Octagon Elevates Matt Malichio To EVP And Group Creative Director, Further Enhancing Agency’s Creative Capabilities

April 28, 2022

Jason Sifre, Melissa Johnson, and Will Butler Promoted to Senior Roles on Octagon’s Creative Team

Octagon, the preeminent global creative, integrated marketing, and talent management agency in sports and entertainment, has announced the promotion of Matt Malichio to Executive Vice President and Group Creative Director for Marketing North America, enhancing the agency’s creative prowess. Malichio will continue to report to Kenny Rennard, Executive Creative Director, Octagon Marketing North America.

Malichio will join Rennard to oversee Octagon Marketing’s creative, planning, strategy, and production work for a comprehensive list of Fortune 500 clients. The agency veteran will continue to be based out of Octagon Marketing’s North America headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.

“In his near two decades with Octagon, Matt has played a pivotal role in both establishing our creative division and growing our agency into one of the leading creative voices across sports, entertainment, and culture,” said Lou Kovacs, President, North America, Octagon. “Matt is a talented creative director with the necessary vision and innovative mindset to continue producing award-winning campaigns, content and experiential to help take our agency’s creative work to the next level.”

Malichio has ascended through the ranks of the agency during his tenure, building out creative campaigns, television commercials, and brand experiences for some of Octagon’s biggest clients, including Mastercard, Delta Air Lines, Taco Bell, General Mills, and many more. Malichio’s recent work includes the clever UPS “Business Drivers” campaign featuring PGA Tour legends Louis Oosthuizen and Lee Westwood, as well as Mastercard’s “50 Years and Running” campaign surrounding the 2021 TCS New York City Marathon.

In addition, Octagon announced a series of additional moves across its North American creative division, including the elevation of Jason Sifre to Creative Director, Melissa Johnson to Senior Producer, and Will Butler to Senior Content Director. The promotions follow a succession of creative hires and growth across Octagon’s global creative team, including the appointments of Dan Harrison and Johnny Watson as Creative Directors, as well as Lucy Collier and Sarah Glover as Global Creative Directors.

ABOUT OCTAGON:

Octagon is the preeminent global creative, integrated marketing, and talent management agency in sports, entertainment, and culture. The agency creates distinctive marketing campaigns for some of the largest brands and Fortune 500 companies throughout the world and represents more than 900 of the most prominent and influential athletes, talent, and properties in the world.

For more than 30 years, Octagon has consistently pushed the boundaries of the industry with ground-breaking creative and marketing campaigns, experiential and hospitality services, industry-leading data, insight, and strategy capabilities, as well as an unmatched talent management portfolio of the most high-profile and successful athletes and personalities.