Sapient/Nitro European CCO Malcolm Poynton is leaving, possibly to join Cheil Worldwide. Poynton (left) joined Sapient/Nitro from Ogilvy four years ago.
This leaves Mark Hunter, who joined recently from the highly-regarded Deutsch LA as Sapient/Nitro’s London creative boss, as the senior creative in Europe.
Sapient/Nitro, the product of a merger between the two named parts, is an interesting combo of agency and technology company and is quoted on the US NASDAQ exchange under the Sapient Corporation banner. But its share price has been under pressure recently as some of the supposed benefits of the merger have been slow to come through.
The agency made it to the last two in the protracted British Airways pitch which saw the ad account remain with BBH with the addition of some other quite substantial bits. At the time it seemed an odd shoot-out: S/N could, no doubt, provide the clever digital stuff but hardly had the above-the-line creative credentials to take on the mighty BBH.
However sources close to SN say that Poynton’s decision to go is his and not a reflection of the failure to land BA or any other account. At S/N Poynton helped to win business from RBS and Unilever among others.
S/N worldwide CCO Gaston Legorburu says: “As our creative leader for Europe over the past four years, Malcolm has made a tremendous contribution to SapientNitro. SapientNitro’s London office has emerged as a real creative force in the industry and is now front of mind for clients seeking to break boundaries at the intersection of technology and story. Malcolm leaves the agency in great shape to continue on that trajectory. As well as our immense gratitude for the impact he has made to our business, we wish him the very best for his future endeavours.”
(This is an updated version of an earlier story).
