TRAVERSE32, the long-form entertainment production studio part of IPG Mediabrands, will move under creative network McCann. As part of the transition, TRAVERSE32 global president Brendan Gaul will join McCann as its first global chief entertainment officer.
In the new role, Gaul will continue to run TRAVERSE32 while leading entertainment property development at McCann. The move aims to make it easy for McCann’s clients to extend their brand platforms into long-form, Hollywood-style storytelling, while keeping brand-owned IP closer to creative teams with the infrastructure to package, distribute, and protect it.
“The role is to take the work that is being developed by our creative teams within McCann and say, ‘is there also an entertainment idea there?’” Gaul said.
TRAVERSE32’s team of six will join McCann as a dedicated, on-demand resource for its global creative teams looking to extend client work into entertainment.
“Sometimes there’s a brief that comes in and the client says, ‘I want to make a film.’ Now we have the right expertise within McCann to help tackle that challenge together,” Gaul said.
Gaul added that McCann “has a long history of creating things in culture that transcend advertising,” from A Charlie Brown Christmas for Coca-Cola to the agency’s appearance in the final episode of Mad Men. TRAVERSE32’s work includes Dear Santa, a documentary and series for the U.S. Postal Service; 5B, a documentary about an AIDS ward for Johnson & Johnson; and The Final Copy of Ilon Specht for L’Oréal Paris, about the copywriter who coined the brand’s famous “Because I’m Worth It” tagline, which won the 2025 Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Film.
Brands, Meet Hollywood
Gaul said long-form entertainment can “move some of the hardest to move metrics” for brands. He pointed to Dear Santa for the USPS, which was tested in multiple formats—a trailer, a 30-minute TV episode, and a 90-minute film—and consistently showed that “the longer the audience stays with the work, the more the metrics move in favor of the brand.”
Such projects not only engage audiences in a new way, but also “build a different kind of partnership with the most senior of brand clients,” Gaul said.
For Gaul, the new role marks a return to McCann, where he began his career 22 years ago as an art director. He has since built his career on creating Hollywood-style entertainment for major brands like L’Oréal, Johnson & Johnson, and the USPS.
“Now there’s almost a calling from the most senior brand marketers that are really looking for that kind of work,” he said.
