STOCKHOLM — Prime Weber Shandwick has appointed a new executive creative director, bringing Carl Jannerfeldt back to Sweden after a decade working at advertising agencies in the US.

Jannerfeldt joins the agency from R/GA in New York, where he was creative director for two years. Before R/GA, Jannerfeldt held creative roles at Wieden+Kennedy and BBDO New York. He has worked with brands including Delta Airlines, Verizon, Heineken, AT&T, The North Face, LEGO, Samsung, Uber and Nokia and has won more than 100 industry awards, including 12 Cannes Lions.

As part of the agency’s management team in Stockholm, Jannerfeldt will work across its biggest clients “at the intersection between business, society and creativity” according to CEO Therese Bohlin, to whom he reports.

Jannerfeldt also joins Weber Shandwick’s Global Creative Collective, alongside chair Tom Beckman – global head of creative and a former ECD of Prime himself – and James Nester, Weber Shandwick’s EMEA executive creative director.

Bohlin told PRovoke Media: “As an agency, we handle our clients’ challenges with an earned-first approach and Carl has shown his ability to tackle complex assignments and issues with boldness and true innovation.”

Gohlin said the agency was “heading back to growth” after 2020: “From where we were in the spring, I’m proud to say we have come out well and kept staff safe. Our goal was to ensure the stability of the business, and we have succeeded: 2020 was turbulent but that made room for a lot of innovative solutions and meant we have done some of our best work.”

Jannerfeldt added: “I have always looked for contexts that differ from what I've done previously. In this case, I will join an agency with a breadth of expertise across several complex areas, and the opportunity to marry that expertise with a stronger creative focus is what drew me to Prime Weber Shandwick.”

Weber Shandwick bought creative shop Prime, the largest consumer agency in Sweden, and its business intelligence arm United Minds in 2014, achieving “arguably the most successful acquisition of the decade in the public relations business,” according to PRovoke Media’s EMEA Agencies of the Decade round-up.

Prime’s former COO and deputy CEO Jonas Palmqvist is now chief operating officer of Weber Shandwick EMEA, and the United Minds operation has expanded throughout Europe and North America to provide a range of management consulting solutions.