MRM Worldwide has hired agency veteran Cheryl Van Ooyen in its N.Y. office as VP, group creative director. The copywriter has worked on notable campaigns for the likes of Snapple, Ikea and Visa, and enhances MRM’s brand storytelling capabilities. Along the way her work has garnered such honors as Cannes Lions and recognition from The One Show, the Clios and ADDYs.
At MRM Worldwide, she is helping to develop marketing strategies and measurable brand experiences for the shop’s clients, which include Betty Crocker, Bertolli, MasterCard, Intel, and Diageo brands Crown Royal and Captain Morgan.
For the past three years, Van Ooyen has been–and she continues to be–a contributor (content creation, writing, producing and directing) to MTV Networks/VH1 and NBC Universal. At the former, she created mobile and online series including Celebhead, the most streamed show on any MTV network, and wrote, directed and produced a full-length pilot for VH1 entitled Star Stories, an adaptation of a British comedy. At NBC Universal, she created and wrote a half-hour comedy pilot called The Two Hottest Girls from Wisconsin.
In the advertising industry, Van Ooyen has held various senior creative roles at agencies such as, kirshenbaum bond + partners, Deutsch and BBDO.
At Deutsch N.Y. from 1997 to ’03, her work on Snapple’s “Little Fruit” campaign depicted fruit in offbeat, but humanized situations–“bad fruit” loitered on the street and smoked cigarettes and was therefore unacceptable for Snapple to use because as the tagline declared, “The best stuff is in here.”
Van Ooyen, who was senior VP, group creative director by the time she left Deutsch in ’03, was also a key leader in redefining the brand strategy and image of Swedish furniture chain Ikea, whose “Live better” campaign included TV spots in which Ikea furniture added some panache to recreated sets from The Brady Bunch and Gilligan’s Island, carrying the theme line, “If Ikea can update this classic, imagine the possibilities for your home.” She supervised the creative campaigns which included print, radio, online, and in-store and directed several of the commercials.
A guerilla campaign for Ikea had her creative teams placing the retailers’ chairs, sofas and cushions in public places such as bus stops and subways as a way to make them more comfortable and get people to directly experience the products.
After Deutsch, Van Ooyen joined BBDO Worldwide in New York as a creative director on the Visa account, supervising agency teams that worked on all of Visa’s platforms and partnerships including, the NFL, the Olympics, Disney, and all brand cards. She also worked on the Long John Silver and Pepsi accounts.
Early in her career, she was an associate creative director at Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners, New York, and a senior writer at Elgyn-Syferd, Seattle.
“Joining MRM right now was an easy decision–and a great creative opportunity,” said Van Ooyen. “They are completely committed to taking brands to the next level in the digital space. And using my experience to create content that’s relevant for those brands makes it a perfect fit.”
SUPERLATIVE Signs Director Claudia Abend For Spots and Branded Content
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined SUPERLATIVE for her first U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Abend's empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008) and The Flower of Life (2018). Her spotmaking credits include such brands as Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. SUPERLATIVE has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As SUPERLATIVE continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she said. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing... Read More