Advertising Age - October 10, 2011

Slew of plum openings come with a fair share of perks—and challenges

marketing officers. From Target to
Old Navy, Quaker to Taco Bell, there
are some plum openings to be filled
at the moment. But, the marketers
that take the helm will have plenty
of challenges to overcome.

For more news on CMO comings and goings, see CHANGE GAUGE, P. 24

turnover?

SOME OF THE country’s biggest marketers are on the hunt for chief

JCPENNEY
TACOBELL

Mounting new pressures
cited in growing influx
of agency CEO changes

■ BY ALEXANDRA BRUELL abruell@adage.com

LOCATION: PLANO, TEXAS VACANT SINCE: JULY

JCPenney is embarking on a new
chapter in its nearly 100-year
history. Ron Johnson, the brain
behind the Apple retail
experience, surprised the industry
and delighted Wall Street this
summer by announcing he’d be
taking on the CEO role Nov. 1. At
the same time, Mike
Boylson, who led
JCPenney’s marketing
team for more than eight
years, opted to take an
early retirement to pursue
other interests. The
retailer’s agency is Saatchi
& Saatchi.

LOCATION: IRVINE, CALIF.
VACANT SINCE: AUGUST
Taco Bell is Yum Brands’ biggest
and most-profitable brand in the
U.S, and it’s planning an extensive
expansion in China. But the chain
is still suffering from the
aftermath of a lawsuit that
questioned whether its ground
beef was actually ground beef
(the suit was later
withdrawn). Taco Bell’s
franchise council has
griped about the chain’s
handling of the lawsuit
and called for an agency
review. Taco Bell
continues to stand by its
agency, DraftFCB.

OLDNAVY

got the boot for the current
mildly successful music-
themed campaign. Old
Navy works with CP&B.
WHY YOU WANT THE JOB: It’s
a fun, kitschy brand—think
Morgan Fairchild, Vogue’s
Carrie Donovan, Magic the
“spokesdog.” It’s also the
biggest spender in Gap
Inc.’s stable, with a $220
million measured media budget.

WHY YOU DON’T: The former CMO, Amy Curtis-McIntyre, lasted just over a year. CEO Glenn Murphy has been candid in discussing shortcomings of various campaigns, and most recently, those criticisms have targeted Old Navy.

been a consistently
strong performer in the
retail category, posting a
5% sales increase during
the second quarter. Target
works with Wieden &
Kennedy, spending $1.2 billion
on advertising annually.

WHY YOU WANT THE JOB: Former CMO Michael Francis helmed marketing for a decade. There’s a solid base to build on, but bringing in a new marketing chief is an opportunity to inject fresh thinking.

WHY YOU DON’T: Target launched its new e-commerce site, unhitching itself from Amazon, in late August. It hasn’t gone well. Repairing relationships with disenchanted consumers will take time.

TARGET

LOCATION: MISSION BAY, CALIF. VACANT SINCE: JUNE

It’s a brand trying to figure who it’s targeting. There was the ill-fated fast-fashion experiment followed by a shift back to families. That shift was embodied by the Supermodelquins, who managed to be both creepy and lovable, but

LOCATION: MINNEAPOLIS VACANT SINCE: OCTOBER 3

The cheap-chic retailer has long been a favorite among consumers. It continually innovates in marketing—gift cards that double as cameras, models traipsing down the sides of skyscrapers—and design—Missoni, anyone? It’s also

QUAKEROATSCO. OWNED BY PEPSICO

Ad Age. The marketer installed Kathryn Matheson, a 15-year PepsiCo veteran in Canada, on an interim basis.

WHY YOU WANT THE JOB:
PepsiCo says Quaker is a
key part of its strategy to
push nutrition and has
pledged to put more
marketing spending behind the
unit, which got $56 million in
measured media outlays last year.

WH Y YOU DON’T: Quaker is in some tough categories. In oatmeal, for instance, it is fending off private label, plus new competition from McDonald’s and Starbucks.

WENDY’S

LOCATION: CHICAGO VACANT SINCE: APRIL

A small cog in PepsiCo’s machine, Quaker remains profitable but is trying to overcome slumping revenue and market share losses. Kirsten Lynch, CMO since late 2009, left in April to stay home with her family, the company told

LOCATION: DUBLIN, OHIO VACANT SINCE: JUNE

It’s a new day in the executive
suite at Wendy’s. CMO Ken Calwell
departed in June. Then last month
Roland Smith announced he was
leaving his post as president-CEO;
Emil Brolick rejoined Wendy’s to
replace him. The chain’s agency is
Kaplan Thaler Group, and
it spends $280 million on
measured media.

FOR ALL THE talk of the shrinking tenure of CMOs, the heads of media agencies seem to be circling through the revolving door at an even faster pace.

By Ad Age’s count, there have been at least eight major CEO changes at media agencies within the past 18 months. When you consider there are only about a dozen big media networks in total, it’s hard to chalk up the changes to cyclicality.

Here’s the list: At WPP, MEC’s Lee Doyle stepped down, MediaCom’s Harvey Goldhersz replaced Doug Checkeris and Mindshare brought in Optimedia’s Antony Young as Phil Cowdell moved into a chairman role. Over at Aegis, Carat’s Martin Cass is moving into a new role, while at Omnicom Andrew McLean replaced Scott Hagedorn at PHD and at Interpublic’s Universal McCann Jacki Kelley moved into a global role. Havas-owned MPG, meanwhile, saw Shaun Holliday step down.

When we polled industry experts about what’s behind the flux, they pointed to whole new range of pressures that the heads of media shops are facing, from the proliferation of ever-growing media channels to new tracking and measurement tools. Moreover, while in the past, agency CEOs were largely the ones who shouldered the job of bringing in new accounts, today it’s less about new business than it is about making sure you can hang on to existing business while also innovating with new products and revenue streams—all under the pressure of tighter margins.

“The business is hardly about rates
and the [traditional] buying part. You
have to have efficiency and come up
with new ways of buying,” said OMD
CEO Alan Cohen, referring to trading
platforms and auction buying models.
“Media is about navigating the con-
sumer tech revolution and how we’re
going to make ads relevant to a
younger, more fragmented audience.
It’s a challenge a lot of people in media
are not familiar with.”
“If you were a roster agency for one
of the big consumer package-goods
companies, you could hand that down

See MEDIA AGENCY CEOS on Page 28

CONTACT AD AGE ADAGE.COM: AdAgeEditor@adage.com. see masthead on pg 23

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