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 promoted Melissa Nelson to president of its Seattle office, Adweek reports.

In the newly-created position, Nelson will act as senior business lead for all accounts run out of the Seattle office, while reporting  directly to Publicis Worldwide North American CEO Andrew Bruce.

Nelson joined Publicis Seattle as executive vice president, managing partner last December and has led the agency’s T-Mobile account.

“Melissa’s leadership on T-Mobile and her passion for their brand and business will be enriched in her new post,” Bruce said in a statement. “Additionally, now her expertise and leadership will extend to all clients and the talented individuals who fuel our agency here in Seattle.”

Before joining Publicis, Nelson spent a year with Droga5 New York as group account director on the Motorola account (which the agency resigned in May), following three years as group brand director with 72andSunny L.A. Before that she spent four years as an account director with Goodby Silverstein & Partners, working with brands such as HP, Target and Chevrolet.

“Diving into and leading the T-Mobile business has been a phenomenal experience. It is an amazing brand, with a really strong POV,” Nelson said. “T-Mobile is a brand, and business, which is pivotal not only to the Seattle marketplace, but to our agency. I am proud to continue to partner with T-Mobile and additionally, to now lead, grow and expand Publicis in Seattle.”

Independent agency 22squared appointed Matthew Zaifert as a creative director. In the role, he will work out of 22squared’s Tampa office across the several of the agency’s key accounts, while reporting to executive creative director Kevin Botfeld. 

“Matthew is an extremely talented, no ego creative writer, with a breadth of big brand experience. He’s exactly the type of leader and enthusiastic storyteller we were seeking for the growth of our clients and agency,” Botfeld said in a statement. “We’re excited to welcome Matthew to the 22squared family.”

Zaifert joins 22squared from Publicis New York, where he has spent over two years as a creative director, working with brands including Wendy’s, Cadillac, and Samsung. Before Publicis he spent eight years as an associate creative director with BBDO New York, working with such brands as AT&T, Snickers, M&M’s, Footlocker, Autism Speaks, and Mountain Dew, winning several Cannes Lions for his work on Snickers and AT&T. Prior to that he served a short stint as a copywriter with mcgarrybowen.

The Atlanta headquarters of 22squared has also made several additions to its creative department in recent months since promoting John Stapleton to CCO in the same move that sent Botfeld to Florida. Albert Patton moved over from R/GA to run the team in April, and the indie shop hired Bryan Lee (formerly with BBDO Atlanta) as CD last month.

Publicis announced this morning that Saatchi & Saatchi executive chairman and Publicis Groupe head coach Kevin Roberts will resign as of September 1 — ahead of his previously scheduled May 1, 2017 retirement.

Roberts had been placed on a leave of absence following a Business Insider interview in which he made controversial comments regarding gender diversity issues. He told Lara O’Reilly saying “The fucking debate is all over” and he sees no need to spend “any time” worrying about gender diversity at his agencies. He also dismissed those who spend time campaigning over the issue, taking aim at Cindy Gallop specifically as having “problems that are of her own making.”

The press release from Publicis read simply:

“Publicis Groupe announced today the resignation of Kevin Roberts Head Coach de Publicis Groupe, Executive Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi/Fallon, Member of the Management Board. The Supervisory Board and the Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe took note of Kevin Robert’s decision to step down with effect from September 1st 2016, prior to his retirement date due in May 2017.”

Roberts’ PR firm released his own statement to media in which he apologized for the “upset and offence” caused by his “miscommunication on a number of points.” Here’s the statement in full: 

“Fail Fast, Fix Fast, Learn Fast” is a leadership maxim I advocate.

When discussing with Business Insider evolving career priorities and new ways of work/life integration, I failed exceptionally fast.

My miscommunication on a number of points has caused upset and offence, and for this I am sorry.
I have inadvertently embarrassed Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis Groupe, two companies I love and have been devoted to for almost 20 years.

I have expressed my regret and apology to the companies for the furor my remarks and language stimulated, and I extend this to colleagues, staff and clients.

So that we can all move forward, I am bringing forward my May 1, 2017, retirement from the company, and will leave the Groupe onSeptember 1, 2016.

There is a lot of learning to reflect on, and within the thousands of tweets, comments and articles there are many powerful and passionate contributions on the changing nature of the workplace, the work we do, what success really looks like, and what companies must do to provide women and men the optimal frameworks in which to flourish.

I believe that new thinking, frameworks and measures are needed to make more rapid progress on diversity in all its forms, in all professions and occupations. Hopefully, the focus on this serious and complex issue will gather momentum.

Cindy Gallop, who Roberts mentioned directly, released her own statement to Business Insider in response to the news of Roberts’ resignation. She claims Publicis could have made a greater statement to the women it employs if it had fired Roberts but says she anticipates greater change moving forward.

Gallop’s statement in full:

I’m pleased to see that Kevin Roberts has resigned, given that his comments made him non-credible as a chairman charged with inspiring, motivating and promoting into leadership the thousands of women who work for Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide; as a coach charged with training and developing the industry leaders of the future; and a leader whom huge clients selling brands. products and services to millions of women trust with their own brand reputation, communication and sales.

However, given he was forced to resign, PublicisGroupe would have made a far greater statement to every woman working within their network, at every client brand they represent, and to the industry as a whole, if they had fired him.

I look forward to Maurice Levy and Publicis Groupe now spearheading a very dramatic seachange in the way the white male leadership of our industry welcomes women and people of color up to the leadership ranks shoulder to shoulder with them, and to seeing tangible, visible action on their part in the coming weeks. Starting with Maurice Levy attending and speaking at the 3PercentConference in NYC this Nov 3/4 (where I will also be speaking) – the perfect platform to address the female talent and creativity in our industry and demonstrate how much he values it.

Some context for the interview that led to this imbroglio: O’Reilly declined to speak to us about it directly, but we hear that a PR firm that represents Roberts as a client (but has no relation to the Saatchi or Publicis organizations) set up the meeting when Roberts happened to be in London last month.

This interview was more about promoting Roberts as a thought leader than discussing any of his work or future plans for Saatchi & Saatchi/Publicis Groupe. During the same session, O’Reilly asked him to comment on the current U.S. presidential election; he noted that Donald Trump has a simple and effective slogan and said that Hillary Clinton is “bereft of a selling line … bereft of a dream.”

There do not appear to have been any PR professionals in attendance during the interview. Otherwise someone surely would have told Roberts to either avoid the issue of gender equality altogether or to stop while he was ahead.

It’s not clear at this time whether Saatchi & Saatchi plans to name a successor.

Saatchi & Saatchi chairman Kevin Roberts told Business Insider that the gender diversity debate is over.

The publication pointed out that all six holding company CEOs are male and that while 46.4 percent of the ad industry is female, only 11.5 percent of creative directors are (a number up from the 3 percent figure that gave The 3% Conference its name when it was created in 2010). When Business Insider suggested that the gender diversity debate continues in the industry, Roberts responded, “Not in my view.” 

The publication brought up the 11.5% figure, as well as recent discrimination lawsuits, such as the one filed against former JWT CEO and chairman Gustavo Martinez by global chief communications officer Erin Johnson or the one alleging former RAPP CEO Alexei Orlov referred to various women as “fat cows” and declined to promote a female executive because she was “too pretty” (amongst other charges).

“Edward de Bono [Maltese physician, psychologist, and author] once told me there is no point in being brilliant at the wrong thing — the fucking debate is all over,” Roberts said. “This is a diverse world, we are in a world where we need, like we’ve never needed before, integration, collaboration, connectivity, and creativity … this will be reflected in the way the Groupe is.”

Publicis Groupe employs around 50 percent women, Saatchi & Saatchi around 65 percent.

When asked specifically about women like Cindy Gallop calling attention to ongoing gender issues in the industry, Roberts said, “I think she’s got problems that are of her own making. I think she’s making up a lot of the stuff to create a profile, and to take applause, and to get on a soap[box].”

Gallop responded by saying, “The best response to that is to throw it open to the industry, and ask the women and men of the ad industry, all around the world, to tweet at @krconnect to let him know whether they think I’m ‘making it all up’.”

Gallop has since tweeted about Roberts’ interview with a series of statements, including quoting a Facebook post from William Charnock, who said, “‘Issue is all over’ feels like a Donald Trump-ism – dismissive, insensitive, inaccurate.”

Plenty of other ad folks, meanwhile, have taken up Gallop’s call to tweet a piece of their mind at Roberts.

Ferrara & Company hired former Publicis New York chief and 35-year industry veteran Joe McCarthy as its new president and chief client officer.

“We’re thrilled to have Joe join the team and share his vision and expertise to helping our clients continue to grow their business,” said Ferrara & Company president and CEO Art Ferrara in a statement. “His industry knowledge, leadership and drive for success will create an even stronger operation.”

The Princeton, New Jersey agency specializes in serving retail “challenger brands,” and its roster includes such clients as Arm & Hammer, Allegra, Heinz and the New Jersey Lottery. Atlanta-based PureRED Integrated Marketing acquired Ferrara for an undisclosed sum last summer, and the shop currently employs between 50 and 200 according to its LinkedIn page.

“I firmly understand and believe in the power of creativity to drive clients’ business. It’s what I believe in my heart,” said McCarthy in the press release. The same release credits him with helping to facilitate double-digit growth at Publicis during the height of the Great Recession by signing new clients such as Hilton Worldwide, Merck, TGI Friday’s, AXA and Lens Crafters.

PureRED CEO Michael Minasi said, “Joe’s varied background and his impressive list of creative credentials will be an asset to PureRED as we continue our growth trajectory,” citing McCarthy’s “breadth of experience, ranging from top leadership at one the industry’s biggest agencies to client leadership at some of the world’s most powerful brands.”

McCarthy joins Ferrara & Company from New York design firm Collins, where he served as president beginning in 2013. Before that, he spent four years (2008-2012) as CEO of Publicis New York.

After beginning his agency career with a 13-year stint at Saatchi & Saatchi New York, he left the agency to go client-side as vice president of worldwide advertising at Nike 1993. He then spent three years there before leaving to found his own brand strategy and creative consultancy, The McCarthy Company, whose clients included Boston Beer Company (Sam Adams), j.crew and Leo Burnett.

After subsequently co-founding McCarthy Mambro Bertino (MMB) in 2001, he joined Johnson & Johnson as vice president of global advertising in 2005 and held that position for three years before leaving to join Publicis.

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.”

Publicis Indonesia launched a new spot promoting L’Oreal Garnier Men featuring actor Joe Taslim (Fast & Furious 6, The Raid Redemption) squaring off in a parkour battle against a motor cyclist played by Pasha of the band Ungu.

For the 60-second spot, entitled “Urban Hero,” Publicis Indonesia teamed up with Seven Sunday Films and director iClaudius. The ad promotes L’Oreal Garnier Men’s face wash as an antidote to damaged skin caused by exposure to sun and pollution with an action-packed parkour sequence. It connects Taslim’s performance with the product, with each championed as an “Urban Hero” for overcoming difficult obstacles. The connection is tenuous at best, provided by voiceover touting the product’s benefits and the winner of the parkour contest receiving the product as a reward, and plays more as a rationale for a spot with Taslim’s star power. The video is hosted on a campaign site, which includes a behind the scenes look at the making of the ad, maps of the race and product info.

“We loved working with Seven SundayFilms — they were professional, organized and nothing was left undone,” said Publicis Indonesia CEO Ben Lightfoot, in a statement. They were a great source for outside experiences and talent, bringing a new and unique understanding of Indonesian advertising while maintaining international quality production.”

Credits:

Client: L’Oreal, Garnier Indonesia
Agency:Publicis Indonesia
Director: iClaudius
DOP: Sven Lippold
Production Company: Seven Sunday Films
Executive Producers: Rodney & Ajeng Vincent