TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles Announces Key Creative Department Promotions

LOS ANGELES, April 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles announced today that it has promoted Olivier Rabenschlag to Group Creative Director of Media Arts, a new role. The agency has also promoted Becca Morton and Gage Clegg to Group Creative Directors; Xanthe Hohalek, Patrick Condo, Bob Rayburn, Jason Busa and Allan Manaysay to Creative Directors; and Will Hammond becomes global Creative Director on Visa.

"The LA office has an extremely deep reservoir of talent. And we're thrilled to be able to give our people more opportunities to do amazing things on behalf of the brands we serve," said Patrick O'Neill, Executive Creative Director, TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles.

As Group Creative Director of Media Arts, Rabenschlag will be responsible for spearheading the agency's creative innovation development capabilities across its entire client roster and will partner with the agency's Group Creative Directors to evolve the creative output across emerging technology platforms. Rabenschlag will also keep his current title as Creative Director for Activision, Infiniti and the GRAMMYs. His past involvements include the latest GRAMMY campaign, "MusicIsLifeIsMusic," Activision's "There's a Soldier in All of Us" and the world's first Apple iAd for the Nissan Leaf. He was also instrumental in the agency's win of the Visa global pitch in 2008.

"Olivier is one of those rare creative people who understands the impact technology has on building and sharing brand stories," said Rob Schwartz, Chief Creative Officer, TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles. "He lives two years ahead of all of us. Fortunately, he's willing to share the future with those of us living here in 2011."

Becca Morton has been promoted to Group Creative Director for Pedigree, PUR and Visa Olympics. Morton was instrumental in the global launch of the Visa GO campaign and has worked on PlayStation, Mars, Nissan, Los Angeles Times, Pedigree, Energizer, Apple, JBL, Pioneer and Anheuser-Busch, to name a few.

Gage Clegg has also been promoted to Group Creative Director for Pedigree, PUR and Visa Olympics. Clegg was also a driving force on the Global Launch for the Visa GO campaign and has been recognized by numerous awards shows, including The Effies, Archive, The One Show, Cannes, the ADDYs, the Beldings and more. Clegg has also worked on PlayStation, Nissan, Los Angeles Times, Pedigree, Apple, Pioneer and Anheuser-Busch.

Will Hammond adds global responsibilities for Visa to his current role as U.S. Creative Director. Prior to joining TBWA\Chiat\Day, Hammond was with Goodby Silverstein & Partners, then DDB Toronto, where he was one half of a creative duo that transformed the office into one of the premier advertising companies in Canada. There, and at agencies such as Rethink in Vancouver, Saatchi & Saatchi in Johannesburg and Goodby in San Francisco, he won all the awards that are worth winning: Cannes, D&AD, One Show, Effies and ANDYs for a range of brands such as Guinness, Adobe, Energizer and Epson printers.

Xanthe Hohalek, previously Associate Creative Director, assumes the role of Creative Director for Pepsi. Hohalek has been the leading force behind the Pepsi Refresh Project and has been on the account since the agency won the pitch. She also co-runs the Pepsi Max, Diet Pepsi, Throwback and Pepsi Natural business. During her five years at the agency she has worked on Playstation, Hillshire Farm, Pennzoil, JBL, WaMu and Visa. Before Chiat, she worked at Ground Zero and Pixar Animation Studios. Her work has been recognized by most major advertising shows including The One Show, ADDYs, Beldings, ANDYs, Communication Arts, Obies and most recently a bronze lion in Cannes for The Pepsi Refresh Project.

Patrick Condo, previously Associate Creative Director, assumes the role of Creative Director for Infiniti. Recently, with the "MusicIsLifeIsMusic" campaign, Condo led music's most prestigious awards show, the GRAMMYs, to one of the single highest ratings gains in Nielsen history. Condo has also worked on Saturn, EV1, Sprint, Palm, IBM, Motorola, Levi's and HP.

Bob Rayburn also assumes the role of Creative Director for Infiniti. He has helped champion the automaker's first-ever global brand campaign. Rayburn, also Creative Director for the GRAMMYs, was part of the team responsible for raising the slumping award show's ratings an unheard-of 50% in three years. Rayburn has worked on Kawasaki, TaylorMade, Callaway, Mattel, Range Rover, Jaguar, Infiniti, Toyota, Hilton Hotels, Sony, Boy Scouts and Oroweat.

Jason Busa assumes the role of Creative Director on Pedigree. He began his career in 1995 as an art director at a boutique agency in Seattle named Big Bang Idea Engineering. He moved to San Francisco, where he briefly worked at Saatchi & Saatchi before landing at Publicis & Hal Riney, working on such brands as Saturn, Sprint and HP, eventually being promoted to Creative Director in 2005 to run a portion of the Sprint business. In 2006, Jason joined TBWA\Media Arts Lab as an Associate Creative Director, focusing his efforts full time on Apple, gaining valuable experience on iPod, iPhone and Mac. In late 2007, he moved across the parking lot to TBWA\Chiat\Day, where he has applied his skills to Nissan, Infiniti, Visa and Pedigree. Jason's work has been recognized at The One Show, Communication Arts, Graphis, New York Art Directors Club, Archive magazine and The Clios.

Allan Manaysay assumes the role of Creative Director on Pedigree. He began his career at TBWA\Chiat\Day in 2006 as a copywriter on Pedigree. Prior to joining the agency he worked at TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Cramer-Krasselt and Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners. In 2008, Allan helped establish a new office for the TBWA network in Doha, Qatar. As creative director of TBWA\Qatar, he oversaw the creation of one of the country's first integrated marketing campaigns for one of the region's highest profile accounts - Qatar Foundation. Allan returned to TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angles in 2010 as Associate Creative Director on Pedigree. His work has been recognized in the Communication Arts Advertising Annual, One Show, Kelly Awards, Clios, National ADDYs, Effies, and included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles is part of TBWA\Worldwide. TBWA Worldwide (www.tbwa.com) creates Disruptive ideas expressed through Media Arts for global clients, including ABSOLUT, adidas, Apple, Energizer, GSK, Henkel, Infiniti, Mars, McDonald's, Michelin, Nissan, Pernod Ricard, Pfizer, Roche, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore Airlines and Visa. TBWA is ranked as a Top-Ten worldwide advertising agency, and was recognized by Advertising Age in 2010 as the "Best International Network of the Decade." Fast Company magazine placed TBWA 24th on its 2009 list of "The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies" and as an Innovation All-Star in 2010. TBWA has 274 offices in 100 countries, and over 11,000 employees worldwide.

TBWA is part of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com), a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

SOURCE TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles