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Advertising Sid Lee

Sid Lee’s Will Travis steps into global head growth officer role as agency sets its sights on expansion

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By Minda Smiley, Reporter

August 30, 2016 | 3 min read

Will Travis, chief executive of Sid Lee’s New York and LA offices, has stepped into the role of US executive chairman and global head growth officer as the Montreal-based agency aims to increase its international profile.

Will Travis

Will Travis

As global head growth officer, Travis said he’ll be tasked with helping to formulate the agency’s overall expansion strategy while liasing with other members of Kyu, the collective Sid Lee joined last year when it was acquired by Japanese holding company Hakuhodo. Kyu’s other members include design firm Ideo, Digital Kitchen and brand strategy agency Red Peak.

Sid Lee, which has offices in Montreal, Toronto, New York, LA and Paris, recently closed its Amsterdam office in an effort to centralize its European offering in France. Since the agency’s five offices work with a number of global brands, including Facebook, Stella and Absolut, Travis that he will focus on servicing international clients by working with partners and leveraging the power of its network to provide them with the services they are looking for.

“The expansion that we have requires somebody to oversee at the high level internationally, because the brands are more international,” he said. “It’s a good role for me to be able to help elevate our larger global client base.”

Travis said that Sid Lee has people on the ground in both Seoul, South Korea and Shanghai, China as well.

“We’ve been spending a lot of time in Asia,” he said. “At the moment they’re beachheads where we’ve got people on the ground, and that’s really important just to be able to service the international clients that we do have.”

Last year, the agency opened Sid Lee Studio, a global “maker collective of more than 100 content and event producers, creative technologists, engineers, architects and product designers.” Each office has its own studio while a management team housed in Montreal contributes to “the sharing of knowledge and resources between each of them to better serve clients."

In New York, Sid Lee Studio recently unveiled a global entertainment platform for Stella called Le Savoir, which over the summer has been offering fans of the brand the chance to take part in a “multi-sensory dining experience feat. Culinary wizards Bompas & Parr and the world’s premiere theatre experts” in cities including Montreal, New York and Buenos Aires.

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