• by Amy Corr  @MediaPostOTL, February 21, 2017

Wunderman New York names Kat Gates and Jeffrey Castellano as group creative directors, reporting to chief creative officer Sami Thessman.

The duo will oversee day-to-day creative strategy for the agency's clients, including Danone, United Airlines, Coca-Cola, Isle of Capri, USTA, E*TRADE and Major League Baseball Players Association.

Gates and Castellano were recruited specifically for their expertise in mobile and experiential marketing, digital, data and UX.

Gates previously served as creative director at Facebook, where she managed the development of digital brand experiences for Facebook and played a key role in the rebrand of Facebook for Business. Prior to that, she was a regional creative director for Pampers and Iams at Saatchi & Saatchi in Germany. She was also a global creative director on Always at Leo Burnett, where she was part of the team behind the "Like A Girl" campaign.

Most recently, Castellano was a creative director at Google, where he specialized in interactive experiences, product design and branding Prior to that, he was director of creative technology at J. Walter Thompson New York, where he managed the agency's digital creative studio and lead multidisciplinary teams in UX, technology and production for clients including Rolex, J&J, Energizer and Nestle.

"Kat and Jeffrey both have a deep understanding of social media, mobile UX and technology and are motivated by big, insight-driven ideas," said Thessman. "These qualities are very much aligned with the future of Wunderman and our industry generally."