Well that didn’t last long.
Publicis Groupe CCO and Publicis Communications president Nick Law (below) is reported by Ad Age to be leaving the French-owned marcoms group after just 18 months. To join Apple in an as yet undefined role – which is less of a surprise. Law spent 17 years at Interpublic’s R/GA.
Sometimes these big appointments work and out an sometimes they don’t of course. But Law’s departure is the last thing Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun needs as he tries to convince the creative agencies in his empire that they still have an important role as the group’s ‘Power of One’ philosophy groups them together in Publicis Communications.
There’s also the feeling that Publicis is more interested in tech-based consultancy these days than advertising. It’s just spent $4.4bn on data firm Epsilon following the vexed $3.7bn acquisition of Sapient to become Publicis.Sapient.
Nobody is saying anything publicly so far. Apple, of course, is an attractive suitor, taking more of its creative work in-house and, as one of the world’s biggest and richest companies, having the means to do pretty much whatever it likes with the best talent and the biggest budgets.
That’s not the way in the ad holding companies any more. Wonder what Publicis’ new AI tool Marcel will say about it?
