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.
Snubs and Surprises In Oscar Nominations
In one of the more wide-open Oscar fields in recent history, there were plenty of nominations surprises Thursday. Not too long ago, it seemed that people like Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman were destined for best actress nominations, while general audience disinterest in the young Donald Trump movie "The Apprentice" might have indicated its awards chances were dead on arrival. But the members of the film academy had something different in mind. Here are some of the biggest snubs and surprises from the 97th Oscar nominations. SURPRISE: Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan, "The Apprentice" The young Trump movie "The Apprentice" has been one of the bigger awards season question marks, especially after it failed to resonate with moviegoers in theaters. And yet both Jeremy Strong, for his portrayal for Trump lawyer Roy Cohn, and Sebastian Stan (who was also in the conversation for "A Different Man" ), for playing the future two-time president, made it in. Only Strong got nominated by the Screen Actors Guild. SNUB: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, "Hard Truths" This will forever be one of the more confounding awards season oversights. Marianne Jean-Baptiste delivered one of the all-time great performances in Mike Leigh's "Hard Truths," as the perpetually aggrieved and sharp-tongued London woman Pansy. The general thinking is that it was either going to be Jean-Baptiste or Fernanda Torres, and Torres got in for the equally beloved "I'm Still Here." SNUB: Pamela Anderson, "The Last Showgirl" This is perhaps up for debate, but there was certainly a lot of goodwill behind Anderson's movie-star turn in Gia Coppola's "The Last Showgirl," especially considering her SAG nomination. But like with Jennifer Lopez and... Read More