Hasta La Creative!

McCann Worldgroup promoted Chris Macdonald, formerly president of its New York office, to the role of president of North America. In the expanded role, Macdonald will continue running the New York office, while also leading the North America group that includes Casanova//McCann, McCann Detroit, twofifteenmccann San Francisco, McCann Minneapolis and MacLaren McCann Canada.

“Chris has done an outstanding job leading New York,” said McCann Worldgroup chairman and CEO Harris Diamond. “In his new role, Chris will bring the same proactive, client-focused growth approach to our North American team with an emphasis on strengthening our integrated creative, strategic and omni-platform capabilities.” 

Macdonald has served as president, McCann New York for the past three years, during which time the agency has added clients such as New York State Lottery, Reckitt Benckiser, Choice Hotels, MGM Resorts, and State Street Advisors.

He moved across the pond to accept the position with McCann New York in July of 2013 from McCann London, where he served as chairman and CEO. He originally joined McCann London as a client services director in 2005 and was promoted to a role as managing director the following year, eventually working his way up to CEO. Before joining McCann, he spent five years as a managing partner with RKCR/Y&R. That followed four years as associate director with Lowe Howard-Spink and three as head of account management at Publicis.

This morning brought big news on the expectorant front for McCann Worldgroup: outsized “health, home and hygiene” consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser–maker of pretty much everything that comes in a package–signed the agency to lead creative on Mucinex and Delsym, two of the industry’s top products for treating coughs.

This move comes as part of a series of announcements following a full review that also led to wins for Droga5 (Air Wick, Clearasil) and Wieden+Kennedy (Finish).

Before choosing McCann, Reckitt’s in-house team handled advertising for Mucinex.

The full employee memo from chairman/CEO Harris Diamond after the jump.

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Just over a year after taking on an expanded position as president of McCann Worldgroup Americas, adding to his existing role as president of Latin America, Africa and Middle East, Luca Lindner has now been elevated to the role of McCann Worldgroup president, proper. The nine-year McCann vet, as you may know, most recently served in a co-president role at Worldgroup alongside, with each leading their respective regions. Of course, Martinez left McCann to take on the role of global president of JWT, with the plan being to succeed the latter’s chairman/CEO Bob Jeffrey in 2015.  As a result, Lindner has been promoted to the newly created global role, overseeing all McCann Worldgroup operations and reporting to CEO, Harris Diamond. From what we’ve been told, there are no plans to replace Lindner’s former position at the agency.

Lindner, wh0 kicked off his ad career at TBWA\Paris, spent a handful of years as vice chairman of Leo Burnett EMEA and president of its Fiat Coordination Center.

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It took a little while for McCann Erickson to get the OK to comment on nabbing agency of record duties for the United States Postal Service, which has previously worked with Campbell-Ewald on the creative portion of its business. Here’s what Harris Diamond, who took over for Nick Brien as McCann Worldgroup CEO last November, had to say about the USPS win in this statement:  “We are thrilled and honored to be awarded strategic and creative responsibilities for the United States Postal Service.  The Postal Service is as iconic a brand as any in our portfolio, and plays a huge role in our business and personal lives.  We are passionate about supporting its mission and helping it to grow revenue.”

Along with McCann picking up creative/strategic duties, MRM is also in the mix on USPS, which already has contracts with fellow sister Worldgroup agencies, Weber Shandwick and UM. No word yet on who else participated in the creative review. Update: From what sources are telling us, the USPS initially briefed eight agencies and the eventual finalists included JWT, Grey and possibly Y&R.

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