Deutsch LA promotes Karen Costello to creative chair

Deutsch LA Chief Creative Officer Karen Costello is stepping up to the post of creative chair following the retirement of Creative Chairman Pete Favat last month. 

A longtime employee of the agency, Costello began her career in the industry as an art director at Kirshenbaum and Bond, eventually making her way to Deutsch LA in 1997 as a creative director, the eighth staffer to join the shop after it was founded two years earlier. Following a brief stint at Secret Weapon Marketing, she returned to the agency as executive creative director, remaining for more than a decade until she picked up to move to Richmond, Virginia to become chief creative officer at The Martin Agency. Three and a half years later, she was back at Deutsch LA as chief creative officer. 

Throughout her career at Deutsch, Costello has worked on major campaigns for Volkswagen, Zillow, Target and Taco Bell, among others. Her highlights include Target’s first-ever live music video with Gwen Stefani that ran during the 2016 Grammys as well as Taco Bell’s team-up with Doja Cat that brought a new take to the brand’s “Live Más” platform. 

Growth begets growth

Costello prides herself most in nurturing talent, noting that “growth begets growth” across the whole agency. Since she returned to Deutsch LA, the creative department grew 22% in 2021 the first year and then 26% so far in 2022. 

“One of the things our industry has failed people in the most is creative time and space for people to learn how to manage others, particularly in the creative department,” she said. “Normally, you’re just thrown in and then you’re off and running. Sometimes you can get trajectory and win a couple of awards and a title, but you still have to understand how to manage people’s careers. All of that matters.”

Related: See Pete Favat's best ad hits

While the work and serving clients are key, Costello insists that “at the heart of all of that is people. If we’re not starting with the people, you’re not nurturing the roots. You’re just trying to water the leaves. But you have to make sure the roots are healthy and that’s what I’m really trying to put the focus on, and to do whatever I can to make that space for other people.”

“There is not a more compassionate or committed creative leader than Karen,” Deutsch LA CEO Kim Getty said in a statement. “Expanding her remit, Karen’s responsibilities will grow to include nurturing our world-class design practice, and accelerating the progress of our production company, Steelhead.”

Costello’s move up effectively created room for other creative leaders to rise up as well. Two Deutsch LA leaders, Executive Creative Directors Ryan Lehr and Matt Ian, will now step up as co-chief creative officers, reporting to Costello. 

Lehr is a Deutsch LA vet of more than a decade. After starting out as a Hollywood production assistant and trying his hand at stand-up, he eventually made his way to advertising as a copywriter and screenwriter, making stops at Adult Swim, Omelet and TBWA/Chiat/Day. He began his tenure at Deutsch LA as associate creative director, eventually working his way up to EVP-executive creative director, leading campaigns such as Dr Pepper’s “Fansville" and “Lil’ Sweet,” Taco Bell's Super Bowl Quesalupa launch as well as pushes for NerdWallet and Workday.

Ian returned to the agency earlier this year to become executive creative director, leading Taco Bell. He has since led the brand’s “Metaverse Wedding” and “Mexican Pizza: The Musical.” Prior to his return, he served as chief creative officer at Dentsu McGarry Bowen and in leadership positions at Droga5, CPB and BBH. His other notable projects include Volkswagen’s “The Bark Side” Super Bowl teaser via Deutsch LA,  IHOP’s “IHOB” out of Droga5 and Subway’s “Eat Fresh Refresh” campaign from DMB. 

The pair is charged with leading and growing the creative department across its client roster comprising Keurig, Dr Pepper, Lowe's, Nerdwallet, Taco Bell, Petsmart and Workday, among others. 

“I try really hard not to make promotions before people are ready, and Matt and Ryan are very ready,” Costello said.  “Ryan has been here for over ten years, worked his way up, made incredible client relationships and work and built a team that is so good, that work for each other as much as they work for the work and clients, solidly crushing it all the time.” During his time at Deutsch, Droga5, DMB and other agencies, across work for Volkswagen, Subway and more,  “Matt has proved he’s very good at handling big, complex pieces of business and building the teams around them who know how to work in a complex, scaled way.”

Early Days

Costello’s rise to the top creative rung is a full-circle moment, from when she was just one of a handful of Deutsch LA’s early employees building a name for the agency on the West Coast, working with former leaders Eric Hirshberg, the co-CEO and chief creative officer who left to become CEO of Activision Publishing, and former Chairman and CEO Mike Sheldon, who is now running his own strategic advisory firm.

“There are only a handful of people who were truly instrumental in building Deutsch LA, and Karen is absolutely one of them,” Hirshberg said. “She was the first creative I hired before we even had our first client, and she was a key leader for the entire ride of building the place from nothing. She's that rare creative leader who is both a star in her own right and someone who makes stars out of the people around her. She has always been committed to developing people on her team for success at the next level. The fact that she’s now stepping up to this incredible role is both poetic and deserved.”