Diamond hires two new CDs

Along with new leads for its social and influencer work, the agency is looking to evolve the creative solutions it provides clients.
By Josh Kolm
June 15, 2017

From left to right: Ben Playford, Catherine Mann, Josh Haupert and Brooke Tkatch.

Diamond Integrated Marketing has hired new leaders in its creative department, as well as for two budding practices at the agency.

Leading the new additions is the reunited team of Ben Playford and Josh Haupert, Diamond’s new creative directors.

Playford joins from Tribal Worldwide, where he has been since 2013 and was most recently creative director. Prior to joining Tribal, he was a group creative director at McCann and ACD at its digital and CRM division MRM McCann.

During his time at McCann, Playford was first partnered with Haupert, who has been with McCann since 2008 and was most recently VP and CD. Between the two of them, the pair has created award-winning work for clients including Canadian Tire, Chevrolet, Mastercard and Wind Mobile.

Playford and Haupert are also reuniting with Sean Davison, who joined Diamond as its first ECD in 2015 after 11 years at McCann. The pair will report directly to Davison.

The agency has also hired Catherine Mann to lead its new social media practice as director of social media. Mann has been marketing manager for social media at Air Miles since 2014, and has also had social media strategy roles at One Method and Corus. Mann has been tasked with turning the agency’s existing social media group into a core discipline and integrating it into its creative product.

Diamond has also hired Brooke Tkatch, joining from Environics, as its influencer lead. Influencer marketing is a new department at the agency. Along with the sponsorship division established last year following the hiring of Mike Smith as director of sponsorship, influencer marketing is meant to meet the evolving needs of clients with more memorable and effective creative solutions.

“In our world of exponential progression and change, it’s essential we do the same,” says David Diamond, managing partner at Diamond, in a press release. “We’re always looking to the future, internalizing that, adapting and evolving to best help our clients.”