JWT New York has hired Jim Hord to serve as an executive creative director on Microsoft. Hord comes to JWT from R/GA, where he served as creative director on Nike, overseeing projects on Nike +, Nikewomen, Nike Basketball, NikeID and the Nike brand platform.
In his newly created role at JWT, Hord will serve as an integral part of the New York agency’s creative leadership team. He brings nearly 20 years of ad industry experience to his new roost, having worked for such shops as Y&R, Lowe and DDB.
Hord’s efforts span both traditional and non-traditional media, contributing to such brands as Sony, MetLife, Sunkist, GMC Trucks and SUVs, and LG Electronics. He began his career at DDB Dallas where, at 25, he was the youngest copywriter in the agency’s U.S. network to be promoted to creative director.
Now 41, Hord spent his entire advertising career as a trained copywriter. However, he received his bachelor’s degree in graphics design from the University of Denver.
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More