R/GA New York has brought industry veteran Steve Whittier on board as executive creative director. Whittier, who will work on the Nike account, has 20 years of experience in both traditional and nontraditional advertising. He has deep experience across a number of categories including action sports, outdoor, youth marketing, automotive, and entertainment. He will report to R/GA’s Nick Law, executive VP, chief creative officer, North America.
Whittier most recently acted as the integrated creative director on the Land Rover USA business at Young & Rubicam, where his work encompassed creative executions across multiple channels including traditional, digital, and direct-to-consumer. In this position, Whittier led a multi-agency collaborative effort to develop numerous campaigns for the brand, including work on several global Land Rover launches alongside Y&R London.
Before joining Y&R, Whittier worked at several other agencies including Factory Design Labs as VP/creative director where he helped grow the agency from a 13-person design shop to a 100-plus-person full-service agency with a national client roster that included Oakley, The North Face, Revo, Brine Lacrosse, and Audi. Prior to Factory Design Labs, he served as creative director at Leo Burnett Kiev for clients such as Fanta, P&G EU, and Coca-Cola.
Whittier has won several Cannes Lions for his work on Land Rover, GE, and Airwalk as well as recognition from The London International Awards, Communication Arts, The Webbys, D&AD and The One Show.
Additionally, Whittier is an advisory board member of Alexandra Cousteau’s Blue Legacy Foundation and a marketing board member of Healing Waters International, a nonprofit organization providing safe water solutions to impoverished communities around the world.
Oscar Nominees Delve Into The Art Of Editing At ACE Session
You couldn’t miss Sean Baker at this past Sunday’s Oscar ceremony where he won for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Editing on the strength of Anora. However, earlier that weekend he was in transit from the Cesar Awards in Paris and thus couldn’t attend the American Cinema Editors (ACE) 25th annual panel of Academy Award-nominated film editors held at the Regal LA Live Auditorium on Saturday (3/1) in Los Angeles. While the eventual Oscar winner in the editing category was missed by those who turned out for the ACE “Invisible Art, Visible Artists” session, three of Baker’s fellow nominees were on hand--Dávid Jancsó, HSE for The Brutalist; Nick Emerson for Conclave; and Myron Kerstein, ACE for Wicked. Additionally, Juliette Welfling, who couldn’t appear in person due to the Cesar Awards, was present via an earlier recorded video interview to discuss her work on Emilia Pérez. The interview was conducted by ACE president and editor Sabrina Plisco, ACE who also moderated the live panel discussion. Kerstein said that he was the beneficiary of brilliant and generous collaborators, citing, among others, director Jon M. Chu, cinematographer Alice Brooks, and visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman. The editor added it always helps to have stellar acting performances, noting that hearing Cynthia Erivo, for example, sing live was a revelation. Kerstein recalled meeting Chu some eight years ago on a “blind Skype date” and it was an instant “bromance”--which began on Crazy Rich Asians, and then continued on such projects as the streaming series Home Before Dark and the feature In The Heights. Kerstein observed that Chu is expert in providing collaborators with... Read More