• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, September 28, 2009

MRM Worldwide on Monday named Jason Culbertson creative director on its U.S. Army account. Culbertson most recently served as senior art director at Atmosphere BBDO in New York.

Of his new role, Culbertson said his social media expertise will be indispensable. "It's becoming second nature for people to engage in social media all the time on every type of available screen," he said. "Even the new digital TVs come equipped with Twitter and Facebook on their interfaces. Marketers have to know how and when to engage in the places consumers live on the Web."

At Atmosphere BBDO, which he joined in 2006, he was a senior art director working on Citibank, Bud Light, Target, Hertz and AT&T.

"Jason's expertise in using Web-based social platforms and his knowledge about emerging media will serve the Army's efforts well," said Michael Jacobs, EVP and executive creative director of MRM in New York.

Prior to Atmosphere BBDO, Culbertson held various creative positions at Dentsu, MGM Home Entertainment, Publicis Dialog and Accenture.

Other accounts that Culbertson has worked on in his career include Canon, Toyota, Toshiba, Best Buy, Coke, Napster, MySpace, NHL, Microsoft, MGM, The Walt Disney Company and Paramount.

The U.S. Army is an integrated account at McCann Worldgroup.

Culbertson is the most recent addition to the agency's creative team, which has seen several talent upgrades over the past nine months.

Most recently, Doug Speidel joined in August as SVP, creative director from TEQUILA, part of TBWAChiatDay, where he was an executive creative director.

Also, Farid Chaouki, VP and director of innovation and experience design, and Roy Eventov, design director, joined in February, while Cheryl Van Ooyen, who worked at Deutsch and BBDO Worldwide, joined the agency in April as SVP and group creative director.

Culbertson is also known as the founder of industry commentary platforms AgencyScoop.com and Ad Battle. Agency Scoop is a social networking site for people working in the ad business, and has grown to about 22,000 users in more than 100 countries since its January 2009 inception. Ad Battle, a Facebook application he developed, enables users to view print and TV ads submitted by others and vote on them.