Odysseus Arms Welcomes Jake Sugarman as Partner to Lead Development

On the heels of six wins – The Body Shop, New Belgium Brewery, SELF Financial, Kinder’s, Clos du Val wine and expanded assignments from Toggle by Farmers Insurance – Odysseus Arms has brought in Mekanism managing director Jake Sugarman as partner to lead development of the agency’s business.

As head of both account and business development, Jake will focus on all the ways the business can grow inside and out. Similarly, at Mekanism, he oversaw new business on the West Coast, and new business operations across all four offices while also leading work on Sling TV, Charles Schwab, Meta and PAX, the prominent cannabis brand.

“Today, new business takes actual business development, or no one answers your call,” said Libby Brockoff, co-founder and CEO at Odysseus Arms. “We’re giving clients ideas that can put them at the centre of people’s lives for years to come. Our job is to bridge business and marketing objectives in all the work we do. Jake’s a master of this new business reality.”

Odysseus Arms has earned a reputation for reinvigorating clients by challenging them to reframe their business and creative propositions. This year, the agency has fuelled a new business roll with an approach to building campaigns on input from the audiences. Building 'Living Brands' with a process called Third3ye, the agency makes audience members advisors and even co-creators on brand strategy, messaging, and media – so campaigns are designed to make brands central to the lives of intended consumers. The approach has delivered extraordinary results for a long list of clients including The Body Shop, SELF Financial, and Toggle by Farmers. 

“We’re building the agency for the modern brand, and we need client leadership that’s as bold, foresighted and inclusive as our creative approach,” said Franklin Tipton., co-founder and CCO at Odysseus Arms. “Jake will help us scale by bringing live thinking on brands and real-time thought leadership to clients.”

At Mekanism, Sugarman helped expand Sling TV from a digital/social account to full-fledged creative AOR while bringing in such new business as Weber Grills, MightyNetworks, and Level Home. He also overhauled Mekanism’s new business process by focusing on thought leadership to get ahead of RFPs and applying a more rigorous filter to qualify prospective clients based on the creative, financial and strategic opportunities they represented for the agency.

OA has searched for the right client partner for three years. In the process, Brockoff and Tipton interviewed more than three dozen acclaimed account chiefs. They encountered a cast of beleaguered veterans who have been reduced to tactical taskers in the avalanche of data that now informs marketing. In Sugarman, they found a strategic account lead who’s accomplished at reframing how brands go to market and hungry to make an agency famous. 

“We can be the creative powerhouse that connects the dots between marketing and business,” said Jake. “Mother was a game changer, and the opportunity to help Libby do it again is irresistible. OA is for clients willing to take risks and break through the sea of sameness. I couldn’t say no.”