Iris expands UK adidas team with two senior hires
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Joining the team is Laura Randall as Creative Director and Harry Gayner as Managing Partner.
Agency Iris, the global creative and strategic agency, announces two new senior hires to its adidas team, a flagship account it has held for 15 years, Laura Randall as Creative Director and Harry Gayner as Managing Partner.
Randall brings a wealth of experience to the role having previously led the Nike Women’s account for four years at digital innovation agency, R/GA. This year, she and her team won the prestigious Cannes Lion Grand Prix for their work on NikeSync that helped women harness the power of their menstrual cycle. She also led Nike’s partnership with Gurls Talk which helps to keep young girls in sport throughout their adolescence. Prior to this, she was a lead creative on McDonald’s at Leo Burnett, creating the playful and extroverted Great Tastes of America TV ads.
At Iris, Randall will be using her extensive sports marketing experience to grow the Adidas account into new areas for Iris.
Taking the reins from Iris Chairman and Founder Ian Millner, who has been acting as interim support in this role, Gayner’s global role as Managing Partner will see him focus on driving creative work on the Adidas account, whilst also building out a portfolio of other sport and culture brand clients for Iris.
Gayner has spent his career creating work with cultural resonance for brands such as Budweiser and Amazon in senior roles at Anomaly and Lucky Generals. He now leaves his role as Head of Account Management at Dark Horses- a creative agency for sport, fitness and wellbeing, where he led brand and sponsorship campaigns for Just Eat Takeaway.com, Peloton and Chelsea FC.
Harry Gayner said: “Iris is known for creating powerful work and their values align with mine. I want to create work that genuinely impacts culture and resonates with normal people - work that people talk about down the pub. Sport is the perfect medium to do this. I’ve seen a lot of this kind of work coming out of Iris over the years, above all on the adidas account, so I’m delighted to be joining the team and helping to push for more in the future.”
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Laura Randall said: “Sport is a unique area to work in with huge opportunity to drive change; from grassroots level right up to top level sponsorship. In my previous role I played an integral part in growing the Nike account and I’m excited to apply my experience to another heritage sports brand. I want to bring the same passion and enthusiasm to this new role, where I will have a lot of freedom to focus on the things that matter to consumers and affect people in a meaningful way.”
Ian Bradbury, Chief Client Officer at Iris said: “Our work with Adidas goes from strength to strength, and now with Harry and Laura joining the team, it is about to get stronger. Both bring unrivalled sports marketing experience, and as we look to evolve our expertise in this space, their attitudes and creativity will help us to push creative boundaries and deliver excellent work”
