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Young & Shand picks up muesli mogul/media specialist Jonathan Sorenson

Young & Shand has announced the appointment of Jonathan Sorenson as its media director.

Sorenson joins from OMD, where he has worked since February 2015 as an account director, focusing on the Air New Zealand business.

Young & Shand managing director Duncan Shand described the appointment as a big step for the agency.

“This is a significant role, and it shows that we’re being serious about the media side of the business.”

Shand says that the agency has until now attracted some smaller media clients, but that it’s now looking to scale up its activities in this department.

“Being genuinely digital-first in our strategy and creative thinking, and being able to support this with in-house media buying, idea execution and post-live optimisation, allows for truly integrated work that’s seamless and done at pace,” the agency boss says. “Having Jono on the team allows us to significantly ramp up our offering in this area”.

This key appointment follows on from Young & Shand’s appointment of Tim Wood as creative director last year, and adds to the strategic backbone of the agency.

“We already have Tim on the creative, Matt Van Tiel as operations director, Dan Phillips as strategy director and Dan Maas as client services director. And Jono really adds a new level of expertise to this team.”     

Shand says he’s been eager to bring the new recruit across to Young & Shand since the pair first worked together when Sorenson was at Carat earlier in his career.

 Shand says he was drawn to Sorenson not only because of media nous, but also because he has shown an entrepreneurial knack in starting Muesli Hub in 2013.

“In addition to his great industry experience and reputation, one of the things that attracted us to Jono was his entrepreneurial spirit, including launching, growing and selling his own business,” Shand says.  

Sorenson has since sold this business to Paige Weeks and Jason Ponder, meaning that all his energy will again be focused on his media career.  

​Shortly after the original publication of this story, OMD managing director Andrew Reinholds sent through a statment wishing the sartorially talented Sorenson well in his new role. 

“We’ve loved having Jono as part of our team over the last 18  months,” Reinholds said. 

“He’s made a significant contribution to the agency as well as team Air New Zealand, which has experienced massive growth over that same period. As well as being a particularly sharp dresser – he did win best dressed male at our 33 College Hill leaving party last year – he’s also a very sharp thinker and never shy in coming forward with his opinion on how we can be doing things differently. While we’re really disappointed to be losing him, we’re also very excited for him in his new role and will be seeing him off in true OMD style.”

OMD has still not named a replacement for Sorenson.    

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