The Agency is Evolving to Meet the Demands of Today’s Marketers Through Branding, Live Experiences, Partnerships, and More
NEW YORK, October 08, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–General Idea, a brand agency at the intersection of creativity, culture, and technology, today appointed Co-Founder Tanner Graham as Chief Executive Officer. Graham has been instrumental in scaling the award-winning, LGBTQIA+-owned and led agency known for its work with brands, companies, and individuals across fashion, luxury, and entertainment. In this role, Graham will continue to scale the agency, develop new practices and service divisions, while continuing the mission of being the most inclusive, creative-forward independent agency.
“For the past six years, I’ve had the immense honor of helping build General Idea into an agency that delivers exceptional and iconic creative work for some of the world’s most loved brands. Beyond the exceptional work, it’s been a priority to create an agency and creative community that prioritizes diversity, equity and inclusion,” said Graham. “As we enter our next chapter, we will continue to create work at the intersection of beauty and impact – creating emotional, beautiful work that drives meaningful results for the brands we work with.”
Further building out its executive leadership team, General Idea has hired Nathan Jun Poekert as its first Chief Marketing Officer. Jun Poekert brings a wealth of experience leading social media and marketing campaigns for some of the world’s top retail brands, including American Eagle and BMW Group. During his tenure, American Eagle experienced substantial growth with Gen Z becoming one of the most loved and influential brands on social media. In this newly created role, Poekert will partner with General Idea’s clients to develop impact-driven strategies, including organic and paid social marketing, social-first content creation, influencer marketing and performance driven campaigns.
Nate Whitton is joining General Idea as Managing Director – Experience, following 15 years of producing highly-immersive events for luxury and fashion groups, including LVMH. In this role, Whitton will bring these best-in-class brand experiences and activations to life for General Idea’s clients. Through his extensive experience Whitton has worked on projects throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas — ranging from some of the most iconic fashion shows to cultural exhibitions and international conferences.
With these strategic appointments, General Idea is expanding its core services beyond branding and design. Agency services will fall within three key service pillars:
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Brand Strategy: Counseling brands on how they should behave in the marketplace, ranging from positioning, social strategy, and go-to-market initiatives.
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Brand Design: Taking General Idea’s thesis of being at the intersection of beauty and impact, the agency will help clients through visual identity, communications, and traditional advertising
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Brand Experiences: Experiential has become a table-stakes strategy for brands. General idea will conceptualize unique and creative ways for brands to further engage consumers
In recent years, General Idea’s work has evolved to fit these three core pillars. The agency was instrumental in producing Swarovski’s first rebrand in its 32-year history. It also works with a slew of celebrity clientele, such as Rihanna’s Savage Fenty and Ariana Grande’s LOVESNOTES fragrance, to establish brand design and identity. Last year, General Idea produced its largest live event and experience to date, partnering with Roc Nation to transform the Brooklyn Public Library into The Book of HOV, an exhibit honoring Jay-Z.
“With this new leadership team, we are evolving General Idea from a brand design agency to an agency for the future providing an arsenal of inter-connected capabilities for today’s marketers and brands,” said Ian Schatzberg, Co-Founder of General Idea. “We’ve built a reputation for ourselves by working with companies who prioritize beauty in their designs, and through these new offerings, we can stretch that beauty to new worlds across creator partnerships, live experiences, and more.”
To learn more, visit https://www.generalidea.agency/.
About the General Idea Group
The General Idea Group is a next-generation creative collective that provides premium brands with end-to-end solutions across technology, branding, design, and storytelling. The collective is composed of General Idea, Reference NYC, and SPA (Special Production Agency) and is headquartered in New York City, with offices in the United Kingdom. Co-founded by industry veterans Ian Schatzberg, Semjon Doenhoff, and Tanner Graham, the collective is designed to offer brand founders and marketers a one-stop shop for their branding, technology arts, creative, and production needs.
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