NEW YORK — Porter Novelli has appointed a new executive creative director for North America as it continues to grow its integrated services globally.

Ted Sabarese rejoins the agency after a gap of five years; he was previously North America creative director for two years until 2016, before moving to sister Omnicom firm Marina Maher Communications as ECD to build its creative function.

Sabarese will lead Porter Novelli’s 28-strong US creative team, which includes art directors, copywriters, designers, branding specialists, video editors and producers, with a brief to help the business grow organically and through new business. He replaces Justin Reed, who left last summer to join health and wellness specialist agency ThinkSisu.

He told PRovoke Media: “I came back because I love Porter Novelli’s dedication to continuously do things a bit differently and innovating, and its commitment to building out integrated services, from creative to strategic planning, analytics and digital. It’s an exciting time to be here, with fun clients to work for and new business opportunities rolling in.

“It feels like our team is poised to explode. We have really smart people and my job is to motivate them, make sure they have all the resources they need to do the best work possible, and consistently push the work. I really take pride in that creative direction – I see massive potential, and we’re already seeing traction with clients.”

Sabarese will report to Porter Novelli CEO David Bentley, who joined the firm in 2020. Bentley said: “We are excited to welcome Ted back to Porter Novelli as we continue to bolster our integrated services capability globally.”

Porter Novelli’s creative team works across clients including T-Mobile, various government agencies, and healthcare companies such as Quidel, which makes the QuickVue at-home Covid antigen tests. The team’s work for Quidel, which had never previously done consumer PR, included a paid activation with the Jimmy Kimmel Live! talkshow, an explainer video, and digital advertising.

Sabarese will be speaking at ICCO and PRovoke Media's Cannes Uncovered event on 8 February, on what makes a Cannes Lions-winning award entry.