Has becoming CEO of a network London creative agency become the impossible brief? James Denton-Clark (below) is departing Saatchi & Saatchi after less than a year, making him the third CEO to go in just four years. Yet Saatchi is currently the UK’s biggest agency according to Nielsen billings, which still count for something.
Saatchi staff will now find themselves reporting to Charlie Rudd, along with those at other Publicis Groupe agencies, Publicis, Leo Burnett and Fallon. Making Rudd the living embodiment of Publicis’ fabled ‘Power of One.’
Omnicom’s AMV BBDO, for decades the Uk’s biggest agencies, has also had revolving doors in its C-suite following the retirement of Cilla Snowball. Xavier Rees from Havas is the latest to give it a shot.
Adam&eveDDB waved goodbye to Helen Andrews, recruited from Wieden+Kennedy, after just six months. She’s off to Johannes Leonardo in New York. Executive chair Tammy Einav is also stepping down. Long-serving Miranda Hipwell is now in the hot seat.
There’s probably never been a more difficult time to be CEO of a London creative agency. Billings are down as money migrates relentlessly to digital and clients move from AOR deals to projects, at lower fees. There’s also a rather gaping talent shortage; clearly observable in the standard of creative work (with one or two notable exceptions, including A&E.) But the travails of CEOs are surely a factor in this. All the great agencies have had top suits who have the ear of top clients and are prepared to go the extra, sometimes unpopular, mile, to get work through. When they only last 18 months there’s clearly a status issue.
Publicis Groupe remains something of an enigma. It seems to be winning on all fronts against its holding company rivals (although Omnicom is showing signs of renewed life) but there appear to be leadership issues at the top of its UK agency pile despite the presence of Rudd, who can’t be expected to do all these jobs for ever. Annette King from Ogilvy was the grand fromage for a spell, UK country manager, but she shipped out for another group role at Accenture Song.
Maybe meeting holding company financial targets in a declining market has just become too hard.
