Editorial house Beast has secured Kristen Bedard Johnson as its New York-based sales rep. Johnson also serves as East Coast sales representative for commercial production house Furlined. Beast is a unit of Deluxe Entertainment Services Group….
Entertainment creative agency mOcean has promoted long-time team member Danielle LaFortune to sr. VP of entertainment marketing. In her new role, LaFortune will oversee all creative marketing teams for both print and on-air. LaFortune originally joined mOcean in 2008 as VP of print creative services. Prior to mOcean, LaFortune was the VP of creative services for New Wave Entertainment for 12 years. While at New Wave, she worked on such high-profile projects as The Big Lebowski, Borat and Ice Age, as well as Star Wars: Episode I, II and III, acting as the agency-of-record liaison with Lucasfilm.
LoopMe, a mobile Demand-Side Platform specializing in full-screen ad formats (interstitials, native, rich media and video), has appointed Peter O’Mara-Kane as VP of sales to support the company’s international expansion. O’Mara-Kane started his media career in the world of outdoor advertising at JCDecaux. He then moved into digital at BSkyB which sported groundbreaking campaigns with Paramount, Visa and Google. O’Mara-Kane then moved into mobile as sales manager at Millennial Media where he progressed to sr. sales manager, group head and eventually head of agency sales….
Eleanor Adds Director Candice Vernon To Its Roster For Spots and Branded Content
Director Candice Vernon has joined production house Eleanor for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She has already wrapped several jobs at Eleanor, which waited to announce her until they had a body of work together.
Via Eleanor, Vernon made history as the first Black director on a Febreze commercial. The “Small Spaces” campaign marks a major departure from Febreze’s typical blue-and-white world. The home of the “Revolving Door” commercial is a beautiful array of bold sunset hues, African prints, and African art.
Vernon said, “I asked myself, what feels right to me? What feels new? I wanted to bring an essence of not just Black Americans but the full diaspora. I wanted to make a statement that we’re not a monolith.”
Following the success of the “Small Spaces” campaign, Febreze brought Vernon back for a comedy-infused trifecta exploring the hilarious situations that call for an air freshening hero.
Febreze Brand VP Angelica Matthews said, “About two years ago, we realized the consumers that were the most loyal to Febreze were the African American consumers. And the more we learned, the more we realized the richness that we were really missing. So we said we have to go beyond just Black casting, we need to get Black directors that truly understand the culture that truly understand how to bring authentic performances out on screen. We really looked around the industry and noticed there’s actually a shortage of African American directors who have experience doing commercials. When we all saw Candice’s reel, we could all tell the passion for the craft, passion for really trying to help us from where we are to where we’re trying to go.”
Vernon brings a unique lens to... Read More