Ethnicity Multicultural Marketing and Advertising has appointed Mike Fromowitz its new partner and first chief creative officer after an extensive international search
Fromowitz, who spent more than a decade working in Asia, has won more than 500 national and international creative awards. In 1997, he became the first regional creative director for TBWA\Asia Pacific and helped launch the Omnicom brand in 13 countries. Through the Omnicom group, Fromowitz moved to BBDO New York and, in 2006, returned to Toronto to start his own digitally focused agency, Mantra Partners, which is now closing as a result of Fromowitz’s move to Ethnicity.
Ethnicity co-founder Howard Lichtman said the agency wanted a person with the capacity to work across multiple ethnic groups and had experience with both Eastern and Western marketing styles.
“There was just no one else who had his span of experience in Asia, coupled with his North American experience. He was really separate from the rest of the pack in his ability to think cross-culturally. You’d be hard-pressed to find another creative director with that kind of experience under his belt,” he said.
Ethnicity opened its doors in July 2013 after sensing a need for multicultural marketing and advertising expertise in Canada with proprietary research and insight tools. The agency launched its first integrated campaign, “Kindergarten Recruitment” in September for Ontario’s Dufferin- Peel Catholic District School Board, and plans to roll out “Elementary” and “High School Recruitment” campaigns later this year.
Sahni is the former head of multicultural marketing at Rogers Communications, while Lichtman is a former executive vice-president of marketing and communications for Cineplex and former president of the Lightning Group.