Over the last several months, Cossette has hired seven senior creatives specifically to work on the McDonald’s Canada account. The most recent additions include Andrew Chisholm as executive creative director, joining Jason Hill as head of the McDonald’s-focused creative team.
The new additions to the Cossette team come just after McDonald’s completed an agency review. Cossette was retained as AOR, but the fast food giant added global creative heavyweights Wieden + Kennedy to its agency roster to work alongside the iconic Canadian agency.
“This as an incredibly exciting juncture in marketing at McDonald’s Canada, and it will be great for our talented marketing team to get the added experience of working with two strong creative agency partners,” McDonald’s chief marketing officer Alyssa Buetikofer told The Message.
Cossette’s recent record for McDonald’s includes a number of successes, including the “Siakam Swirl McFlurry” in collaboration with Pascal Siakam of the Toronto Raptors, and the Gen-Z focused “Inspired by Big Mac” campaign.
“Being able to partner with Andrew in particular will allow us to continue to push ourselves creatively while putting more focus on craft and team mentorship,” said Hill of his new co-leader. Chisholm arrives at Cossette with more than 18 years of experience as a copywriter and creative director for a wide range of global agencies both in Canada and the United States, most recently boutique advertising agency Piro.
“I’ve been a fan of McDonald’s my whole life”, said Chisholm. “So when the opportunity came to work on this iconic global brand at an iconic Canadian agency, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”
Chisholm will help oversee equally new additions, creative directors Mike Johnson and Amy O’Neill, who joined the team in August and October respectively.
O’Neill brings 12 years of experience in art direction to her role, having gained senior status in 2018 at NY-based creative consultancy Huge, before moving to McCann Canada. There, she worked on the Wendy’s Canada account, contributing to campaigns incluidng “Scarier Than Spice”, the “Wendy’s Melt Lamp,” and the viral “French Toast Guy.”
Johnson brings 10 years of industry experience to the team, having spent the last six as associate creative director at Anomaly Toronto. He’s also the co-founder of alcoholic beverage company Crawler.
Senior art director Dylan Silvestro also joined the team this month, having previously contributed freelance art direction to Cossette in a portfolio that included agencies like McCann, lg2, and Broken Heart Love Affair.
His counterpart, Cass Valchuk, was brought on as a senior art director in March, followed by senior creative writer Brianne Collins the same month and senior creative writer Shane Rodak in July. All three join Cossette from Anomaly Toronto.
The hiring announcement is punctuated by the addition of freelancer Owen Garscadden as senior digital strategy director, who will continue to elevate McDonald’s digital presence while driving innovative growth.
“I’m thrilled to be welcoming so many talented people onto our team,” said Hill. “We’ve had great momentum over the last year so there is a lot of passion and excitement around what’s next.”
