Hogarth names first global ECD

Hogarth, the global creative content production company under WPP, has named industry veteran Mehta as global ECD. In this newly-created role, Mehta (pictured) will support the next phase of Hogarth’s evolution as the world’s leading creative content company by bringing its philosophy of "Creative + Production + Innovation" at scale to all of Hogarth’s clients and global teams. He will report to Richard Glasson, global CEO at Hogarth.

Mehta is currently based in Hogarth’s head office in London but will move to the company’s New York office later in 2022.

Richard Glasson, CEO, Hogarth, said that Mehta is a digital-first creative leader who will bring innovative thinking and constructively disruptive ideas to its clients. "He’s also an empathetic and inspiring human being, who will embrace and enhance our culture and purpose – which is just as important," he added.

Mehta was formerly APAC creative lead at Media.Monks and S4 Capital for close to four years, where he was responsible for growing their creative footprint across APAC. Prior to that, he was based in India for two years, where he launched the tech startup Reliance Jio, alongside Mujeh Ambani. Mehta’s extensive career as a creative leader has seen him work across the globe with roles at West Venture Studios, Innocean USA, Razorfish, Tribal DDB and R/GA working with clients such as Apple, Nike, The Coca-Cola Company, Mercedes-Benz, Google, and Reebok. 

Mehta said that he is extremely excited about the future of Hogarth and looks forward to think, make and scale emotional ideas so its partners can shine. 

“It’s super rare to have people in high positions with such clarity and drive to transform a company – I experienced this from my initial connection with Mark Read whose vision to make WPP the most creative company in the world is simply brilliant. Read introduced me to Rob Reilly, a powerful creative mind, Reilly knows what it takes to achieve creative excellence. And then, Richard Glasson, his clarity on how Hogarth needs to be, behave, and achieve," he added.

Separately, Singtel retained Hogarth for creative production last September. Additionally, The Coca-Cola Company appointed WPP as its global marketing network partner in November last year, to play a key role in executing a new marketing model built to drive long-term growth for the company's portfolio of brands across more than 200 countries and territories. Known as OpenX, the bespoke WPP team will provide end-to-end capabilities across creative, media and data. The pitch was first called late last year. The appointment came a month after Snap and WPP partnered up to help brands build and deliver immersive experiences for consumers using AR. With a particular focus on eCommerce, the partnership combines Snap’s AR technology with WPP’s integrated capabilities across creative, media, commerce and technology, allowing WPP clients to better connect with their customers on the Snapchat platform and drive results through AR.

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