Ramping up new business

Nerlich leaves her role as North America CEO of Havas, and global chief client officer for the Havas Creative Group. Under her leadership, Havas North America ramped up new business and took top awards at Cannes and at the Effies.

“I am thrilled to join McCann as Global President,” Nerlich said in a statement shared with Adweek. “It’s rare that an opportunity with such a celebrated agency comes along, particularly one that can deliver industry-leading creativity that solves business problems for such an enviable roster of clients,” she continued.

The IPG agency is also fresh off a successful Cannes awards season, in which it ranked in the top five networks and received awards for its Mastercard and Microsoft work. The IPG agency recently won the TJ Maxx, Reckitt’s Durex and Air India accounts.

Nerlich’s appointment follows leadership changes at Worldgroup earlier this year. Those changes resulted in Lee’s appointment and in several MRM and Futurebrand leaders ascending to new roles at the Worldgroup level, pointing to the network’s greater emphasis on group-level structure and resources.

“What’s been happening at McCann, which of course has been happening across the ad agency landscape, is a transformation of capability and of purpose,” Lee told Adweek.

McCann and its sister agencies, MRM, CRAFT and FutureBrand, work alongside the broader IPG ecosystem to execute client work. That includes frequent collaboration with agencies Momentum Worldwide, Weber Shandwick and UM, which Lee previously led.

Under Nerlich’s leadership, Lee hopes clients will provide McCann better performance reviews, that its work will receive more awards and that it’ll grow new business. Integrating the new Worldgroup audience insights technology into the creative agency’s culture, and expanding McCann’s influencer practice, are other goals.

“We would also look at the extent to which, internally, there’s comfort and expertise around audience intelligence globally,” Lee said. He’ll also keep an eye on if McCann client teams feel they have the right understanding, tools, feedback and education to incorporate those insights into their creative processes.