Edelman Expands Creative Bench in the Pacific Northwest
A Commpro News Update
Today, Edelman announced that they have made two new additions to their creative and planning leadership teams. Eddie Rehfeldt was named regional executive creative director and Chris Carter will be taking on the role of senior vice president of strategy and planning. In these new positions, Rehfeldt and Carter will be leading the creative and planning teams in Edelman's Seattle and Portland offices in conceptualizing and executing integrated communications marketing campaigns.
"As the media landscape shifts, talent like Eddie and Chris are essential to meeting growing client demand around content and storytelling," said Edelman Pacific Northwest general manager Will Ludlam. "This is an important step in helping us realize our communications marketing vision. How brands communicate with customers and constituents has changed – deepening our bench in new ways is critical to meeting that need."
For the past 25 years, Rehfeldt has self-identified as a creative "rodeo clown," and has lead a diverse team of creatives through a variety of projects. His noted as having a strength in building complex creative and content teams that focus on multi-channel brand identity. Rehfeldt's recent collaborations won both a Gold and Silver Award at the 2015 Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. Additionally, he has received more than 28 design and creative awards spanning multiple categories. His personal passion projects include his "Road2Manhood" podcast and upcoming companion book, as well as his graduate class at the University of Washington, called "Digital Storytelling for Social Impact," empowering students to create powerful social action campaigns that activate community organizations.
"Big brands, organizations and enterprises can't demand to be heard any longer. They've got to earn that trusted engagement," said Rehfeldt. "Edelman is uniquely tooled to bridge that communications marketing divide. My wife tells me that everything I've done in my career has led me to this gig, to this remarkable company, this moment in time in our industry. Our audiences now insist on being interconnected and empowered. Edelman has the qualified chops to help brands and enterprises earn trust, attention and relevance in this constantly-jacked-up world."
Carter will be bringing over 20 years of marketing accumen to Edelman, with experience including digital, direct and CRM, brand, consumer and B2B strategy. For the past ten years, he was with Wunderman Seattle where he led strategic efforts for major brands like T-Mobile, positioning and launching their "Un-carrier" campaign. He also helped to launch Windows 7 globally through a multi-agency, multi-channel campaign for Microsoft.
"I'm thrilled to be joining the Edelman Pacific Northwest team at a time of such incredible change," said Carter. "Edelman is in an ideal position to evolve its myriad services into one integrated communications marketing vision. I'm excited to bring my diverse background, spanning everything from technology and startups to business consultancy and digital marketing, to help drive that vision forward for our clients and our company."
