Pablo hands Watts CCO role and promotes duo to ECDs

Independent agency Pablo London has made a series of senior promotions, appointing its first chief creative officer and two new executive creative directors as part of its continued growth.

Dan Watts (pictured, right), who joined the agency in 2020 from Crispin Porter & Bogusky where he was ECD, and has held senior roles at Channel 4, Fallon London and T&P, takes on the role of CCO role, reporting to chief executive Gareth Mercer.

Pablo says that Watts has played a pivotal role in defining the agency’s creative output and the overall shape of the organisation and has helped to establish its creative vision alongside Mercer and chief strategy officer Mark Sng.

Watts will continue to work closely with Mercer to set the agency’s creative agenda and structure while looking to the next stage of creative innovation.

Meanwhile, Ray Shaughnessy (pictured, middle) and Dan Norris (right), who joined the agency in 2023 from McCann and Wieden + Kennedy, have been promoted to ECDs.

For Shaughnessy and Norris the move is in recognition of their drive to shape the agency’s creative direction and culture.

Together, with Watts, they form the core of Pablo’s Creative Council – a team that also includes founding creative partner Tim Snape; creative duo Chris Bovill and John Allison; and creative group heads Will Bingham and Vic Daltrey.

The Council exists to uphold Pablo’s creative standards, avoid creative bottle necks while keeping the range of creative influences and combinations of inspiration broad.

It is also focused on maintaining manageable momentum through the company’s “Now and Next” system, which is designed to ensure the agency is always creatively led while driving creativity beyond the creative department.

As ECDs, Shaughnessy and Norris will take on wider responsibilities across Pablo’s client roster, helping to oversee the creative department and further develop the agency’s reputation for work that sits at the intersection of culture, purpose and effectiveness.

Mercer said: “Dan, Ray and Dan are brilliant creative leaders who make the work, and the people around them, better. They care deeply about ideas that create unfair reach and unfair connection in the world.

“They have embraced and built on the Pablo model, innovating at every turn to create a modern shape of creative company. They are second to no one in their creative ambition for surprising craft yet deliver what makes the truly inspirational achievable.

“This is a natural evolution of the creative leadership at Pablo — one that reflects how collaborative and ambitious the whole business is. We’re so very proud of what they’ve achieved and even more excited about what’s to come. Dan is a cornerstone of Pablo’s foundations, and Ray and Dan continue to take people’s breath away with what’s possible.”

The promotions follow a year of significant momentum for Pablo, marked by new business wins including Honda Europe and campaigns for Wilkinson Sword Intuition, Poretti, Great, DFS, and UVUSEE.

Pablo hands Watts CCO role and promotes duo to ECDs

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