When any industry goes through a process of upheaval – especially when it involves heavy redundancies – it’s right to focus on the troops as they bear the cost, often losing their jobs.
But being one of the managers charged with overseeing such upheavals can’t be much fun unless terminating people rocks your boat.
It’s interesting that VML’s Jon Cook is following hard on the heels of Omnicom Advertising Group’s Troy Ruhanen in stepping down from one of the key jobs as the industry is changing: Ruhanen, who’s being replaced by BBDO’s Andrew Robertson, masterminded (if that’s the right word) the merger of FCB into BBDO and demise of DDB as Omnicom bought IPG; Cook had the even bigger job of merging his VML with WPP’s JWT, Wunderman and Y&R to create what was the world’s biggest creative agency. At the time few people on this side of the Atlantic knew what VML was. To say that executives at the other agencies were surprised is a huge understatement.
Yet Cook, who’s being succeeded by another lifer at the one-time Kansas City digital agency, Eric Campbell (both below, Cook right) is reckoned to have done a pretty good job, eventually overseeing Ogilvy, Grey, Burson, AKQA, Landor and Design Bridge & Partners as head of the recently-minted WPP Creative. We wait to see if this really will become one company (which would be one way to get rid of even more people.)
Cook says: “This has been one of the hardest decisions I have ever made in my life. But after three decades of pouring everything I have into this agency and all of WPP, it is time to build something new. VML and WPP Creative are operating from positions of tremendous strength and this is the right moment for other voices to lead. I am immensely proud of our teams, the iconic work we produce with our clients and the one-of-a-kind culture we have built. I look forward to working closely with Cindy (Rose, CEO) and the WPP and VML leadership teams over the coming months to execute a thoughtful transition.”
The job facing the head of any creative agency these days is finding enough work at the right price to keep everyone gainfully employed. This is particularly tough for many ad folk who, incorrigible optimists that they are, think mainly of growth and, gleefully, of poaching talent from their rivals as they grow.
These days, alas, it’s the other way round and WPP still has some thinking to do about its creative senior management and structure.
