• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, January 5, 2022

Project Worldwide in March acquired gaming agency specialist OS Studios. Now, the company is consolidating much of its gaming expertise within that agency.

The most recent move: Industry veteran Wayne Leonard has joined the agency as head of accounts and will work with clients including Twitch, Nexon, Konami and eMLS.

Most recently, Leonard was with George P Johnson, also part of Worldwide, where he was vice president and account director, gaming and sports.

Leonard got his start in the gaming space two decades ago, as part of the production team that launched the first PlayStation. He then went on to create community festivals for thousands of Final Fantasy XIV fans, a zombie-infested police station for Resident Evil, and set up a Kingdom Hearts themed pop-up store at Disney World.

As part of his remit, Leonard will assemble a team to develop full campaigns or segments as needed for broadcast and in-person experiences to broader marketing and ad campaigns.

As part of the effort, OS is building a new gaming studio in New York City to enhance its game-related content capabilities and to help brands journey into the metaverse.

While OS is singularly dedicated to gaming clients, other agencies within the Project Worldwide network have gaming accounts that won’t shift to the specialist, a spokesperson confirmed. However, more inter-agency collaboration is expected. The new gaming studio in Manhattan will be available to all Project WW agencies.