Chad Saul is getting grounded again.
After more than a year of working at a holding company (MDC Partners) and consulting, Saul this week joins Innocean USA as chief growth officer, a new position.
Saul, who before MDC worked at Deutsch LA, Team One and Arnold, said he missed being in the trenches of an agency. At MDC, he provided pitch support to agencies such as 72andSunny but wasn't connected to any one shop.
After leaving MDC in October, Saul worked as a new business consultant and briefly considered starting his own practice. Ultimately, though, the opportunity at Innocean was too intriguing to pass it up.
The agency is at a "really attractive chapter" in its history, Saul said. "I think they are the best kept secret in our industry."
Innocean, a Huntington Beach, Calif.-based shop with some 300 staffers, is known primarily as the lead creative shop for Hyundai Motor America, a growing company that has raised its profile significantly by advertising on the last seven Super Bowls. This year, Hyundai unveiled two new ads during the game: "Nice" and "Dad's Sixth Sense."
The challenge facing Saul is to parlay Innocean's success in the automotive sector into assignments in other brand categories. Toward that end, he plans to aggressively market the agency to search consultants and major marketers. In short, he's back to the job he did—successfully—at Deutsch from 2007 to 2012.