Hill Holliday Appoints Icaro Doria as Chief Creative Officer

Hill Holliday, an award-winning, full service creative advertising agency, is betting big on 2021 as they name award-winning creative, Icaro Doria, as chief creative officer.

A 25-year veteran of the industry, Icaro’s experience working with brand champions is diverse, ranging from Coca Cola and Diageo to Nike, Hilton Hotels, Carl’s Jr’s, Hardees, Old Spice, Heineken and many others. Icaro has judged and won all major creativity and effectiveness awards in the industry several times over including Cannes Lions Awards, One Show, Clio, and others. Earlier in his career, he was ranked AdAge’s 'Most Awarded Creative in the World'.

Prior to joining Hill Holliday, Icaro was the global chief creative officer at Havas Health & You, the largest health advertising network in the world, as well as the US chief creative officer at Arnold Worldwide. The native Brazilian was the founding partner and CCO at Wieden + Kennedy São Paulo, where he helped grow the shop from a kitchen table to a team of more than 200.

For seven years, he also worked alongside Hall of Famer and late basketball legend Kobe Bryant on several projects, from Kobe's 20th year with the NBA to an initiative aimed at-risk kids in sports.

“I'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire team at Havas Health & You." said Icaro. "The opportunity to join Hill Holliday and partner with Karen Kaplan and her leadership team is an absolute honour. Hill Holliday has both an incredible creative legacy and a very bright future. I can’t wait to see what we’ll be able do together.”

“Icaro is a flat-out superstar,” added Hill Holliday president, Chris Wallrapp. “He’s got all the tools a modern CCO needs to succeed, and he brings an infectious energy to absolutely everything he does. As an agency, we’re all about embracing change, and Icaro is a game changer.”

The agency continues to increase its already-diverse roster of clients, having quietly added new accounts like BMW Motorrad, Fireball Whisky, and Community Coffee, alongside names like Santander, who consolidated both media and creative with the shop. The agency has also experienced impressive growth since launching their healthcare practice, Hill Holliday Health, by bringing on four new client companies and seven new brands in CNS, oncology, women’s healthcare and ophthalmology.

In addition to Icaro, the agency has hired Aisha Losche, formerly of Publicis, as senior vice president of their DE&I efforts, and Marco Castro as the head of account operations.

“Hill Holliday has a history of zigging when others zag.” said Karen Kaplan, chairman and CEO. “We’re making big moves and investments now to ensure that we have the right talent and the right tools to emerge from 2020 even stronger than we went in, and that our work will be even more resonant, relevant and connected to culture.”

With this high-profile hire and an injection of new clients Hill Holliday is riding high and betting big. “We’re not the same agency we were a year ago, and that’s a good thing”, concluded Chris. “We’re running full speed toward the future.”