One swallow doesn’t make a summer of course but Kate Stanners (below, global CCO of Saatchi & Saatchi departing for an international creative role at PR giant Edelman, is certainly a sign that’s all isn’t hunky dory in the world of big ad agencies.
On one hand it’s another sign that so-called “earned” media (stuff you don’t actually buy) has well and truly displaced legacy media – TV, press, magazines etc – in a world dominated by digital and social. Whether or not this new reality offers the creative potential Stanners hopes it does is another matter. But it’s certainly where the money is, as the enterprising Richard Edelman has found.
Stanners, after two decades at Saatchi, is probably fed up with an endless round of pitches for clients who don’t want to spend real money to produce work the agency can be proud of. She may also have tired of a network agency world in which the big ad holding companies – Saatchi owner Publicis, Omnicom/IPG, WPP and laggards Dentsu and Havas – are frantically chasing margin elsewhere to keep shareholders happy. Ten years ago Omnicom was driven by its big three creative agencies BBDO, TBWA and DDB with BBDO boss Andrew Robertson tipped as a successor to CEO John Wren (still there by the way.) Now Omnicom is much more about media and tech.
Both Publicis and WPP are moving inexorably to having one overarching creative offer with the various creative agency brands more window dressing than the pillars of the business they used to be. This creates opportunities for independents of course (and, maybe, the boutique agencies within the holding groups like New Commercial Arts at WPP and Uncommon at Havas.)
But, as the regular drip drip of senior agency creatives leaving indicates, it certainly ain’t much fun any more.
