees, client-side talent from Nike and The Coca-Cola Company, and a few leading L.A. agencies. Stand-out hires include: Jiah Choi, incoming managing director who had been director of integrated marketing content at The Coca-Cola Company; Kristy Fulwider, communications strategy director from Nike; Kathleen Swanson and Pierce Thiot, creative directors from TBWAChiatDay; Whitney Ruef and Jenny Kang, senior creative team from 180LA; Laura Likos, group business director from CP+B; Josh Jefferis, group business director from 72andSunny; and Shawn Bohigian, a “roving strategist” from MAL/180/Saatchi.
Laungaue said, “We are exceptionally proud of the caliber of talent we’ve brought under one roof and excited to see not only how we grow, but how they grow, as their talents are utilized to their full potential. Jiah and I are now carefully finalizing the remaining hires with a special focus on finding the right partner and ECD. But neither we, nor founding partner and global CCO Mike Byrne will be rushed as we seek out such a rare talent.”
Since opening in April, Anomaly L.A. is off to the fastest start of any of its offices globally and as a result has taken an additional 5,000 square feet of office space across the road from its original office on Abbot Kinney Blvd.
