Hasta La Creative!

Publicis Communications CEO Arthur Sadoun announced a series of key promotions within the holding company’s network today, Adweek reports. 

Among the promotions, Carla Serrano and Bill Kanarick were appointed as co-chief strategy officers of Publicis Communications. Serrano will also continue to lead Publicis New York as CEO, while Kanarick will retain his role as CSO of Publicis digital hub Publicis.Sapient. 

“Our ambition is to be our clients’ indispensable creative partner in their transformation,” Sadoun told Adweek. “With these appointments, we are creating closer ties with Publicis.Sapient to deliver the interdependent model of the future to all of our clients. We are strengthening our leadership teams to continue to raise the bar for creative excellence.” 

Sadoun added in an internal memo that part of the strategy involves leveraging SapientNitro’s digital capabilities across Publicis’ agency network.

Kate Stanners was also appointed global chairwoman of Saatchi & Saatchi, while continuing to serve as global chief creative officer. She takes over for Kevin Roberts in the role, following  Roberts’ resignation at the start of the month in the wake of his controversial remarks about gender diversity issues in a Business Insider interview that “The fucking debate is over” and he doesn’t spend “any time” worrying about diversity issues at his agencies. 

Leo Burnett Canada CEO and CCO Judy John will now also serve as Leo Burnett chief creative officer, North America, while Brent Nelson will take on the role of chief strategic officer for Leo Burnett, North America. John and Nelson will join global CEO Rich Stoddart and global CCO Mark Tutssel to complete Leo Burnett’s leadership team, and will be responsible for uniting the agency’s operations in the U.S. and Canada. 

Rounding out the series of promotions, Publicis Conseil CEO Valérie Henaff will take on the additional role of Publicis Worldwide global president, while Loris Nold will now serve as Publics Communications chief operating officer, Asia and the Middle East and Justin Billingsley will serve as COO for Latin America and Europe. 

“We are reinforcing the spirit of Power of One by simplifying our structures at local levels to foster greater collaboration and seamless access to resources,” Sadoun said. “In just nine months, our approach has delivered some fantastic results, and I know that with these latest moves the best is yet to come,” he added, referring to the restructuring moves last December which also led to Sadoun’s appointment as Publicis Communications CEO.

Publicis Worldwide promoted Bruno Bertelli to fill the newly created position of global chief creative officer, Campaign reports.

Bertelli most recently served as Publicis Worldwide Western Europe executive creative director and CEO of its Italian branch, where he has spent more than a dozen years. He has also overseen global creative on the agency’s Heineken account for nearly a year, following his role in helping the agency secure the brand without a review last June after it parted ways with W+K. In the new role, he will lead Publicis Worldwide’s global creative board (which is responsible for upholding the agency’s creative standards throughout the Publicis network) while continuing his role as Publicis Italy CEO and working alongside ECD Cristiana Boccassini.

Bertelli arrived there as an executive creative director in December of 2010 and was promoted to CEO of the agency four years later; he became ECD of Western Europe late last year. Earlier agency roles include three years with JWT as a creative director.

“Bruno is an exceptional creative leader who has the ability to inspire and the capacity to tackle major client challenges successfully,” Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun said in a statement. “His commitment to lead the change and his outstanding global client work is testament to this and the business we are building.”

“Bruno is a prolific talent and over the years has built an agency whose value is recognized globally,” added Publicis Communications creative chairman Mark Tutssel. “He has excellent experience and a reputation for maintaining and acquiring great talent. This, alongside ensuring there is a strong connection between the multiple regions and the wider Publicis Communications network, will be pivotal.”

Leo Burnett’s “Design Your Life” campaign for the new Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear, which the agency hopes to present as “vehicles of inspiration,” kicks off with the 2:51 length “Sweet Dreams.”

“Sweet Dreams” tells the story of a young woman who wants to save her grandfather’s failing toy shop. The ad follows the woman around as she utilizes six of the phone’s distinct features, all leading to a puppet performance that presumably will help revive the shop (somehow). While “Sweet Dreams,” directed by music video veteran Paul Hunter, sets the bar very high in terms of production, direction and cinematography — Samsung and Leo Burnett go as far as to call it a “digital short film” (a bit self-congratulatory if you ask me) — the writing and overall concept are a bit of a head-scratcher. Why isn’t anyone going to the toy store, it looks awesome? Is the puppet show really going to help? The store is closed at the time of performance and the stage seems to be blocking any view of the store itself.

If you can put aside the strange and poorly realized premise, the stylization works well, and Leo Burnett does a good job of showing the phone’s features in action. Plus, what’s not to love about dancing puppets? (Although the “puppets” in question were actually real dancers converted to CGI, rather than actual marionettes.) Whether or not it works as a story (or “digital short film”), “Sweet Dreams” does a good job of showcasing Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear. A promising start to the campaign, hopefully next time Leo Burnett can pull off a better realized concept to fulfill the potential of their impressive production.  continued…

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