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.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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