Joy appoints Michele O’Neill as head of strategy and Aaron Thomas in group account director role

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O+T.jpgCreative agency JOY has today announced Michele O’Neill as head of strategy and Aaron Thomas in group account director role.

O’Neill is responsible for the strategic direction of the agency, in collaboration with co-founder Andrew Wynne.

Australian born O’Neill brings twenty years of international experience in FMCG as global planning director at Lowe and Partners in London and Paris and prior to that, Ogilvy Worldwide.

 

The announcement comes as part of JOY’s recent leadership appointments, including Simon Ludowyke as general manager who joined from BBH New York and Ron Taylor as chief operating officer.

 

Thomas is responsible for the SBS and Subaru account and joins JOY from Publicis Mojo, where he led the launch of Toyota’s first sports car in six years and directed campaigns for Australia Pork, Gloria Jean’s Coffees, Taronga Zoo, Citibank and Optus.

 

Prior to joining JOY, O’Neill developed strategy across an international portfolio of brands for Unilever. She also built and launched shopper-marketing agency Lowe-Open in Shanghai, working closely with INSEAD Professor Ziv Carmon to gain insights into human behaviour and how brand decisions are made.

 

Ludowyke said O’Neill and Thomas are huge assets to the company.

 

Says Ludowyke: “Michele brings invaluable knowledge to the group with an impressive background across clients and countries. Her more recent exploration of behavioural economics and decision-making complements our new world-selling ethos, which aims to disrupt the traditional advertising model.

 

“Aaron is smart, savvy and highly collaborative; he brings a wealth of experience across a range of categories and will be highly valued by our Clients and Partners.”

 

Says O’Neill: “It’s an exciting time to rethink how people are engaging with brands and JOY has a strong commitment to selling more effectively in this new world. I’m privileged to be part of this newly shaped collaboration of smart thinkers – I love the group’s independence and intellect.”