The exodus at MullenLowe (an IPG merger of Boston-based Mullen and London-based Lowe) continues apace. Now MD Charlie Hurrell is leaving to join Dentsu’s Mcgarrybowen as London MD.
A whole string of Lowe senior managers have left this year as a team from digital agency Profero (now MullenLowe Profero) have taken over the agency.
Hurrell (left) joined Lowe in 2012 as head of account management and was promoted to MD in 2015. She started at Saatchi & Saatchi and has also worked at Fallon and RKCR/Y&R.
Mcgarrybowen CEO Jason Gonsalves says: “We were looking for a unicorn: a creatively driven leader who gets data, media and technology, with the energy and charisma to help take us to the next level. Charlie is our unicorn, she’s a one-off and I’m delighted she’s joining Mcgarrybowen.”
Hurrell says: “I believe the Dentsu Aegis Network and MGB as a catalyst within it, has the leadership and infrastructure to genuinely do something different by leaning into the areas that seem to make other agencies squeamish. There are super talented people there and from brilliant people come brilliant ideas, in all forms. It feels like all my experience so far can now really be brought to bear.”
But is it out of the frying pan into the fire for this particular unicorn? Mcgarrybowen, like many of its US peers, has failed to establish itself as a force in London. Opinions vary with some saying that these US agency brands – even Droga5 – aren’t as famous in the UK as they hoped they were. Clients these days stay in the job for less time and have to grapple with an ever-expanding roster of agencies; digital, social and all the rest of it. By the time they’ve worked out who does what it’s time to move on and let someone else grapple with the problem.
