Ogilvy NY Adds Senior Talent to Creative Department

NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Online video pioneer and Heavy.com co-founder David Carson and Saatchi & Saatchi award-winning global creative director Alison Gragnano, are joining Ogilvy New York as Executive Creative Directors reporting to Chief Creative Officer Lars Bastholm.

"Both Alison and David bring an infusion of new creative thinking to our leadership team as well as portfolios that overflow with award-winning work across clients and categories," said Mr. Bastholm.  "They are terrific additions to Ogilvy and will add greatly to our work for clients."

David Carson will partner with Ogilvy NY ECD Chris Mitton working and leading teams on such clients as American Express, IKEA, Stoli and others.  In addition to co-founding Heavy.com, a multi-media digital entertainment network geared to men, David was also the creator of the award-winning animated series Behind the Music That Sucks and helped launch and market FUSE, the music network.  Before embarking on his new media enterprises, David was part of the creative team at Ogilvy that launched the innovative and award-winning e-business campaign for IBM.

Alison Gragnano will lead the work and teams on Ogilvy's Unilever and Kimberly Clark businesses.  For the past four years at Saatchi, Alison has overseen 360 campaigns for a variety of General Mills and Proctor and Gamble brands.  She was part of the Crest team whose "You Can Say Anything with a Smile" campaign won a Gold Lion at Cannes and other top awards.

"I'm pretty excited to join Ogilvy at a time when emerging media has gone mass," said Mr. Carson. "A-list brands are chomping at the bit to leverage new channels of communication. It's an enormous opportunity."

In commenting on her move to Ogilvy, Alison Gragnano said, "The new leadership team is so optimistic and inspiring. They've worked really hard at figuring out "what's next" in terms of creative ideas and resources.  It feels great to be joining at this moment in time when everything is poised to achieve a whole new level of creativity for clients."

Alison and David join other new creative additions to the agency including Jason Marks, Group Creative Director on IBM, who joined from Crispin Porter Bogusky where he served as lead interactive creative for Microsoft, Burger King, VitaminWater and Jose Cuervo.  Also joining the IBM team is Howard Pyle as Global Director of Digital Platforms, a new agency position, from TBWA where he was Executive Director of Development in their Digital Arts lab; and Pierre Wendling, as Executive Producer from 180 Amsterdam where he was Head of Digital Production.

About Ogilvy & Mather

Ogilvy & Mather is one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world. Through its specialty units, the company provides a comprehensive range of marketing services including: advertising; public relations and public affairs; shopper and retail marketing; healthcare communications; direct, digital, promotion, relationship marketing and digital production. Ogilvy & Mather services Fortune Global 500 companies as well as local businesses through its network of more than 450 offices in 120 countries. It is a WPP company (Nasdaq: WPPGY).  For more information, visit www.ogilvy.com.

SOURCE Ogilvy & Mather