The founders of agency Storyation are leaving the specialist content agency now owned by News Corp Australia.
The agency will be led by general manager Andrés López-Varela and newly appointed commercial director Simone Aquilina, following the decision of co-founders Mimi Cullen and Lauren Quaintance to depart the business.
Storyation was founded in 2013 by Cullen and Quaintance and was bought in December 2019 by custom publisher Medium Rare, now 100% owned by News Corp.
López-Varela has led strategy, and recently operations for Storyation. He has more than a decade of experience in content marketing, with four years of senior leadership at Storyation, and before that, Tourism Australia, One Green Bean and Weber Shandwick.
Aquilina will lead the agency’s commercial and client partnership functions, having previous senior commercial and international rights leadership experience at Are Media (formerly Bauer Media and ACP) and the RACAT Group.
Medium Rare’s managing director Nick Smith: “Andrés has developed a unique proposition for content marketers at Storyation, with our proprietary ‘content-demand research’, and high-performing digital and social strategies for clients. We're proud to have Andrés lead Storyation’s next phase of success.
“Likewise, Simone’s credentials in leading multi-disciplinary teams for major media brands, will continue the strong commercial leadership and client service that’s been essential to Storyation’s success.
“Mimi and Lauren built Storyation into a sustainable business,” said Smith. “It's been a pleasure to work alongside them over the past two and a half years.”
News Corp Australia’s managing director, commercial content, Mike Connaghan: “Storyation and its incredible team of strategists, content creators and client partners, is and will continue to be an important offering within our content marketing proposition to clients, alongside Medium Rare, Suddenly and Visual Domain.”
López-Varela said: “There's strong momentum in the market for the kind of work we've done for many years under Mimi and Lauren's direction. I'm looking forward to expanding our innovative portfolio of content and strategy assignments to deliver even more meaningful growth and some of the world's best brand content.”
López-Varela has assumed his role of general manager, reporting to Smith. Aquilina joins Storyation on October 4, and will report to Medium Rare’s chief commercial officer, Fiorella di Santo.
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