Patrick Scissons, the creative leader at Grey Canada who has helmed the award-winning PSA campaigns for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, has been named the first global chief creative officer for the MDC-owned agency KBS.
According to KBS, Scissons takes over leadership of the agency’s Canadian, U.S., U.K. and Chinese creative efforts — an expanded international mandate for the new CCO as the agency looks to build its global client roster and make its New York office a “creative power house,” according to Guy Hayward, KBS CEO.
“I’m not expecting Patrick to be flying around the world deciding which awards we’re going to be entering. The number-one job for Patrick, me and the rest of the global team is to make New York a creative power house and, at the same time, inspire our other offices.”
The CCO title had previously been held jointly by Jonathan Mackler and Dan Kelleher, both of whom left the agency in January.
“We actually briefed our recruiter towards the end of last year,” Hayward said. “When we met Patrick… I wanted him to meet the whole team, and everyone immediately and unanimously said ‘He’s the guy.'”
Hayward said the team was drawn not only to Scisson’s recent creative successes at Grey (he cited Moms Demand Action and “Milk Carton 2.0” as some his the Canadian’s strongest work), but to his technical credentials, built over the last 10 years at BBDO, Syncapse and Birthplace, the agency he founded in 2009.
“At KBS, we really have strong tech capabilities and we were looking for creative leaders who could really blend that capability with the need to do great creative work. Patrick can absolutely do that,” said Hayward.
“Part of the reason why I was interested in this role was the applied nature of it, all these incredible tools, as well as the growing notion of a global network,” Scissons said. “KBS has a great presence in Toronto and Montreal… I want to stay connected to where I’m from and start connecting that to the bigger picture of the overall KBS brand.”
Scissons is set to join KBS’ New York office later this summer as the shop goes actively looking for new clients. It’s current large-scale global clients includes BMO in Canada, as well as Keds and BMW in New York.
Among its many awards, Grey’s campaign for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America recently won Marketing For Good honours at the 2016 Marketing Awards.
