Much shuffling of the deck chairs in London’s adland this week (just because you shuffle the deck chairs it doesn’t mean the ship is sinking necessarily).
JWT London has a new management structure aimed at “developing collaborative processes for its integrated offering.” So we now have management partners, integrated partners and creative partners all reporting to the executive partners Joseph Petyan, James Whitehead and Russell Ramsey (also the ECD). There are 22 integrated and creative partners, but that’s adland for you.
The agency has also recruited Danielle Bassil from Proximity as a managing partner. She will work with newly-appointed managing partners head of planning Neil Godber, European marketing director Carmen Becker and co-director of talent Cathy Little (all below).
Elsewhere Havas Media has recruited Wieden+Kennedy creative director Graeme Douglas as its new chief strategy officer. Media agencies are trying to be more creative these days and Douglas previously worked in the sector, at Carat among others.
Havas has a new media agency alongside itself and Arena, Forward which handles 02. The whopper 02 account came to Havas way via a deal between owner Vincent Bollore and the boss of Telefonica.
And adam&eveDDB has hired Ivan Pols from Ogilvy as a creative director to work on Unilever brands Liptons, Wall’s and Flora. Pols has worked in various Ogilvy agencies, mainly on Unilever, since 2003. Adam&eve CEO James Murphy began his career as a graduate at Ogilvy and Ogilvy-ites are regarded as safe pairs of hands in comparison to the crazies who still inhabit some London creative departments. A&E recently appointed Richard Brim as ECD alongside Ben Tollett.
It’s always hard to know if these reshuffles and hirings actually mean anything or are just ways of keeping (and attracting) talent. But the market for talent in London is definitely becoming more competitive, instanced by the growing number of heads of talent/talent directors in the upper echelons of London agencies.
