Australian Facebook veteran Andy McKeon joins Genero as global CCO to launch US operations

Genero has announced the appointment of Aussie expat Andy McKeon, its first US-based employee, who joins as global chief creative officer, based in San Francisco.

McKeon, a former chief creative officer at J. Walter Thompson ANZ, joins the company after 6 years at Facebook’s Silicon Valley headquarters, working with many of the world’s biggest brands and their agencies.

McKeon’s career is highly credentialed, having worked under Steve Jobs as a creative director at Apple, and at many illustrious advertising agencies around the world including J. Walter Thompson, Wieden + Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne.

Genero is the solution of choice for marketers looking for a new model to support their video content production needs.

Says Mick Entwisle, co-founder, Genero: “Brands need so much content these days, but the current production model isn’t built to provide it at scale or speed. We were marketers who saw this growing gap, and that’s why we launched Genero ten years ago. We’ve patiently built our solution to make sure it’s the best in the world, and are seeing so much demand from brands who want a faster and smarter way to produce high quality video content. We’re so excited to have someone of Andy’s calibre and background joining our business to raise awareness and to help our community deliver the best quality creative work for our clients.”

Genero works with mega marketers like Unilever, Diageo, HP Citibank, Facebook and Google, as well as small businesses and global music artists.

Says McKeon: “I’ve been fortunate to work with every global network and a bunch of the best agencies over my career, and everyone is trying to work out a new, more effective model. This is the first solution I’ve seen that feels really creatively exciting, efficient and viable in the long-term.”

The model works by providing brands with direct access to a global community of creators for creative ideas and production resources, and a proprietary software platform to manage the end-to-end production process. Support throughout the process is provided by Genero’s team.

Says McKeon: “It’s similar to the traditional model, the key difference being that a much larger and more diverse group of creators can access the brief and respond. For example, Silicon Valley startup Instacart commissioned an ad from an award-winning animation house which had worked on the blockbuster film Iron Man, on the other side of the Pacific. Duran Duran found a teen in rural Australia to make an official music video. These are creative connections that would not have traditionally been possible and there are already thousands of those stories.”

Over the past decade Genero has been growing it’s community, building its software platform and opening offices in London, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne.

Says Entwisle: “The platform and community are extremely flexible. One of the most exciting recent projects is for Asian streaming platform HOOQ. They’ve launched an annual brief to find and commission original TV pilots through Genero. Last year’s brief resulted in the production of six truly creative pilots, and one of those is now being turned into a full TV series. That’s the sort of creativity and quality available to brands.”  

Marketers use the platform to produce a wide variety of content, including culturally sensitive localisations, simple animations, social content and TV commercials.

Genero is continuing to hire additional US-based team members across San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, with further announcements planned shortly.