The pandemic damaged creativity, remote work is only part of the problem

Creative development

Several executives said that remote work is hurting the development of creatives more than the output. Campbell, who learned his craft working at shops such as Wieden+Kennedy and Goodby Silverstein & Partners, noted that “creatives who came out in the last three years are missing out on being next to someone and watching them do their thing.”

Remote work “hasn’t affected experienced creative thinkers,” said Graf, adding that “it’s a little harder when mid-level junior people are involved” who may require guidance from more seasoned talent that might be lacking in a remote environment. 

“It’s really hard for juniors to start out in a different city and try to do it all remotely,” said Greg Hahn, co-founder and CCO of Mischief @ No Fixed Address. “There’s so much you have to learn about just what it takes to go through production or to present to a client or to get stuff ready,” he added. “People who started out of college in the lockdown were at a disadvantage.”

Read more: Ad agencies face succession hurdles

New vs. old methods

Hahn’s agency was formed during the pandemic when remote work was at its height, yet has trophy cases stuffed with creative awards, including Ad Age’s Agency of the Year honor for 2022. “We were built during this time and could sort of flex and see what works as we were going along,” he said. “It’s harder for these places that have massive office structures that have  been doing things the same way for the last couple of decades and had to figure out a way to make that work.”

For an agency like We Believers, which has been operating remotely since 2014 and has racked up Cannes awards each year since its launch, the creative conversation is moot.

“We’d rather have the right talent having the freedom to work from their place of choosing than a bunch of energy and hours wasted on the daily commute,” Marco Vega, president and co-founder, said. “We’ve grown steadily every year since we started the agency and, if anything, our creative output has thrived … A remote setup opens up space to choose the right partners for the idea rather than just using your full-time staff.”

Other agencies, including 72andSunny, Circus Maximus and Movers + Shakers, continue to have a work-from-anywhere model.

Chemistry Chief Creative Officer Chris Breen believes one reason some feel the quality of work has dropped recently is because of the fragmented media landscape in which ads exist.

“It was much easier 15 years ago to point towards five amazing [creative ideas],” Breen said. “Now, maybe three of those amazing [ideas] you never see because it’s not all mass media,” he said. “It’s going to a much more defined audience and you may not be a part of that.”

“I’m not sure that it’s the creative that’s worse, but more that advertising itself is,” said Katie Keating, co-founder and co-chief creative officer of remote agency Fancy. “Not only are budgets shrinking, but what’s left must be spread further. Much more is going into tactical work and that’s often done in-house. My feed is full of product shots, demos, influencers. When I have the occasion to watch linear TV, I see a lot of interesting DTC brands doing a bunch of uninteresting commercials.”

Credle believes one of the reasons for the decline in work is related to the rise in project-based assignments. A recent report from consultancy R3 found that even though there was an 11% increase in the number of global pitches in 2022, overall those pitches brought in 35% less revenue compared to the year prior.

“Great work comes from trust and mutual respect. Great work is often the outcome of a commitment to a point of view and multiple attempts at expressing that POV creatively,” Credle said. “Hire agencies by the hour, and it’s hard for client or agency to drive the work where it needs to go.”

Credle also said the industry needs to do a better job of championing more “brand-defining work” rather than just award-winning work.

“If we want great creative work to work, we have to prove we can do it on our biggest brands,” Credle said. “Most agencies do their best work on special projects—those that sit off to the side of where the working dollars are being spent. We have to motivate, inspire and pay our people to do their best work on our clients’ greatest media investments.”

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How ChatGPT could help brands find creators

ChatGPTs outputs can also be stiff-sounding. Detert shared an example prompt his team gave ChatGPT that asked it to make a creative brief for an influencer on Meta and TikTok for a lower-calorie soda aimed at women ages 25-34. The prompt also asked for it to be light-hearted and about fashion, but weaving in the message of the drink.

ChatGPT replied with an objective, target audience, key message, a broad example of an influencer for the campaign, and what kind of content they should make. For example, including the phrase, “Refresh your look and your health with my favorite lower calorie soda.” 

“The technology is certainly not in a place to replace creators,” BEN’s Folkman said. “But it could give you a competitive advantage if you play around with it,” Indeed some creatives have even been using generative AI to imagine new brand collaborations.

Related: ChatGPT attempts to write Super Bowl ads

While ChatGPT and Bing’s chatbot have led to some interesting conversations, AI is ultimately only as good as the text data that it was trained with. While it may help with the administrative tasks of finding and partnering with creators, marketers agree it can’t replicate the community and creativity that creators bring. Because ChatGPT is based on a data set, it often gives an average answer, pulling from ideas that have already been done.

“If you take what it gives you as a stopping point, that will not work,” Folkman said. “It should be a starting point and then you need to work with it.”

The “holy grail” for Detert would be to type in the scene or concept a brand wants out of an influencer campaign and have an approved finished product appear in seconds that can then be published in a creator’s feed.

“The two biggest blockers of this are copyright laws around AI-generated imagery and videos, as well as all of the brand name, images and logos,” Detert said. “The other is realism. Most AI outputs have made people or things cartoonish.”

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New commercials: Puma Angus Cloud, Adidas Patrick Mahomes, Acorns Christopher Walken

A few highlights: Acorns’ squirrel mascot (voiced by Christopher Walken) says, “We believe that slower is better” as part of a continuing campaign about the power of long-term investing. Angus Cloud, Iris Apatow and Zaya Wade star in the latest from Puma. And Adidas serves up a fresh 30-second TV cut of its “Original Impossible” spot featuring Patrick Mahomes. (A 60-second web version debuted on YouTube on Feb. 12.)

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Popeyes U.S. creative account in review

Gut contributed marketing to Popeyes’ chicken sandwich debut in 2019, which sparked the so-called chicken sandwich wars that saw competitors across the fast food industry stepping up their chicken sandwich efforts.

Gut wasn’t immediately available to comment.

Even if temporary, working on Popeyes is part of the continued momentum at McKinney, which won creative agency of record duties for Blue Diamond in May. McKinney also recently acquired influencer marketing agency August United.

Popeyes became ‘a victim of its success’

From January to September 2022, Popeyes spent $120.5 million on U.S. measured media, according to Vivvix. For all of 2021, Popeyes spent $163.3 million on measured media.

Popeyes systemwide sales grew by 9.4% in 2022, buoyed by 10.4% unit growth. Comparable store sales rose 1.4%, slower growth than two of its Restaurant Brands International sibling brands, Burger King and Tim Hortons.

Patrick Doyle, the newly named executive chairman at Restaurant Brands International, in a conference call with analysts this month praised Popeyes’ food but said the brand was in need of greater simplicity in its kitchens. The success of its chicken sandwich exposed the shortcomings in its kitchens, making Popeyes “a victim of its success,” Doyle said.

“Popeyes is an amazing brand,” Doyle said. “We need to make it easier for people to do business with Popeyes. That means faster speed of service. That means just a simpler, easier kitchen that’s going to play into that [and] frankly, will make it easier for people to work there to give better hospitality, all of those sorts of things.”

Contributing: Jon Springer

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Top 5 creative ads: Ruffles, Nike Jordan, Silk NextMilk

1. Silk NextMilk: Who’s Next?
Agency: Orchard 

With “nepo babies” a current internet obsession, this campaign for Silk’s plant-based Nextmilk could not be more timely. Its take on MilkPEP’s milk mustache campaign, one of the most famous advertising efforts in history, features the offspring of celebs from the original campaign—including Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, Ella Bleu Travolta, Myles O’Neal and Sailor Brinkley Cook—all with their very own ‘staches. The idea is to stand out to the next generation of milk drinkers.

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The Obama Foundation’s Marquis Miller on creating pathways for empowerment

Ad Age is marking Black History Month 2023 with our third-annual Honoring Creative Excellence package. (Read the introduction here.) Today, our guest editor JinJa Birkenbeuel turns the spotlight to Marquis Miller, VP of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Obama Foundation.

Here, Miller shares his thoughts on aiming for a better approach to advancing minority economic development.

I am fortunate to have experienced many pivotal moments in my career that placed me on a critical path toward true, authentic diversity, equity and inclusion. A move to Chicago as UNCF vice president of the Midwest region transitioned me into a new opportunity for change.

Working closely with students, their families and minority business owners at the Urban League and Chicago State shed light on strategic sourcing, recruiting and community development. My work at SBLI created a vision for me to design and implement diversity and inclusion systems within organizations and institutions. 

I took everything I had learned and applied it to expanding outreach to minority and women-owned businesses and developed an inclusiveness and diversity framework model emphasizing enhanced opportunities for community advancement. The Great Recession of 2008 was the sign I needed to change my path and realize the vision of creating self-determination for underrepresented communities.

My pivotal moment was the resistance to change the 40-year old National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) model of linking minority business enterprises (MBEs) with corporations and governments. Though corporate members stated in surveys and focus groups that they wanted more minority business owners—including the intersectionality of women—in their supply chains, driving extraordinary economic impact for communities from Seattle to San Juan, the resistance remained. That moment—the realization that the orthodoxy surrounding MBEs and other diverse suppliers would not or could not be changed—transformed me. My loss of faith in the system took on a better, fresher approach to advancing minority economic development.

Many corporations publicly promised to hire and contract with more Black people and businesses and communities; I knew the processes to certify, validate and track MBE participation would not deliver on any of the promises or commitments made. Those corporations with world-class programs circumvented those processes while creating and establishing their diverse, equitable and inclusive vendor base. This difficult work to show value and impact to organizations across the country continues today.

My next role refined my vision of creating economic impact for Black and brown communities with a replicable model for others to adopt. The creation of the City of Chicago chief diversity officer position was a sigh of relief and an exclamation of “finally!” from the communities and business owners that struggled for attention, validation, relevance and wealth creation in the most racially segregated and deeply political city in the United States.

While I led and created extraordinary conversations centered on race, business and wealth creation, I understood that any commitment to change must be authentic and hold promise for true transformation.

My equity work now places me in my most impactful role to date, leading DEI for the foundation named for the 44th president of the United States.

Creating pathways for economic empowerment for historically disenfranchised and underestimated communities means we must consistently show up and speak up for each other, collaborate and reflect the change we want to see in the world.

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R/GA CEO Sean Lyons departs for Accenture Song; interim global CEO is named

R/GA Global CEO Sean Lyons is departing the agency to join Accenture Song. Lyons, the chief executive of R/GA for over four years, is taking on a newly created role as global capabilities lead for the consulting giant.

“Sean is a formidable force and someone I have admired professionally for a long time,” David Droga, CEO of Accenture Song, said in a statement. “We are beyond thrilled to have him join us and excited to see what he can do at the world’s largest tech-powered creative company.”

Lyons will focus on integrating the company’s design, technology, intelligence and agency disciplines across all of its offerings, according to a statement for Accenture Song. 

R/GA has named Global Chief Client Officer Robin Forbes, who has been with the Interpublic Group of Cos. agency for nine years, as interim CEO.

In addition, R/GA has named Global Chief Creative Officer Tiffany Rolfe chairman, adding that new role to her remit. 

“We thank Sean for his leadership and commitment to shaping R/GA into the recognized leader it is today and wish him well going forward,” IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky said in a statement. “We’re also very much looking forward to supporting Tiffany, Robin and the leadership team at R/GA.”

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Roundtable discussion: What’s the future of e-commerce?

Global e-commerce market to expand to $1 Trillion by 2025

The global pandemic brought on tectonic shifts in consumer behavior; from the movement towards the anywhere-work era to the way we shop. Three years on and with lockdown restrictions lifted, it’s important to consider the transformative after-effects of this change and how companies can get the most out of this new environment.

Joining this conversation are some of the top minds in the e-commerce advertising industry: Mark Avedissian, Managing Director, ReachLocal Asia Pacific;
Dr. Narelle Hutchesson Managing Director of RQMedia;
and Paul Korber, Director of Partner Development at Microsoft Advertising, Asia Pacific. In part one of this roundtable, we’ll each share our top insight on the state of e-commerce in 2023.

Experts from Microsoft, FeedOps, and Reachlocal ANZ share their insights at the eCommerce Masterclass.

Every e-commerce business needs an omnichannel strategy

Frank: As 2023 gains momentum, and we look towards the future with fresh aspirations, it’s important to take a critical look at our previous strategies. Research from retail insights firm Incisiv, in collaboration with Blue Yonder and Microsoft, reveals that a staggering 93 percent of all shopping journeys now start online, up from 81 percent in 2020—making a seamless and intuitive omnichannel experience critical.

If you run a pure play e-commerce business and assume the omnichannel shopping trend doesn’t affect you, think again. Amidst today’s global inflation, shoppers are constantly price checking, and that means anything you post online isn’t exclusive to your website. Whether it’s your online ad or a special deal on your site, they’ll definitely use it against the competition—so don’t expect shop assistants to be sympathetic if someone flashes your lower price at the register to claim that immediate price match guarantee. Think of it like this: Shoppers don’t think “which channel” when shopping around, it’s all about getting the best deal!

Accounting for your ad spend. Attribution has a long way to go

Narelle: E-commerce is here to stay as it is an important part of customer discovery and purchase of brands and store choice. However, customers post lockdown have choices of when and where to shop. We do see e-commerce sales to be lower on weekends for some industries, when generally people have more time to shop, but then conversion rates on Mondays seem to compensate and are often the highest in a week.

Therefore, attribution is the real issue. Sales that occur in-store that are the result of an ad are often lost in tracking and reporting. The increasing consumer privacy-led changes in a cookieless world mean significant changes to how we can target and report on performance media. Finding a source of truth and ensuring that the attributed results marry the advertisers’ financial reality will be the biggest challenge and opportunity in the next couple of years.

Mark Avedissian, Managing Director of Reachlocal ANZ, talks to entrepreneurs about how businesses can gain a competitive edge in a post-lockdown world.

The landscape of e-commerce is changing. Businesses need to stay agile to compete

Mark: In 2023, for a business to truly distinguish itself in an e-commerce world, it must stay in touch with its customers and the direction of the market. We’ve seen the shift, and it’s here now: Artificial Intelligence (AI) that uses machine learning in innovative ways will create personalized experiences, and staying on top of this technology curve is critical. Supply chains are also evolving. Companies must be able to adapt and provide seamless, multi-channel experiences both online, in-store, and through mobile devices. A well-conceived content marketing strategy that addresses customer needs and establishes trust through reviews is also critical.

In a mobile-first world, ensuring a seamless and enjoyable shopping experience on mobile devices is just as important as desktop optimization. And let’s not forget the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) in driving traffic and visibility to your e-commerce store. The key to success in e-commerce is to never stop striving for improvement and to always be open to change. Snooze, you lose!

Paul Korber, Director of Channel Development, Microsoft Advertising shares Microsoft’s commitment to advertising and its latest ad innovations in The New Era of Microsoft Advertising.

User experience will be the new currency

Paul: When I think about the future of e-commerce, I’m most excited by the tremendous digital transformation we’re going through right now and the shifts in consumer behavior. AI is going to be a massive game-changer for e-commerce retailers and consumers alike. From fraud detection to predictive analytics, the use cases are endless, and it’s going to push the boundaries on the interactions between customers and brands in really exciting ways.

For example, furniture retailer IKEA developed an app that allows customers to place virtual furniture in their homes before making a purchase. This gives customers a better sense of how the furniture will look and fit in their space, reducing the risk of dissatisfaction and returns.

Ultimately, it’s all about creating a seamless and engaging user experience. Increasingly, consumers are no longer satisfied with just transactional interactions with brands, and this is true in the e-commerce and retail space also. They’re seeking deeper connections, inclusive representation, and values-driven experiences. Brands that can offer these types of value exchanges will be better equipped to thrive in the future of e-commerce.

---

That concludes the first part of our discussion on the state of eCommerce in 2023. Join us for part two of our conversation as we address the importance of brand marketing for e-commerce businesses.

Stay informed

Sign up for the Microsoft Advertising Insider newsletter to keep up with the latest insights, product news, tips and tricks, thought leadership, customer success stories, and resources.

Managing Director of RQmedia 

Managing Director at Reachlocal Australia & New Zealand 

Director of Partner Development, Asia Pacific at Microsoft Advertising. 

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IPA census: agency staff up 19%, progress for DEI, and hybrid working the norm (for now)

By most measures, the 2022 IPA agency census shows that all the talk around diversity, equality and inclusion is paying off – and the pace of change is at last accelerating.

The number of women in c-suite positions is 37.5% (up 12%), non-white individuals make up 11.2% of the c-suite (up by 58%), and the gender pay gap is 17.4% (down from 23.3% in 2021).

Meanwhile, WPP CEO Mark Read seems to be right about fears for the future of the agency sector being overblown: overall staff numbers, up 19.2%, have passed 26,000 for the first time.

The effects of the pandemic are still felt in the prevalence of hybrid working models, with 96% of agencies continuing with a more flexible approach, although change is in the air: only 6.9% intend to continue with fully flexible policies, down by 59% from the previous year.

While the census is a lot more positive than it has been of late, it’s important to note that women and non-white people are still vastly under-represented. Despite moving in the right direction, the 17% gender pay gap is vast, and the ethnicity pay gap is even worse at 21.1%, an improvement of just 0.1% on 2021.

The youthful hold over the industry remains, with the average age at 34.4 years in 2022, down from 34.6% the previous year, while the number of over 50s has plateaued at 6.5% of employees.

Employees from a non-white background have increased by almost a third (29%), and now make up 23.6% overall, accounting for 33% of entry and junior level roles. Women account for 54% of the total and just 1% did not identify as either male nor female.

Leila Siddiqi, associate director diversity at the IPA, said: “Now is the time to double down on our collective efforts by paying extra attention to the areas of fair pay, equal opportunity and creating inclusive, flexible workplace cultures which enable all underrepresented groups to thrive and reach their full potential.”

Paul Bainsfair, director general of the IPA, said: “These latest results represent a much healthier pace of improvement than in previous years… We must continue this great work to ensure our business is fully representative and inclusive for those working within it and attractive to those considering a career within the agency world.”

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Tinder moves beyond hookups in Mischief campaign

The campaign launches Tuesday on social media and streaming, followed by out-of-home. It will roll out across the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Australia and Brazil—appearing in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Berlin and Madrid.

For Hobley, the campaign will be a success if Tinder can get beyond the “hookups” label, and also make marginalized groups feel seen and supported. 

“It’s, first, are you thinking about Tinder in a new way? But also, are we elevating and supporting communities of daters that should be supported more?” she said. “We want to celebrate all daters—daters who are trans, daters who are non-binary, daters who are looking for tonight, and daters who are looking for Saturday nights forever.” 

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The VengaBoys are back – teaming up with Uber for “Uber Pride Ride” party bus in Sydney Adland®

But it’s not just a disco on wheels, each Pride Ride includes a lineup of on-board activities and performances, from drag bingo to Karaoke with Jojo Zaho, Carla from Bankstown, and Coco Jumbo. Ther will also be educational talks from organisations such as Black Rainbow, who advocating for the voices of first nations LGBQTIA+SB young people.

The schedule of rides is below, and if you miss the first stop you can stalk the bus as it has a GPS tracker, and by keeping an eye on Uber Australia’s social channels.

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The Humanitarian Coalition and Performance Art Turn AI into an Anthem for Ukraine Adland®

Client: Humanitarian Coalition

Executive Director: Richard Morgan

Manager, Communications & Marketing: Marg Buchanan

Agency: Performance Art

Chief Creative Officer: Ian Mackenzie

Group Creative Director: Jess Willis

Creative Director: Benjamin Playford

Senior Copywriter: Jackson Kemp

Senior Designer: Dewen Yang

SVP, Growth: Diane Ridgway-Cross

Post Production: School Editing

Editor: Fi Alvarez

Assistant Editor: David Ngandu

Producer: Steve Villeseche

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Celsius hires Jake Paul, brother of Logan Paul who owns Prime energy drink

“If you’re Celsius, and you’ve got a brand like Prime—a sports drink that’s now moving into the energy drink space, and especially a brand that has come onto the scene very quickly and posted some good sales for just being around for a year; has a significant social media following; [and] is an influencer brand—it makes sense to play some defense when it comes to a brand like [Prime],” Stanford said. 

A representative for Jake Paul declined to comment on the fact that his brother backs a rival drink. Reached by email, Celsius CEO John Fieldly said the deal had “nothing to do with Prime energy,” adding “we chose Jake because of his drive and passion to be a top athlete and with his mission on helping others be their best. His mission to be a top performing athlete is our mission to provide that essential energy to help athletes achieve their goals.”

“The most successful partnerships are authentic in their formation and I am excited to partner with a company that has been a part of my day-to-day routine for a long time,” Paul said in the press release. 

Celsius has quickly risen through the ranks of the $16 billion U.S. energy drink industry over the past few years, positioning itself alongside more-established brands such as Monster and Red Bull. The brand grew its dollar sales by 188% in 2021 and by another 182.5% across the first nine months of 2022, according to data from Beverage Digest. And in August, PepsiCo paid $550 million for an 8% stake in the energy drink brand. 

Over the past several months, Celsius has sought to appeal to Gen Z and Millennial consumers with its marketing, aiming to strengthen its presence on college campuses, specifically, by partnering with college student ambassadors through a marketing program called Celsius University.

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Wendy’s ‘Square’s the Beef’ campaign tweaks slogan, stars Reggie Miller

The “Square’s the Beef,” campaign is meant to remind consumers to “look for the square” at Wendy’s for burgers made from “fresh, never frozen,” beef the brand said.

First used in a 1984 Wendy’s commercial, “Where’s the Beef?” became a meme that permeated the culture. The phrase was repeated in the 1984 Democratic primaries, and on episodes of “The Simpsons” and “Saturday Night Live.” Ad Age named it one of the top 10 ad slogans of the 20th Century.

Wendy’s revival of the phrase began earlier this week at the Daytona 500, during which Wendy’s sponsored a car with a Dave’s Double cheeseburger on the hood and ran a variety of other promotions for its square burgers at the event. Carl Loredo, Wendy’s chief marketing officer, said then it was “time to revisit the power of the past with a fresh marketing take to connect with our customers and continue to celebrate our proven track record of delivering the freshest, hottest and juiciest hamburgers for our fans.”

About the March Madness effort he said, “our fans will see the square and taste the difference throughout our month-long activations and lineup of delicious digital deals. 

Wendy’s has been a sponsor of the NCAA Tournament since 2017. Last year Miller starred in ads promoting its breakfast offerings.

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MAA Ad of the Week: Ouigo by Rosa Paris

This is an interesting one, one we’re seeing more often: episodic ads. There are three bits to Rosa Paris’ new ad for Ouigo, SNCF’s low cost rail service, all with a small but pertinent tale to tell about the environmental pluses of rail travel.

And, as ever with the best French agencies, it’s a pleasure to watch while still making the point.

Britain’s Rail Delivery Group, which seems better at delivering hot air than rail services, is currently looking for an agency. Maybe they should have a look at this too.

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Director X on making the moving film ‘Seven Mothers’ for fashion label Pyer Moss

Ad Age is marking Black History Month 2023 with our third-annual Honoring Creative Excellence package. (Read the introduction here.) Today, our guest editor Steve Stoute turns the spotlight to Julien Christian Lutz, aka Director X, the co-founder of production company Fela and the celebrated director of music videos for artists including Rihanna, Jay-Z, David Guetta, Sean Paul, Justin Bieber, Drake, Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea.

Here, Lutz shares his thoughts on creating a universally relatable narrative.

As a director working most often in music videos and commercials, I get to riff on client concepts and develop video treatments, but no one usually looks to a director to write something original. I got that opportunity working on a fashion film titled “Seven Mothers” for the launch of a new collection from Pyer Moss. I wrote and directed the film based on the life experience of Kerby Jean-Raymond, founder and creative director of the brand, who was raised by seven women after his mother passed away.

The subject matter was something I wanted to address for a long time, and it was important for me to tell a story about the lives of Black families that wasn’t wrapped up in the general crime-ridden inner-city stereotypes, but rooted in the real-life day-to-day of people waking up in the morning and getting ready to go to work and living in the community. As deeply rooted as this film is in Black unity, family and church, it resonates with people of all races and religions because it’s not just about the Black experience—it’s about the experience of people coming together to support each other in times of crisis, which is universally relatable.

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Watch the newest commercials from USPS, Domino’s, HomeGoods and more

The 1993 Reel 2 Real hit “I Like to Move It” serves as the soundtrack for a United States Postal Service spot.

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WPP earnings: CEO on ChatGPT; Twitter becoming more ‘stable’

WPP CEO Mark Read said Thursday that artificial intelligence has already become “fundamental” to the holding company and that clients are beginning to think about returning to Twitter. 

Read’s comments came as WPP forecast sales that will rise more than analysts anticipated in the coming year, indicating that companies will continue spending to reach consumers. Shares rose as much as 6.4% in London on Thursday.

“Clearly it’s a great use in our media business,” Read said of the AI technology, “where we can use it to find relevant audiences and measure the impact of our work. We’re using it a lot creatively in our production processes to accelerate how we produce work and reduce the cost of doing that. So it’s pretty fundamental.”

Related: A ChatGPT and generative AI guide for brands

Read said AI subsidiary Satalia has worked across clients and agencies after London-based WPP acquired it in 2021. He said the group has to build AI into everything it does, mentioning work such as a video for Nike, which showed tennis champion Serena Williams playing past versions of herself.

He also said he’s been personally experimenting a lot with OpenAI’s ChatGPT as chatbots and image generators fuel surging interest in the technology.

“The best technology is like magic,” he said of the Microsoft—backed platform. “At the same time, is it perfect? No,” he added, “but it’s brought to life the potential of generative AI in a way that’s really captured people’s imagination.”

In an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday, Read said “Twitter seems to be a lot more stable the last few months than perhaps it was towards the end of last year,” adding that “I think clients want to start to look about how they can come back onto Twitter.

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Uncommon’s Yellow Sticker Cookbook helps the nation to ‘find a meal in every deal’

In supermarkets, yellow stickers are used to mark down foods that are close to their sell by date. A whole culture has sprung up around them, with countless TikTok videos sharing “yellow sticker hauls” and giving advice on the best time to visit the different supermarkets to secure your cut price items.

Uncommon Creative Studios’ CX division has tapped into this with its Yellow Sticker Cookbook, which allows you to input your random “yellow sticker” ingredients (combined with anything extra you might already have at home) and then suggests a range of relevant recipes.

The solution is web-based rather than app-based, but it’s designed to be used on your phone in conjuction with Google Lens.

With UK food inflation running at around 15%, and one in seven Brits saying they miss meals to save money, it’s a smart idea. A shame the culture wars have infiltrated the yellow sticker phenomenon, with rows breaking out about whether better off people should leave the reduced items for those who can’t afford full price.

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What Formula 1 racing can teach agencies about productivity

Advertising culture has confused activity with progress and chaos with creativity. Now that we’re between the pandemic and a new normal, we have the chance to make some systemic changes in how we operate.

Look at your calendar, dominated by Zoom, Teams and Google Meets. That means we talk a lot about the work, leaving only the times when we’re exhausted to do it. That’s akin to revving the engine without putting the car in gear. It goes nowhere, and soon things begin to break. 

No wonder “goblin mode”—using your time for yourself unapologetically—beat “metaverse” for the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year for 2022.

We’re aware that employees are reassessing hours of commuting to soulless cubes. And many bring separate laptops and tablets to “keep up” throughout command performance meetings. Yet are we aware of what this is doing to our productivity on a daily basis?

The root cause is fear that if we don’t go fast enough all the time, we’ll miss something. When we let action masquerade as progress, we set up to fail. Then we can’t address the fundamental, underlying issues. As my driving instructor said, driving wildly into a corner just slows you down.

Rethink your organization as a state of work

It’s not your headcount, it’s your collective head. “The traditional approach has become a rote exercise that’s done because everyone does it,” Alexander Kjerulf, co-founder of Heartcount, the employee satisfaction software company, recently told The New York Times. “But few people actually see any value in it—and that goes both for employees and management.”

Clear up your calendar

We need to rethink what the calendar is for. Treat it like the corners on a racetrack—use it for navigating and planning so it can set people up for momentum in work—the straightaways. People can’t go very fast if they’re continuously having to navigate turns. Our leadership job is to create more straightaways, more momentum, and smoother speed. 

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Unilever comms chief owns up to “purpose” blunder

Unilever’s head of comms and corporate affairs Paul Matthews (below) has admitted the company rather overdid it in its emphasis on purpose, telling a PR Week get-together: “Where Unilever perhaps overstepped a few years ago was talking about brand purpose in isolation to everything else. You need for a brand to grow and be successful. You need great innovation, you need the right pricing point, you need it to be available.”

CEO Alan Jope is already in the process of falling on his sword following criticism from investors – notably Terry Smith who mocked the supposed purpose of Hellmann’s, averring that it was really salads and sandwiches – to be replaced by the boss of a Dutch dairy co-operative, whose feelings on the matter are, as yet, unknown.

The trouble with any such stance from a big business (and, in Unilever’s case a highly diversified one) is that, sooner or later, there’s a flip side. “Purpose” may have done wonders for Dove – showing that women don’t have to look like a model to be attractive – but the likes of Hellmann’s are another matter.

As a company Unilever spent 2022 busily hiking prices through the cost-of-living crisis and patting itself on the back for so doing. Customers may have though otherwise.

It got into a tangle with Ben and Jerry’s – avowedly purposeful in its hippy-ish way – in Israel when the subsidiary pulled out in protest at government actions against the Palestinians.

British Gas has been spending millions telling us it’s trying to help customers with their energy bills only to be found out sending bailiff’s to break into late payers’ homes and instal unwanted pre-paid meters, which cost far more. Its CEO has been apologising since at every opportunity. Didn’t he know what his company was doing? He certainly should have.

Matthews is quite right to say that purpose needs to operate in a context and sustainability is the current cause of choice, one which resonates with consumers too – so long as they don’t don’t have to pay more.

Can Unilever and others square the circle? Difficult but that’s what well-remunerated top managers should be paid for.

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“Ukrainian Witness” has been fighting a cyber war since the day of the Russian invasion

On February 24 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine.

Days after the first shock, “Ukrainian Witness” began to fight back – digitally.

Because of the limited freedom of the press in Russia, it’s extremely difficult for the people there to find out what’s going on. Google is blocked, and so are most social media channels, like Twitter. With this in mind “Ukrainian Witness” went straight to the digital sources that could be read from within the Russian border. The Wikipedia.

“Everyone” can change a Wikipedia page. That’s the way in for Ukrainian Witness. Every month, 10.9 million Russians visit Russian Wikipedia. So, simply by adding pictures of devastation on Ukrainian city pages on Russian Wikipedia the truth about the war was shown in Russia, fighting against its propaganda.

Ad agency Publicis BeNeLux calls it “An activistic and guerrilla approach to using the platform in a way it has never been used before.” But then, Russians – or bots? – fought back. So, Ukrainian Witness called for help and collaborated with Wikipedia editors around the world to keep making changes, and to make them last.

I’m surprised none of the Wikipedia editors went on a nerdy tangent about how this is a version of meat puppetry, asking someone to edit “your” stuff on Wikipedia is akin to using a sock puppet to do your bidding and thus is against COI.

But as Publicis BeNeLux explains: it worked. For the first time in the history of Wikipedia, editors around the world united and joined the cause: editing Russian pages on Ukrainian cities and bringing the truth to Russia.

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Mercedes includes TikTok integration in infotainment upgrade

Safety first

Mercedes uses software, cameras and seat sensors to reduce driver distraction in the E Class.

The passenger display’s “dual light control” technology, developed by Mercedes, can prevent content such as videos from being seen peripherally by the driver while the vehicle is in motion.

An in-cabin camera can detect if the driver is looking at the front passenger screen instead of the road. The technology dims the brightness of the passenger screen so it’s not visible to the driver.

The next-generation E Class is in production in Sindelfingen, Germany. Mercedes will drop the coupe and convertible body styles for the new generation.

The four- and six-cylinder engine models will receive a 48-volt mild-hybrid system. In the future, Mercedes might add a plug-in hybrid variant to the lineup that could offer about 50 miles of battery-powered driving range.

Ad Age contributed to this report.

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Ageism at ad agencies—4 ways creatives can fight back

How does an industry that touts “We’re a creative business” and spends millions on award shows have a culture of treating its creatives so callously?

Ageism is a product of holding companies coping with quarterly pressures from Wall Street and diminishing business margins. The easiest way to meet analysts’ expectations is to jettison older people—who are the main expense—not to mention the savings in health care costs for a younger workforce. Capitalism isn’t going to change its DNA for the creative class.

Few speak up about ageism lest they be identified as being old. There’s little being done to address it. There’s an empathy gap within the tribe itself. Younger creatives often subscribe to ageist views themselves. It’s only when they round the corner at 40 that they wake up to the reality that awaits.

As I traveled in Asia, I saw creatives still working well into their 60s and thriving. The reasons weren’t just cultural. Apart from tougher labor laws, there was one huge factor affecting the longevity of creatives: the limited talent supply.

Asia is more STEM-focused with very few art and writing programs relative to population size, which results in a very limited supply of creative talent. Advertising is not on anyone’s career radar. You fall into it by accident.

The U.S., on the other hand, churns out a ton of art, design and writing talent through hundreds of universities and schools. And then there’s the importing of talent.

Once, the only way an ex-pat creative could land a job in the U.S. was by winning a One Show pencil or going through school here. They still had to find an agency to negotiate the nightmare of U.S. immigration for an H1B visa and green card.

That changed when the networks turned Cannes Lions wins into the common currency of the creative world. Suddenly, any creative could pursue the dream of becoming the next David Droga here—the world’s biggest ad market—by winning at Cannes.

U.S. agencies figured out how to use O-1 visas to import talent and started actively recruiting from the vast pool of hot award-winning talent at Cannes. It put ageism on steroids.

While creatives can’t change these dynamics, they are not without strategies to fight them:

Speak the truth, starve the beast

A campaign to speak the truth about the business could cut the supply of talent to the business, forcing it to value existing talent. Art school costs approximately $180,000, portfolio school $90,000—ridiculous tuition considering that the starting pay at agencies is approximately $50,000 and you’re kicked out at age 50.

Not to mention that most creatives are lucky if they get to produce one good thing a year. The business is plagued by burnout, overthink and projects that go nowhere as the focus is on billable hours.

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UK adland packs its bags for SXSW in Austin

The UK Advertising Exports Group (UKAEG) and the Department for Business and Trade are taking their wares to Austin, Texas, for the SXSW tech fair in March, one of 40 UK participants.

The aim being to showcase the UK’s “global leadership in embracing technology and changing the way brands connect with audiences.”

Advertising Association international trade director Aisling Conlon says: “We are delighted to return to SXSW and launch this new campaign in partnership with the Department for Business and Trade. This year is set to be our strongest year yet, as we continue our mission to showcase the power of the UK advertising industry as a true force for economic growth.

“UKAEG is delighted to open the doors of UK House and co-host two exclusive networking events with the AAF at SXSW 2023. The UK is a concentrated hotbed of new ideas, diverse skills, global talent and smart thinking and we look forward to bringing US businesses and UK talent and innovators together for the first time.”

Creative industries do, indeed, contribute a lot to the UK’s depleted coffers but one can hardly say that advertising is in as rude health as, say, film and TV (helped enormously by generous tax breaks and streamers.)

Advertising creativity is at a low ebb with the rush to digital decimating agency resources for anything that isn’t a pop-up on a website. Note that, in the film above, ads as we used to know them, are described as “data-driven storytelling.” Which kind of says it all.

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Black History Month 2023: Apple, Nike, Spotify and other brand plans

In 1976, President Gerald Ford recognized the second month of the year as a time carved out for the annual appreciation of Black history and culture. Each year, people refine what it means to celebrate in a way that does justice to the remarkable achievements of Black leaders. Black history continues to unfold and be created, through art, business, fashion, music and more.

Throughout February, Ad Age is highlighting Black creative excellence, with guest editors highlighting projects and offering others the opportunity to reflect on their successes. This year, Ad Age is partnering with Outfront to showcase creative talent on digital out-of-home media across the U.S. 

Ad Age is also tracking how businesses are participating. Here’s a look at how some major brands are choosing to honor Black History Month in 2023.

Spotify 

Spotify launched Frequency Zine, a social series focusing on dynamic artists who embody the boundless future of Black music. The series highlights six Black artists across genre-specific playlists, including Indie, Dance/Electronic, Rock, Pop and more. The first artists to be featured in Frequency Zine included Austin Millz, Bree Runway, Chiiild, Connie Constance, Foggieraw and Kelela. 

We got next, now, and the future.
Stay tuned… pic.twitter.com/8xo47Yft1n

— Frequency (@OurFrequency) February 9, 2023

Spotify listeners are also receiving recommendations for audiobooks such as “The 1619 Project” developed by Nikole Hannah–Jones, “Son of Elsewhere” by Elamin Abdelmahmoud, “We Over Me” by Devale Ellis and Khadeen Ellis, and “Finding Me” by Viola Davis.

The platform is also showcasing thought-provoking conversations from some of Spotify’s top Black podcast creators—including “The Unbothered Network” by Jemele Hill, “We Said What We Said with Rickey and Denzel” by Rickey Thompson and Denzel Dion, and The Ringer’s “Higher Learning” with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay.

Apple 

Apple’s Black Unity Collection features a special-edition Apple Watch Black Unity Sport Loop and matching watch face. The company is also debuting a wallpaper inspired by the creative process of mosaic, with green, red, black and yellow shapes arranged abstractly in an homage to the Pan-African flag.

The App Store will spotlight apps such as Dot’s Home, an award-winning game designed to educate users on housing disparities, and financial wellness apps such as CapWay, Goalsetter and Altro, which are forging creative solutions to disparities within Black communities.

Apple Music and Apple Books will showcase Black artists by connecting readers and listeners to art by Black tastemakers that had a ripple effect on popular culture. Lastly, Apple News will combine compelling reporting about the Black experience in America with analysis and commentary from top journalists. 

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Wavemaker wins $50M global Back Market brief ahead of US expansion

Back Market, the French tech reseller that makes some memorable ads with Paris agency Buzzman, has appointed Wavemaker to its $50m global media business after a pitch that began last October.

The WPP agency will drive Back Market’s US expansion plans, as well as working across its existing markets in Europe – including the UK which is a key focus for the brand this year.

Alexandra Walker, director of global media at Back Market, said: “Recruiting our future customers with the right message at every stage of their purchase journey is key to fulfilling our ambitious plans for future growth and category-creating mission.”

Alastair Bannerman, global client president at Wavemaker said: “Our attitude of ‘positive provocation’ is a great match for Back Market’s ambitious growth trajectory. The partnership reflects our credentials as the right strategic partner for the scale up sector.”

Founded eight years ago, Paris-based Back Market wants to lead the transition towards a more circular economy.

Wavemaker has recently been winning lots of these fintech/new economy type businesses, including Square, SeatGeek, Zwift, Coinbase, InPost, Mettle, Flink, FreeNow and TikTok.

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Filmmaker Garrett Bradley on creating work for ‘a more transparent, loving and just world’

Bradley’s work crosses over into the realm of fine art as well. She was the subject of a solo museum exhibition titled “Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody” in 2019-2020 at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, where her films and multi-channel videos were shown. The exhibition traveled to Los Angeles, where it was on view at The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art from December 2022 through earlier this month.

Her work is in the permanent collections of The New Orleans Museum of Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem and The Museum of Modern Art, among others.

For her contribution to Ad Age’s Honoring Creative Excellence package, Bradley offers the following brief statement about making work as “a call and response”—and also answers a few of our questions about inspiration:

Every project that I have had the privilege of making or working on has felt, in some way or another, like a call and response. The work being an attempt at a dialogue, an offering, a window. The great Bill T. Jones talks about the definition of art as being an attempt at making something worthy of an issue’s complexity. I’d like to think of myself as being committed to that same pursuit—committed, as Jones says, to the act of participating in a world of ideas and, in my mind, to the end of a more transparent, loving and just world.

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Anomaly drives data growth with new hire from Droga5 NY

Anomaly London has hired Droga5 New York’s group data strategy Director, Anthony Khaykin, as its first head of data.

Khaykin takes responsibility for growing the data team at the agency, with a remit to recruit people from inside and outside the industry at all levels of experience, building the agency’s insight team and its ability to measure the impact of its work.

Anomaly has been quietly winning business, doing decent work and growing in numbers over the last year or so. New-ish clients including Diageo, Google, Expedia Group and LVMH.

Khaykin said: “Even though marketers have more and more access to data, it too often serves as a barrier rather than catalyst for decision-making. My goal is to partner with clients and to use the different datapoints at our disposal to triangulate simple human truths – about their consumers, their businesses and the most effective ways to bring the two closer together.”

Stuart Smith, partner & CSO at Anomaly London, said: “Doing the right thing for our clients’ business is at the very core of the Anomaly model. So, it’s imperative that we have high level data thinking to add insight to, and measure the impact of, what we do”.

Mother has also recently hired a couple of senior people from Droga5 New York. It’s good to see that London is still a draw for advertising talent.

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P&G’s in-house media strategy and more ANA Media Conference takeaways

Diverse buying gets better measurement

Investing in diverse-owned media was a frequent topic of conversation, and part of that was moving beyond good intentions toward better data to build the business case.

Mark Prince, senior VP of economic empowerment for Dentsu, said, “The days of just high mass reach and low CPM being the benchmark, and if you don’t fit into that category there wasn’t much room” are fading, in part, because some diverse-owned media can’t afford to pay for the measurement services. Finding other ways to measure impact are important, he said.

Related: How DE&I media investments may look in 2023

L’Oréal’s Reed also pointed out that simply hunting for the lowest CPMs would inevitably leave out diverse and other harder-to-reach audiences.

And Pritchard in an interview cited better measurement of the impact of using diverse-owned and targeted media as one thing P&G is looking for from agencies, and that he recognizes it might mean higher CPMs.

In his keynote speech, Pritchard cited several cases where using media that’s more “resonant” with minority audiences delivered a strong sales impact. Lumen Research analysis of P&G brand ads among Black, Hispanic and Asian-Pacific consumers “indicated a 41% increase in attention and a nearly two times increase in viewing time when relevant ads are in resonant media,” he said.

Measurement moves—or lack thereof

The ANA continues to develop cross-media measurement pilots with Comscore and VideoAmp—originally contracted in 2021. Discussions between the ANA and the Video Advertising Bureau representing TV-focused networks to jointly back a new household panel to help calibrate that effort and back multi-currency alternatives to Nielsen for the VAB continue after more than a year.

The panel is not expected to begin operation until next year. Bill Tucker, group VP at the ANA, pointed out that the pilot is premised on delivering measurement of unduplicated reach and frequency across TV and digital video, but not to develop a trading currency.

Related: Nielsen concerns prompt closed-door meeting

Kanishka Das, global e-business analytics and insights director for P&G, said 21 marketers are involved. “Marketers not only have skin in the game, but they’re paying for this process.” And he said marketers are “deeply engaged” in making progress.

Danielle DeLauro, exec VP of the VAB, on the panel noted that the recently established Joint Industry Council has a different mission in developing standards for streaming data sharing and among networks and measurement providers that could support multiple currencies.

Ford’s social campaign interrupted by ads for TV

Ford Motor Co. Global Head of Consumer Connections and Marketing Marla Skiko outlined her influencer-focused, all-social and digital campaign behind the launch of the Ford Maverick pickup, which is targeted to diverse, young, urban buyers. During her talk, display ads on the convention projection screen from local TV trade group TVB ironically noted that linear TV accounts for 80% of all time spent on “ad-supported platforms.”

Worth noting: A recent Nielsen Total Audience Report for the third quarter of 2022 shows linear accounted for only 65% of time spent with ad-supported TV and 49% of time spent with all ad-supported media among adults 18 and up.

Skiko said selling local dealers on the value of a campaign without TV can be challenging. “There is an audience group that, if they don’t see it on TV, it might not have happened,” she said. But she said Ford made inroads with dealers on the subject in part by emphasizing the spending efficiency that’s been necessitated by inventory shortages. “That probably helped quite a bit with the dealer conversation,” she said. “But it could change going forward.”

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The automation transformation: Turn agency challenges into new business

The current economic environment is creating a challenging landscape for agencies across the globe: Organizations are either losing employees to mass churn or to mass layoffs. Margins are eroding due to a rising demand for increased salaries. It’s also becoming increasingly more difficult to differentiate the value of a product or service offerings due to oversaturated market conditions.

One thing is for sure: Today’s challenges are forcing agencies to come up with a solution—and fast. This is the type of environment where automation can help your business thrive. Imagine transforming business challenges into opportunities. With automation, you can solve your agency’s common resource challenges, all while realizing new opportunities for your business. 

The clear difference between an automation-enabled agency and one that’s powered solely by people is being able to launch digital advertising accounts effectively and to no longer worry about how you will support them once they’re launched. 

By automating your business, you can put your organization into a position to create more opportunities without the need to sacrifice quality customer service in the process. Let’s take a look at three ways automation can offer solutions and create opportunities for your agency. 

Increasing salaries and unrealistic account ratios 

The current job market presents a clear issue for the advertising industry. Salaries of digital marketing professionals are higher than they’ve ever been before, and thus margins are eroding. In the past five years the average cost of maintaining an advertising team has grown over 40%. Salary.com is now reporting six-figure salaries for positions that required perhaps $60,000 just a few years ago. With this reality, hiring your way to scale isn’t a short- or long-term solution. 

One solution is to simply double the account load across your strategists. However, taking accounts from 35 to 70 per strategist quickly creates an unhealthy work environment and may drive your top talent to resign. This path is also difficult to manage, which puts the quality of your service and the reputation of your business at risk. 

Automation, on the other hand, can dramatically reduce these issues, by transforming your team’s capacity, processes and results with your existing staff size and account ratios. This also generates greater profits for your businesses and protects your reputation. 

There’s risk in advertising when solely powered by people

Risk management is another area of the business that is consistently challenging for organizations, and for two main reasons: First, it’s a financial risk and a concern from a credit perspective. It’s also a legal one due to outdated ad copy and potential industry-specific compliance issues. 

In one example, if your account ratios are out of balance, an overworked employee could miss a Black Friday ad placement running long after Black Friday, costing your business not only goodwill but also money through having to issue credits. With automation, however, you can reduce these types of risks and protect your bottom line so you’re not issuing credits on outdated or deceptive ad copy. 

Improved efficiencies and scale

After a turbulent couple of years, ad strategists—and people in general—have felt a magnifying pressure to re-evaluate how they’re spending their time and where they’re spending it. This is also driving agencies and in-house advertising teams to dig deep into where they can streamline their processes, prioritize meaningful, high-cognitive work and create efficiencies. 

Our partners that have automated their workflows are exponentially scaling their businesses and increasing their overall value using Fluency’s Robotic Process Automation for Advertising (RPA4A) platform, an AI technology platform unique in advertising.

Here’s an example: BH Management Services, one of the largest multifamily property owners and operators in the U.S., decided to move its digital advertising in-house to reduce costs and keep pace with its ever-changing portfolio of properties. But this also presented workload challenges.

Using Fluency’s RPA4A platform, BH gained the ability to quickly shift budgets at the account, campaign and partner levels, focus on more trials and optimizations, and greatly reduce the potential for human error. As a result, measurement and reporting were improved, with the company saving $813,000 in program costs and $500,000 in management fees. 

Uncertain market conditions and business challenges will continue to evolve, but when you prioritize a solution—like automation—you’ll put your business in a position to win. For our partners that have already implemented automation, we’re seeing them exponentially scale their businesses, create new efficiencies and prioritize high-cognitive work. 

Interested in learning more? Get in touch today to see how automation can help your agency move toward a more sustainable future. 

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SL public transport in Stockholm, challenges cars with attitude in new campaign. Adland®

The Public transport in Stockholm, SL, challenges the flexibility of car travel in an extensive campaign. The entire campaign oozes a basic “bah, screw it!”, as it shows the negative of car travel in the most mundane possible way.

The campaign developed by “Familjen”, in Stockholm highlights all the annoying and bad things about using a car in the city, highlighting that it’s certainly not the “easier” way to get around as some people might think.

I know that I’ve said this before, but I really like the way the art direction was handled in this campaign. It’s so down to earth/reality/mundane, that it’s actually refreshing as a contrast against the super colorful and loud ads that we are currently oversaturated with. (The Swedish word to describe current art direction trends would be “bjärt”, class dismissed!) It also serves to re-enforce how tedious traffic can be, while evoking the feeling of a silent sanctuary once you notice the SL logo which basically looks like a hug. Big fan.

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McCann London strengthens creative with three top hires

McCann London has boosted its creative resources with the appointment of Regan Warner from Ogilvy as executive creative director, leading the creative department and reporting to joint CCOs Rob Doubal and Laurence Thomson. Warner previously worked at McCann.

Warner (above) is best-known for her L’Oreal and British Vogue’s ‘The Non-Issue’ with Jane Fonda (below), tackling preconceptions about ageing and Dove’s As Early As Five, about natural hair discrimination.

The agency has also hired creative directors London alumni Jacob Gjelstrup Björdal and Jim Nillson who join from NordDDB. The two worked at McCann in London from 2015-19 on award-winning XBox among others and teamed up at Australia’s Clemenger BBDO.

CCOs Doubal and Thomson say: “We pride ourselves in attracting an unfair share of the world’s best talent, and welcoming back talent no less fills us with joy. Regan is a dynamic, inclusive leader and a powerhouse of irrepressible talent. Jacob and Jim are creativity rock stars in their own right – titans of their trade. Parting once was bittersweet, that all three have now chosen to rejoin McCann is a huge moment for us and the agency, and testament to the strength of our creative culture.”

ECD Warner says “This is my third time at McCann and there’s a reason for that. Finding brand truths and pushing the boundaries of meaningful storytelling is in McCann’s DNA. That DNA runs through my creative soul and keeps calling me back to this incredible network of peers and friends. I’m truly obsessed with this craft and bringing the best out of people in an inspiring culture in which great ideas can happen.”

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