The Cargo Agency Expands Senior Leadership Team with Strategic and Creative Appointments

 The Cargo Agency, a marketing agency with offices in Greenville, SC and Toronto, today announced two senior hires who, officials said, will deepen its creative and strategic capabilities during a period of significant client growth.

Annie Johnston joins Cargo as executive creative director, leading creative development across the agency's client roster. Dave Norton, Ph.D. joins as Futurist, where he'll apply research and strategic insights to help clients solve growth challenges and improve customer experience.

"Annie and Dave both understand that creativity and innovation have to be focused on solving real business problems," Roger Beasley, president and partner of Cargo said. "They've proven they can do that at the highest level, and that's exactly what our clients need right now."

An alumna of renowned agencies such as TBWA\Chiat\Day, Zambezi, Phenomenon, and The Many, Johnston led creative for major brands including eBay, YouTube, Airbnb, Venmo, Gatorade, and Johnson & Johnson. Her work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, the Effies, The One Show, and the Webbys, among others.

She provided pro bono work for Best Friends Animal Society’s Effie-winning NKLA (No Kill Los Angeles) campaign and is a co-creator of the Webby Award-winning Rotten Apples platform. At Cargo, she will oversee creative vision across client engagements, partnering closely with strategy and media teams to produce culturally resonant work that drives high-impact business results.

Norton brings more than two decades of experiential and insight-driven strategy, helping organizations design experiences for customers and employees.  He formerly served as the principal of Stone Mantel, a research-led consultancy focused on experience strategy and has advised leading brands including Coca-Cola, Marriott, Disney, Nike, Walmart, Johns Hopkins, Blue Cross, Best Buy, and Royal Caribbean. Norton also co-hosts the Experience Strategy Podcast, exploring how organizations create experiences that deliver Time Well Spent, Time Well Saved, or Time Well Invested.

A researcher and strategist, Norton holds a Ph.D. in Rhetoric from the University of Minnesota and over the course of his career, has led thousands of interviews and observational studies and conducted more than a decade of quantitative research on the role of technology in people’s lives. He is the author of Digital Context 2.0 and has lectured at Harvard and Columbia Business Schools. At Cargo, he'll use research and strategic insights to help clients tackle growth challenges and design better customer experiences.

Cargo’s current and past client list includes internationally recognized brands such as Amazon, Mercedes-Benz, Royal Bank of Canada, LG, Interac, Lenovo, Michelin, and Skip.