“I’m back”: Amir Kassaei takes up global chief brand officer role for Volkswagen at Omnicom

Campaign Brief can reveal that Amir Kassaei has joined Omnicom as global chief brand officer for Volkswagen at Omnicom, effective immediately.

His mission is to create the most innovative solutions for the most important car brand in the world.

In order to elevate the brand and all their marketing efforts around the globe with the help and support of all the resources and disciplines of Omnicom.

In the upcoming months there will be more insights and details of how, in which structure and organisation form this will happen for the next years.

In a very short press release, Kassaei announced his return to the industry on LinkedIn, which can be seen below.

Born in Iran, raised in Austria, and educated in France, Kassaei settled in Germany in 1997, gaining experience early in his career in a variety of roles ranging from Account Manager to Strategic Planner to Art Director and Designer at agencies such as TBWA, Barci & Partner and Springer & Jacoby.

At Springer & Jacoby, Kassaei advanced from Copywriter to Creative Director and finally to Executive Creative Director on the global Mercedes-Benz and smart accounts.

In 2003, Kassaei joined DDB as Chief Creative Officer and Associate Partner of DDB Germany, where he quickly helped reshape the agency.

After joining the agency as the youngest DDB Chief Creative Officer in Europe, he quickly transformed it into one of the most creative and successful agencies in Germany.

Under Kassaei’s leadership, DDB Germany was ranked the most awarded German agency in the Gunn Report. He was named The Big Won Report’s top chief creative officer for 2009, and ranked among The Big Won’s top three chief creative officers from 2007-2009.

In February 2011, Kassaei was appointed DDB Worldwide Chief Creative Officer. After nine years in the role, Kassaei stepped down to focus his time and efforts on the customized global agency C14TORCE for the car brand SEAT. Under Kassaei’s leadership SEAT became the fastest growing car brand in Europe and by the end of 2019 C14TORCE had more than 400 people with offices in Spain, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Poland.

Kassaei has won over 8000 local and international making him one of the most awarded advertising creatives in history. Kassaei has taught at such famous advertising schools as the Miami Ad School, spoken at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership and served as a Professor at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences.

After nearly 30 years in the industry Kassaei retired from advertising in 2020 to pursue a number of other projects.