Gut Toronto has made two key additions to its senior ranks: Christian Buer as executive creative director, and Natalie Street as account head.
Buer is a well-travelled creative whose decade-plus career includes stints at several well-known agencies including Rethink, Saatchi & Saatchi, Sid Lee, and John St. He spent the previous two years at Hard Work Club, where he was partner and creative director, design.
He has created work for clients including McDonalds, Toyota, HomeSense and KFC. He will lead the agency’s creative team alongside ECD Brynna Aylward.
Street has amassed nearly 15 years of experience with agencies including DDB and Taxi, working with some of the country’s biggest brands, including Canadian Tire, Boston Pizza, Rogers Canada, Manulife. She was most recently managing director of Theo—the short-lived bespoke agency WPP created for Rogers.
Both hires will be based in Toronto, reporting to Gut’s managing director and partner, Ryan O’Hagan.
Toronto became Gut’s fourth office when it opened in 2021 with Tim Hortons as its flagship client and a 40-person team. It has grown steadily since then, adding AOR duties for Goodlife Fitness last year, as well as projects for K-Y Jelly and Spin Master’s Rubik’s Cube and GUND brands.
The office won a Gold Lion in Cannes last year for its “Timbiebs” collaboration with Canadian pop star Justin Bieber. The campaign also won a Grand Effie in the annual awards show focus on advertising effectiveness.
“I’m incredibly excited to see how much Gut Toronto has grown in such a short amount of time across the board,” said Gut partner and North American COO Peña Plaza. “Now having Natalie leading our account team, and Christian working alongside Brynna as our newest ECD to lead our creative team, I know Gut Toronto will be even stronger and more creative than ever for all our clients, making their businesses thrive even further in the years to come.”
Gut, which celebrated its fifth anniversary this year, has grown to seven agencies since its 2018 inception, including opening its first office in Europe in Amsterdam in spring. In Cannes last month, Gut won 35 Lions and was named Independent Agency and Independent Network of the Year, while Gut Buenos Aires was named Agency of the Year.
Speaking with Campaign‘s U.K. editor-in-chief and editorial director Gideon Spanier in the wake of Cannes last month, co-founder and creative chair Anselmo Ramos said that the agency network has plans for “global domination” that includes opening an office in London at some point.
