Fetch, the global mobile-first agency and part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, has opened a Los Angeles office. After strong business growth at the New York and San Francisco offices, including adding Travelocity, GSN Games and Yelp to its client roster, the agency is expanding its leadership team by hiring Ruairi McGuckin to lead the new office as managing partner, West Coast.
McGuckin will oversee agency accounts for the Los Angeles-based client roster, including the recently won Hulu. He will report directly to Guillaume Lelait, EVP, U.S. managing director.
“LA is a natural progression for Fetch. We have several clients in this market and it offers a wealth of access to talent and technology innovation – a critical component to continuing to grow our US presence,” said Lelait. “Our expansion into LA also speaks our move towards delivering mobile-first strategies to the growing entertainment economy coming out of that region and we believe Ruairi’s experience will allow us to tap into this and many other facets of the market to further enhance overall North American offering.”
Formerly head of account strategy, mobile at Criteo, McGuckin led a team supporting more than 30 accounts, working with brands including Expedia, Walmart, Netshoes and Blizzard Games. Additionally, his team pioneered Criteo’s Mobile Partner Program, an SDK extension program that speeds up onboarding times for advertisers. At Fetch, he will focus on expanding the agency’s West Coast presence into new verticals, further developing local market strategy.
“Fetch’s expertise is strategically aligned with the challenges and opportunities mobile advertisers face in today’s increasingly fragmented marketplace,” said McGuckin. “LA is ripe with brands who take a mobile-first approach, but may need help figuring out the best place to invest time and resources.”
In addition to McGuckin’s appointment, the agency has made a series of senior hires across the US that will elevate Fetch’s mobile strategies and solutions to brands and advertisers. These hires include U.S. executive creative director Octavio Maron, head of programmatic Joshua Niederriter, and NY account director Natalie Robinson. Maron joins Fetch from Pontomobi (part of Dentsu Aegis Network Brazil), where he served as chief creative officer. Niederriter was previously at AKQA where he pioneered leveraging audience segmentation in search and launched their programmatic solution. Robinson will be the regional lead for Hotels.com North America, AOL and upcoming new business wins. Robinson joins Fetch from Essence, where she worked across a variety of Google products.
Writers of “Conclave,” “Say Nothing” Win Scripter Awards
The authors and screenwriters behind the film โConclaveโ and the series โSay Nothingโ won the 37th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards during a black-tie ceremony at USCโs Town and Gown ballroom on Saturday evening (2/22).
The Scripter Awards recognize the yearโs most accomplished adaptations of the written word for the screen, including both feature-length films and episodic series.
Novelist Robert Harris and screenwriter Peter Straughan took home the award for โConclave.โ
In accepting the award, Straughan said, โAdaptation is a really strange process, youโre very much the servant of two masters. In a way itโs an act of betrayal of one master for the other.โ He joked that โYou start off with a book that you love, you read it again and again, and then you end up throwing it over your shoulder,โ crediting author Robert Harris for being โso kind, so generous, so open throughout.โ
In the episodic series category, Joshua Zetumer and Patrick Radden Keefe won for the episode โThe People in the Dirtโ from the limited series โSay Nothing,โ which Zetumer adapted from Keefeโs nonfiction book about the Troubles in Ireland.
Zetumer referenced this yearโs extraordinary group of Scripter finalists, saying โprojects like these reminded me of why I wanted to become a writer when I was sitting in USCโs Leavey Library dreaming of becoming a screenwriter. If you fell in love with movies, or fell in love with TV, chances are you fell in love with something dangerous.โ
Special guest for the evening, actress and producer Jennifer Beals, shared her thoughts on the impact of libraries. โIf ever you are at a loss wondering if there is good in the world,โ she said, โyou have only to go to a... Read More