Longtime agency veteran Armando Turco is returning to the business as president of independent agency Mojo Supermarket.
Turco spent two-and-a-half years at dairy alternative brand Oatly, before leaving last July for what he called “Me Time” on LinkedIn. Prior to Oatly, Turco was with Vox Media for more than five years, ascending to vice president of content.
His stint on the brand and media side followed more than 15 years of ad agency experience at BBH New York, McCann New York, and Bozell.
“Nothing prepared me to lead an agency better than leaving agency world altogether,” Turco told ADWEEK.
He said that while sitting at the intersection of content and media at Vox Media, he “realized that many brands and agencies are completely blind to what audiences really want in this new era of socially driven storytelling,” he said.
“As a brand-side marketer at Oatly, I learned what clients truly give a shit about, and how to perfect the balance between unbridled creativity and commercial ambition,” he continued.
Mojo Supermarket is also bringing David Barron on board as chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Barron held the same posts at creative agency Manifest, where he had been since January 2017. He has previous senior-level agency experience with Publicis, TBWA\Chiat\Day New York, and Cutwater.
The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based independent agency’s client roster includes Activision Blizzard, Eventbrite, Girls Who Code, Lululemon, Match, Pinterest, and Truth Initiative.
“Armando is a unique breed of brand partner in that he has spent nearly eight years operating inside companies that are the very best at doing the kinds of things we advise our clients to do,” Mo Said, founder and CEO of Mojo Supermarket, said in a statement. “That experience as a practitioner will make him uniquely valuable to our clients,” he added.
“Likewise, he has proven to thrive in companies that think and behave and produce very differently from any agency, big or small. That perspective, combined with David’s strategic and operational expertise, will help Mojo Supermarket work not just smarter than most agencies, but smarter, period,” Said continued.
“More than anything, I’m returning with a renewed sense of empathy for our clients and some real-world lessons from walking a few miles in their big shoes,” Turco concluded.
