Sami Viitamäki has been named executive director of digital at Havas Worldwide New York. In his new role, Viitamäki will work across all major clients at the Havas flagship NY office while expanding and integrating the agency’s digital capabilities.
Most recently, he was partner and executive digital director at TBWA in Helsinki, where he headed the digital strategy, advertising, service and content design teams, and worked on top global brands including Nissan, McDonald’s, Adidas, Singapore Airlines and GSK. Before that, Viitamäki served as executive planning director for the agency.
Under Viitamäki’s leadership, TBWAHelsinki became an innovation hub for the global network and last year was ranked among the world’s top 10 digital agencies by The Gunn Report. Viitamäki’s Helsinki team created numerous international award-winning campaigns and innovations, including the Nissan NISMO Watch product concept, Cannes-winning Nissan RUMBLE, Nissan LEAF Play Future: Today, which was selected for a Google Insights showcase, and the Gold Effie-winning Angry Birds campaign for McDonald’s in China.
Viitamäki has also served as the head of Digital Arts Network Finland and was a board member at DiVia, the Finnish Digital Marketing Round Table at the Aalto University School of Economics. Before TBWA, he was online and marketing manager at Scandinavian telecommunications company TeliaSonera.
“The best modern creative agency is a collaboration between technology thinking, content thinking and business thinking, and Havas Worldwide has a very strong foundation in all those areas,” Viitamäki said. “The focus of my role will be to drive the interplay between them and produce work that pushes boundaries to succeed on any screen or media.”
Review: Writer-Directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood’s “Heretic”
"Heretic" opens with an unusual table setter: Two young missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are discussing condoms and why some are labeled as large even though they're all pretty much a standard size. "What else do we believe because of marketing?" one asks the other.
That line will echo through the movie, a stimulating discussion of religion that emerges from a horror movie wrapper. Despite a second-half slide and feeling unbalanced, this is the rare movie that combines lots of squirting blood and elevated discussion of the ancient Egyptian god Horus.
Our two church members — played fiercely by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East — are wandering around trying to covert souls when they knock on the door of a sweet-looking cottage. Its owner, Mr. Reed, offers a hearty "Good afternoon!" He welcomes them in, brings them drinks and promises a blueberry pie. He's also interested in learning more about the church. So far, so good.
Mr. Reed is, of course, if you've seen the poster, the baddie and he's played by Hugh Grant, who doesn't go the snarling, dead-eyed Hannibal Lecter route in "Heretic." Grant is the slightly bumbling, bashful and self-mocking character we fell in love with in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," but with a smear of menace. He gradually reveals that he actually knows quite a bit about the Mormon religion — and all religions.
"It's good to be religious," he says jauntily and promises his wife will join them soon, a requirement for the church. Homey touches in his home include a framed "Bless This Mess" needlepoint on a wall, but there are also oddities, like his lights are on a timer and there's metal in the walls and ceilings.
Writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Wood — who also... Read More