Paul Stechschulte has joined Pereira & O’Dell as executive creative director in San Francisco. An art director by trade, Stechschulte was most recently with Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P), San Francisco where he was group creative director. His career includes posts at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, 180 Amsterdam and Crispin Porter+Bogusky (CP+B) in Miami.
At GS&P he helped create the internationally award-winning Sprint “Now Network” campaign and served as group creative director on Sprint Nextel’s “Wedding” which earned a primetime commercial Emmy nomination in 2009. (“Wedding” was directed by Jim Jenkins of O Positive Films.)
In 2002 at CP+B, Stechschulte and colleagues reintroduced the MINI brand to the U.S. for BMW. The highly successful launch did not include a single television ad; unheard of in the American automobile marketplace. Additionally, he contributed creatively to the American Legacy Foundation’s “Truth” campaign (also with CP+B which worked jointly for the client with Arnold, Boston). The anti-tobacco campaign is credited with preventing hundreds of thousands of U.S. teens from starting to smoke.
Among those Stechschulte will collaborate with at Pereira & O’Dell is agency chief creative officer/co-founder PJ Pereira.
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse, David Edwards and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles. Nakamura Whitehouse, Edwards, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years. Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation. EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.” Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.” 34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More