Cramer-Krasselt Chicago taps former staffer for top creative post.

Chicago Business Journal — December 9, 2019

By Lewis Lazare

In another sign of the growing churn in top management at Chicago ad agencies, Cramer-Krasselt Chicago on Monday said G. Andrew Meyer is re-joining the mid-sized agency as executive creative director, the agency’s top creative position.

Meyer succeeds Rick Hamann, who jumped to Leo Burnett in November.

Meyer most recently was creative lead for global marketing at Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) for seven years. Meyer is returning to an ad shop where he served as a group creative director from 2007 to 2012.

In his new role at C-K, he will oversee creative work on all the agency’s major clients, which include Corona beer, Porsche, Edward Jones and Tropicana orange juice.

C-K President and Chief Operating Officer Karen Seamen said of Meyer’s return: “With his vast experiences at Facebook and Instagram, working with creative agencies, media partners and in-house marketing teams, he brings a unique and valuable perspective on what’s happening in the digital space today and the industry as a whole.”

In addition to a stint at Facebook, Meyer also previously worked Leo Burnett as an executive creative director dealing with clients such as Altoids, Cadillac, Morgan Stanley and Samsung.

Perhaps Meyer’s greatest claim to fame in his previous role at Cramer-Krasselt was his penning of the Corona tagline “Find you beach.”

The beach theme has famously been a part of Corona advertising for many years. For the longest while, most if not all the brew’s advertising from C-K centered on work featuring the beach itself. But in recent years, the brand and C-K’s work has evolved to suggest that “the beach” can be just about any locale that Corona fan wants it to be.

Meyer’s return to C-K comes after numerous top job shifts throughout the Chicago ad industry. FCB Chicago top creatives Liz Taylor and Jon Flannery got things going last spring when they jumped to Burnett and DDB Chicago respectively. Andres Ordonez subsequently jumped to FCB from Energy BBDO Chicago, as Michael Fassnacht announced he will exit FCB as president and CEO at year’s end.

Meanwhile two creatives at Energy BBDO, Josh Gross and Pedro Perez, moved up to co-chief creative positions at that agency after Ordonez’s departure. And late last month, longtime Energy BBDO CEO and President Tonise Paul said she will   step down in January to make way for Jeff Adkins.

The ongoing management changes in the Chicago ad business comes as more clients are taking advertising in-house where they can better control creative output and marketing costs. Ad agencies that have managed to hold onto clients have had to work with ever-tightening budgets.