Former Wunderman Thompson global creative director Jo Wallace (below) is joining S4 Capital’s Media.Monks as a global ECD. Wallace found herself in the national news in 2018 when she was embroiled in the “stale white males” redundancy saga at what was then JWT. she subsequently won a case against the Daily Mail’s reporting.
At JWT then Wunderman Thompson she headed creative on Nestle including KitKat, Aero, Milky Bar, Yorkie and Polo. She also helped launch the Fair NDA initiative – a cross-industry campaign to highlight the misuse of non-disclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases.
Media.Monks CCO Jouke Vuurmans says: “We were looking for someone with the experience of higher-scale enterprise-level companies and, at the same time, we were looking for someone that could manage creatively the conversation and the creative strategy with clients, and has a really deeper knowledge of production, because that’s always our focus. So it was a long search for the right fit but Jo fits the bill perfectly.”
Wallace says: “I always like to think that my best work is ahead of me. I wanted to make sure that my next career step took me somewhere that’s genuinely shaping the future of advertising and taking the industry forward. And I honestly think that MediaMonks will enable me and my team to create our best work.
“They operate at a different level to traditional agencies. When I was speaking to Jouke, I loved that he described MediaMonks as an organism that’s always growing and adapting. I really relished that new way of working and that they are thriving on change and not stuck in the past.”
Let’s hope it isn’t out of the frying pan into the fire for Wallace. Media.Monks recently announced a hiring freeze following an S4C profit warning. The content firm has been accused of taking on more work than it can handle.
