American Haiku Names Nick Maschmeyer as First-Ever Head of Strategy

​American Haiku has named Nick Maschmeyer as its new head of strategy, a newly created role for the US indie.

Nick will oversee strategy across all clients, ensuring it remains central to how the agency shapes brand thinking, behaviour, and presence in culture. He will report directly to Thom Glover, founder and chief creative officer of American Haiku.

“Nick represents everything American Haiku is all about: modern thinking, cultural fluency, and deep creative partnership,” said Thom. “He understands how to take brands from a position of chasing culture to actually shaping it. That’s at the heart of what we’re building at American Haiku. With Nick’s strategic heft, we’re perfectly positioned to create brand worlds that explode into culture and stay there longterm.”

Nick joins from Droga5, where he spent over a decade building influential brands for a range of clients across verticals, including The New York Times, Netflix, Levi's, Dos Equis, and Mailchimp, among others. In 2021, he left Droga5 New York to help establish Droga5 São Paulo, the first Droga5 office in Latin America, as part of the agency's global expansion efforts, where he served as head of strategy until 2024.

His arrival also reunites Nick with American Haiku’s leadership team, including Thom, recently-appointed CEO Jessica Kingsbery, and head of operations Christine DiStasio – all of whom previously worked at Droga5. The group’s shared history of collaboration on Droga’s most globally recognized, award-winning work has helped shape American Haiku’s culture from day one: a place where strategy and creativity operate as one, and where senior, hands-on talent drives every aspect of the process.

“The team at American Haiku represents the best of the best,” said Nick. “I have worked with everyone at the agency in former roles, and they are some of the smartest, most creative people in the business. There’s a ton of momentum behind the agency right now, and it truly feels electric. We’re building something different, modeled for today but, importantly, for the future.

“One of the benefits of being small, agile, and senior is that we’re able to work with clients in a more collaborative, partnership-driven way, one that gets us to the right kinds of ideas faster and with more clarity. I want to inspire our client partners with bigger, bolder strategic thinking to help them develop brands that are meaningful and differentiating, while also providing the roadmap to make it real.”

The appointment comes amid a period of rapid momentum for American Haiku, which, in its first year, has partnered with several of today’s most high-profile and culturally relevant brands, including New Balance, Yahoo, and JPMorgan Chase.