Justine Armour is joining Grey’s New York flagship office as chief creative officer. She becomes Grey’s first New York CCO since 2017. She will help set and implement the creative vision, oversee all creative development, spearhead the recruitment of top talent and guide new business creative efforts, working closely with John Patroulis, Grey’s worldwide CCO.
Armour has worked in Brisbane, Sydney, Portland and Brooklyn. She has spent the last three years at 72andSunny becoming executive creative director, leading the creative department and overseeing clients such as General Mills, Diageo, Spotify, Trojan, Halo Top, and Marcus by Goldman Sachs.
Earlier in her career, Armour spent five years at Wieden+Kennedy. She helped reinvent iconic brands like Chrysler, Dodge, Old Spice, Secret and Herbal Essences, and drove market place success.
She began her career in Australia at McCann Erickson Brisbane; cut her teeth working on CPG accounts such as Masterfoods, Frito Lay, Pepsi Co as well as Visa and Mitsubishi at Clemenger BBDO Sydney; oversaw multiple Procter & Gamble brands at Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney and worked on Qantas, Coke, PayPal, Nestlé and Toyota at Publicis Mojo Sydney before coming to the U.S.
Michael Houston, worldwide CEO of Grey Group, said of Armour, “She is bringing her unique creative talents to help our clients build some of the world’s strongest brands. Her work sells, entertains and becomes part of the cultural conversation in tune with our ‘Famously Effective’ philosophy. Her arrival underscores our ongoing investment in assembling the best bench of creative leaders in the world.”
Patroulis shared, “Justine brings a deeply impressive creative pedigree, a reputation for work that’s famous in the world as well as in the industry, and a thoroughly modern approach to leadership. Not every great creative becomes a great creative leader–Justine has proven again and again, on big brands and at great agencies, that she’s both.”
Armour said, “I’ve been watching with interest at Grey’s reinvention over the past couple of years. When they committed 75% of their talent investment to creative, I thought that was radical and I was curious to see how it would play out. Since then, I’ve seen good people going in, and I’ve seen really nice work coming out. I will be a force for continuing that momentum as we start a brand new decade together.”
This move follows others that show Grey’s commitment to bringing best-in-class talent to the agency. Recent hires include Javier Campopiano as CCO, Grey Europe & Global Clients, and Cory Berger as worldwide chief marketing officer.
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