Just over one year ago, Unilever switched out the traditional CMO role for a marketing position that bridged sales and digital. Now the CPG giant, famously one of the world’s biggest advertisers, has reinstated the role. Well, almost.

On Thursday, the Dove and Ben & Jerry’s owner announced that Esi Eggleston Bracey, who currently leads its U.S. business and oversees the personal care division across North America, is set to take on the new position of chief growth and marketing officer.

Sources with knowledge of the matter told Adweek the decision had been made as the business looked to a new era of marketing and creative excellence, creator-generated content, digital growth, AI and performance marketing.

Bracey, previously honored by Adweek as a champion of diversity and inclusion, will now control a marketing budget estimated to be worth $8.3 billion.

Her promotion follows the departure of Unilever’s top marketer, Conny Braams, in August.

Though Braams was originally named Unilever’s chief marketing and digital officer (CMDO) in 2019, her title was updated to chief digital and commercial officer (CDCO) in 2022 to reflect the “blurring lines” between digital marketing and commerce.

“We can now build brands and convert sales at the same time, so why would [we] artificially split that?” Braams told Adweek at the time.

Bracey’s appointment was announced as part of a wide-ranging executive leadership update from CEO Hein Schumacher, who joined in July 2023 from European dairy outfit Royal FrieslandCampina.

Dan Rookwood, operating partner at growth capital firm VGC Partners, said the decision to not only reinstate the CMO role, but modify it, sends a powerful message.

“It’s about clearly linking marketing back to growth. And it’s about underlining the clear business value of building strong brands for the long term,” he said.

“This move will no doubt please Unilever investors. But it should also be seen by all as a powerful endorsement of the value and importance of marketing at a time when marketing budgets are under ever-growing pressure from chief financial officers hungry for cost-cutting and spending only on marketing activity with an immediate return.”

A CMO reprisal

With this announcement, Unilever’s consumer business is putting marketing front and center again, reinstating the chief marketer role with an added growth remit.

It’s understood the CGMO role will no longer comprise customer development. However, Bracey will keep one foot in ecommerce and content through her leadership of Unilever’s network of 29 digital marketing, media and commerce hubs, which pool together talent from across the business to deliver “seamless consumer experiences” across platforms.

With more than three decades in the marketing and advertising industry under her belt, Bracey kicked off her career at Procter & Gamble where she stayed for 25 years, rising up the ranks to lead a host of personal and beauty brands including CoverGirl before eventually being appointed svp and general manager for global cosmetics.

She joined Unilever in 2018. In her role overseeing personal care, she has pioneered Unilever’s purpose-driven approach to marketing, which became the company’s north star under the influence of former CEO Alan Jope. This mean brands including Dove, Hellmann’s and Persil heavily amplified their positive social and environmental impacts through initiatives including the campaign for “Real Beauty” and “Dirt Is Good.”

Bracey spearheaded Dove’s efforts to back the Crown Act, a proposed federal ban on discrimination against people in the workplace based on their hairstyle or texture, which was passed by the House of Representatives last year and put into legislation in several U.S. states.

Changing of the guard

In the three months since he started as CEO, Schumacher has already made several changes at the top of Unilever.

These include the appointment of a new chief financial officer in Fernando Fernandez (currently president of Unilever’s beauty and wellbeing arm), as well as a suite of internal presidential promotions across Unilever’s five core business groups.

Schumacher told investors in the statement announcing these hires that his intention was to drive a “performance culture” at Unilever, with “a renewed team leading the change.”

Predecessor Jope, who made it his mission to assign a purpose to every brand within Unilever’s 400-strong portfolio, drew criticism from investors for a perceived failure to focus on growth. Fundsmith’s Terry Smith was among the most vocal of the company’s detractors, accusing Unilever of “virtue signaling” and having an “obsession” with purpose.

While Unilever has taken some criticism for being focused on brand purpose over commercial performance, there’s plenty of evidence to show its initiatives in ethical sourcing and manufacturing, distribution and positioning have been commercially effective, noted James Murphy, founder and CEO at London-based independent ad agency New Commercial Arts.

This includes Unilever’s own evidence that high-purpose brands deliver greater sales growth.

“The announcement of a growth and marketing role is a sign of climate change within the organization and a focus on building commercial value,” said Murphy.

“In large [corporations] with multiple brands working across different sectors, it’s easy for marketing to become an academic and slightly removed function. The business and its brand can have such scale and momentum that marketeers stop feeling the immediate commercial imperative and become distracted by more theoretical measures and initiatives. This new appointment signals a clear focus on performance and delivery.”

After a 32-year run, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer Chris Capossela is stepping down, as this “new era of AI is upon us,” according to a message to employees from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Top line

Microsoft revealed today that Takeshi Numoto, former evp and commercial chief marketing officer, will assume the position of CMO. This transition comes as Capossela leaves the company after a tenure of over three decades.

“Takeshi has been at the heart of our Cloud transformation, he’s a fantastic systems thinker who works end-to-end across all functions from engineering to finance to operations to sales, and he’s built a great team of marketing leaders,” wrote Nadella.

Between the lines

These leadership changes come as Microsoft is focused on investing in generative AI to power its growth. The company invested $13 billion in AI start-up OpenAI, home to hit product ChatGPT.

In its latest quarterly earnings, Microsoft reported strong sales figures, signaling the positive impact of the company’s bet on generative AI. Revenue jumped 19% to $24.3 billion in the Intelligent Cloud division in the last three months, thanks to a cloud partnership with Oracle.

“About three percentage points of Azure’s growth came from generative AI products, including the access Microsoft provides to OpenAI’s GPT-4 language model,” per The New York Times.

This marks a turnaround for Microsoft’s cloud product, which had previously been grappling with a slow growth trajectory, per the earnings.

Bottom line

Meanwhile, Yusuf Mehdi, who has spearheaded several AI initiatives, will assume Numoto’s previous role as evp and consumer chief marketing officer, reporting directly to Numoto. Mehdi’s responsibilities encompass the oversight of Microsoft’s end-user experiences and the rollout of AI-powered services, with a particular focus on spearheading Microsoft Copilot product marketing.

Microsoft recently closed its nearly two-year fight over the $75 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard.

Following this, the company plans to increase its growth in the gaming market, moving Ami Silverman, corporate vice president for consumer sales, and the consumer sales organization, under its CEO of gaming, Phil Spencer.

Following the announcement that it intends to merge VML Y&R and Wunderman Thompson to create VML next year, WPP will continue its $120 million (100 million pound) simplification drive within its media business GroupM it has revealed while announcing its third quarter figures, including a surprising 1.8% decline in revenue.

The decline in revenue has led the company to lower its growth expectations for the year to between 0.5-1.0% with the cautious spending trend it witnessed before summer, particularly across technology clients. This was largely experienced within GroupM’s North America arm, despite the announcement that it had won PayPal’s global media account this week.

The financial performance within the U.S. market continued to slow for WPP at -4.2% from the previous -4.5% in Q2.

The formation of VML, announced last week, will aim to bring together two complementary businesses within WPP, results in the largest creative agency in the world with a staff base of 30,000. WPP overall employes around 150,000 people.

WPP chief executive Mark Read had previously told Adweek that he believed that the need for scale was more important than it was a year ago while explaining the latest mega merger.

With VML set to begin from Jan. 1, Read claimed together with GroupM, they will make up for 62% of its net sales and headcount.

A new approach for GroupM

The simplification of GroupM will take a different approach, rather than merging any of the agencies within the group: Mediacom, Mindshare and Wavemaker. They will now integrate to offer common products and technology platforms. A plan to streamline their collective operations and back office functions supporting client-facing agencies will also be implemented, including centralized finance, HR and IT support.

Read said that the move would not be “radical,” but it would allow the business to invest more effectively in its offer while allowing it to bring its best people to work on the biggest account opportunities as well.

This shift will also aim to improve the company’s new business performance in North America, which Read said that the capabilities of the business were “strong,” but he felt it was more down to a need to improve its execution on the day of presenting.

The measure will also aim to bring data-business Choreograph more into the heart of GroupM, Read told Adweek, in recognition of the increasing demand for data insights by clients as Google’s third-party cookie cull looms in 2024.

“Our industry has to evolve as the market evolves and clients are looking for different services, mostly technology driven although creativity still remains important,” said Read. “We have to have the world’s best creative talent and we have to support experts in areas around data and technology in ecommerce in AI. And those disciplines … are growing in size, and so this will enable us to change our structure to deliver our services most effectively to our client.”

He added that to improve its fortunes in the U.S., GroupM would also continue to modernize its offer through acquisitions as it has within the influencer marketing space, and invest in creative talent and AI while training to develop its people.

New business, the bribery investigation and Ogilvy’s turnaround

Despite the performance of GroupM in North America, he believes that new business was “improving” citing recent account wins with Estée Lauder’s media account in China, Hyatt’s global creative account, Lenovo’s global creative account, Nestlé’s media account for Europe, Unilever’s media account in Australia and New Zealand and Verizon’s creative account for North America.  

Its new business performance by the client sector saw a decline in tech and digital services by 12.7% and in retail by 8.4% during the last three months. However, Telecom, Media and Entertainment were by +8.4%, Financial Services were up by 3.9%, Healthcare and Pharma were up by 1.5%, CPG grew by 14.5%, Automotive was up by 2.1%, Travel and Leisure was up by 4.1%.

We have senior leaders both from within China and outside China who have stepped in to manage it, and we are instructing independent experts to carry out an independent investigation at this point.

Mark Read, CEO of WPP

The total net new business performance was $1.4 billion (1.7 billion pounds) for the third quarter, bringing it to $3.4 billion (4.11 billion pounds) won for the year-to-date.

Meanwhile, following reports of bribery taking place involving an executive from within GroupM’s offices in China, Read revealed that the individual involved had been dismissed while the business had also stopped dealing with third parties who were alleged to have been involved. Two former employees are also reported to have been involved.

“We have senior leaders both from within China and outside China who have stepped in to manage it, and we are instructing independent experts to carry out an independent investigation at this point,” he added.

Commenting on Ogilvy being named as Adweek’s Global Agency of the Year earlier this month, Read praised the new creative energy and talent brought into the business by its Global CEO, Devika Bulchandani while “unleashing a lot of talent” that already worked there.

“I’m really pleased by the progress they have made,” he said. “Ogilvy will grow 3-4% this year. It’s the first time since before Covid that they have done it, and all credit to them for achieving that.”

It was also revealed that WPP is planning to host a Capital Markets Day in January 2024, when it would reveal more of its strategic roadmap over the next three to five years.

Denstu Group has promoted André Andrade to the role of chief executive (CEO) for Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA). He will now oversee the integrated growth strategy and business execution for the network within the region.

Andrade will join Dentsu’s community of regional CEOs, which is overseen by recently appointed group chief operating officer (COO) Giulio Malegori. He will also sit on the Dentsu Group executive management team.

Andrade succeeds Malegori, who previously held the role of CEO for EMEA.

The executive originally joined Dentsu (then Aegis Media) in 2004 as CEO for Portugal before moving to Madrid in 2011 to take on responsibility for Spain. He then led the network’s Iberia and Sub-Saharan Africa (IBSSA) office in the two years that followed.

With this latest promotion to lead Dentsu EMEA, Andrade will be responsible for 16,000 people across 45 markets. He will be tasked with delivering innovation and people-centered transformation for clients as part of his remit.

“André has shown passion and commitment to bringing together the best of dentsu and spearheaded innovation to deliver integrated solutions at scale,” said Hiroshi Igarashi, President and CEO, Dentsu Group, in a statement. “I am looking forward to working in close collaboration as we continue to focus on putting our clients at the center and delivering a seamless, integrated experience, driving growth and competitive advantage.”

Another element of the role will see Andrade oversee Dentu’s client and solutions hub for EMEA, where he will take charge of driving client-focused strategies to drive integrated growth solutions across the region.

“Having worked with André for many years, I have witnessed first-hand his commitment to leading teams, transforming businesses, and driving client growth,” Malegori said in a statement. “He has extensive understanding of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region which means he is well positioned to understand the diverse needs of our people, clients and consumers.”

In August, the group revealed that organic revenue had declined year on year by 4.7%, claiming that it had been impacted by “continued conservatism” from its technology and finance clients.

The creator economy continues to evolve at a rapid rate. Impacted by current events across multiple industries like the entertainment work stoppages and fossil fuel brands entering the space for the first time to gain the trust of socially conscious Gen Z consumers, creators are at an inflection point in their careers when it comes to their work.

Simultaneously, CMOs and senior brand leaders are facing their own creative challenges as they work on capturing current and new audiences in an oversaturated attention economy.

In response, Meta and Adweek have partnered to create The Creatorverse Exchange, a community-driven program designed to bring together leading minds in the industry from both the creator and brand marketing sectors. The program aims to benefit both groups as they exchange learnings and expertise from their respective fields while collaborating on creative that addresses the senior marketers’ business needs.

Democratizing creativity

The Creatorverse Exchange will team up 10 leading creators and 10 senior brand marketers. Each team will create a piece of creative work for the brand marketer’s company using Meta’s Reels and other tools. The work will serve as a response to a predetermined challenge the senior marketers are seeking to solve (i.e. launch a new app, tell a new story, engage a new audience, promote a new product, bolster a talent brand, etc.)

“We’re finding that while it may not appear to be the case at first, there truly are so many similarities in the day-to-day roles that marketers and creators play. We hope that this program is just the beginning to bring the future of the industry closer together,” said Sylvia Zhou, head of global industry marketing at Meta.

Creative will center on the program theme, Democratizing Creativity. The final product will be presented at Adweek X on Dec. 4 in Los Angeles. Adweek X is an all-new event gathering diverse teams, leadership members and strategic thinkers to exchange perspectives on how brands and businesses around the world can drive the industry forward by making connections and collaborating.

The key players

Collectively, the marketing leaders tapped for the program have more than 150 years of experience in branding, CPG, agencies and B2B marketing across various industries.

The following leaders will be participating in the Creatorverse Exchange Program:

• Katie Welch, CMO, Rare Beauty
• Kim Paige, CMO, BET
• Tatiana Holifield, vp of social content and growth marketing, Sirius XM
• Bianca Bradford, director of agency, Meta
• Jose “Pepe” Gorbea, global head of brands, agencies and sustainability innovation, HP
• Krystal Hauserman, former CMO, 11:11 Media
• Valerie Vargas, svp of advertising and retail marketing, AT&T
• Sherene Jagla, chief demand officer, Impossible Foods
• Kelly Burke, director of brand marketing, Avocados From Mexico
• Soyoung Kang, CMO, eos

Through this project, the creators will teach marketing decision-makers about rewriting the rules of marketing and creativity. Collectively, the group has an audience of 2.7 million followers.

The following creators have been tapped to participate:

Teams will meet once a month virtually for four months, coordinated by Adweek. Each meeting provides space for community, questions and work time.

“Marketers are already navigating how to work with next-gen creatives to drive business growth, but seeking new creative ideas to grow their audience and appeal to new customers is critical,” said Adweek chief experience officer Jenny Rooney. “Marketers who do not embrace this new era of creativity will be left behind.”

The role of diversity and inclusion within creative agencies has been under scrutiny for years now, with many companies introducing executive positions to oversee a maturing workplace culture. Alongside being a sign of progress as businesses become more representational, that is then expected to drive more inclusive work for clients.  

To that end, Dept, which has introduced the aim for 50% of managers to identify as women or non-binary and for 40% of its leadership team to identify as women or non-binary by the end of this year, has hired Sandra Masiliso as its first global diversity, equity and inclusion leader.

Masiliso joins the agency from the BBC, where she was its creative diversity lead for 50:50 The Equality Project and its creative diversity partner. Previously, she was the equality, diversity, and inclusion manager at Newton Europe.

Adweek spoke with Masiliso to hear about what the new role entails within the agency, her experiences of driving DEI within media organizations and how it is being handled more widely by the ad sector around the world.  

Adweek: What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned when it comes to improving DEI practices within an organization? 

Sandra Masiliso: It takes time to both realize and achieve meaningful and sustainable cultural and systemic change. As a DEI professional, my job is to lead on the facilitation of that change, equipping and empowering the business to turn the dial and take steps along the journey.

AW: This is your first time working within an agency environment – what expectations do you have coming into this aspect of the creative sector? 

SM: Coming into this aspect of the creative sector, I am expecting a fast-paced environment, with peers who are both driven and innovative when it comes to thinking of new ideas. This is one of the many factors that attracted me to Dept, and I’m looking forward to partnering with our teams to channel such creativity and bring about change internally.

I also expect the efforts and gains we begin to realize internally will affect the output of our work and delivery to clients. Diversity is a massive driver of new and even greater ideas, and Dept strives to be at the forefront of innovation. In parallel, I’m excited about the possibility of marrying purpose with impact, through the work we do for some of our clients, using the power of creativity for good.

One of my favorite examples is Fingerspelling.xyz, a browser-based app that uses webcam, machine learning, and AI to analyze hand shapes so you can learn the English alphabet in American Sign Language. Through technology, we help bridge the communication barrier between D/deaf and hard-of-hearing children and their hearing peers.

AW: Why did Dept choose to create this role? 

SM: Dept has committed to keeping culture at the core of what we do and how we scale our business. Diversity is one of the drivers of creativity and entrepreneurship, two core values of our business, so we knew that formalizing our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) was a necessary next step.’

It’s important that at the global level, there is an overall, cohesive vision that provides the structure and sets the direction for where we’re heading.

Sandra Masiliso, global diversity, equity and inclusion leader, Dept

AW: Can you outline what your remit will entail and where you intend to even begin? 

SM: I will be developing, creating, and executing a global diversity, equity and inclusion strategy that becomes embedded throughout the culture, values, and ways of working at Dept. Before getting stuck in, I believe the best place to start is to understand the business and the current landscape, listening to the feedback and observations from those at Dept, which will bring to light what’s been working well and where the opportunities lie.

AW: This role will see you tackle the agency’s diversity needs internationally—how do you prepare and take account of different cultures and experiences to bring consistency? That seems like it could be incredibly complex. 

SM: It isn’t easy, but with the right approach, it isn’t impossible. In fact, it’s the various cultures and lived experiences that excite me about the role. It’s important that at the global level, there is an overall, cohesive vision that provides the structure and sets the direction for where we’re heading. Yet also, it’s absolutely vital to remain culturally sensitive and aware, avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to the delivery of that strategy across regions and individual countries.

There’s an opportunity to collaborate with our employee resource groups as well as leverage regional and country-specific data to take account of those experiences and tailor the delivery of strategic priorities and initiatives appropriately.

AW: Recent industry research would suggest that representation progress has either flatlined or gone backward while it has also been deprioritized in a difficult economic climate. Why, in your view, is that a mistake when it comes to business success for agencies?

SM: Despite numerous studies that highlight that diversity increases company productivity and performance, research shows that during challenging economic times, DEI tends to be deprioritized across some industries and organizations that focus on short-term recovery rather than long-term gains impacting functions that don’t directly bring in revenue and are deemed as “nice to have”.

What those organizations may struggle to understand is that such de-prioritization of DEI sees progress in diversity take steps back, and it’s during such hard economic times that diversity is crucial in order to leverage the best ideas and innovation used to solve the most pressing problems to come out of difficult times stronger. Yet also, to remain competitive in an industry where clients are also undergoing cost-cutting measures.

AW: How do you see this role best fitting within the agency in order to be as effective as possible? 

SM: My role will have a focus on the global level, which will ensure that there is a focus on holding onto the bigger picture and the overall cohesive vision at Dept, with regard to DEIB. Partnering with peers and teams at the global level to set the strategic direction is essential to ensure there is an appropriate structure in place. At both the regional and local levels, supporting teams to deliver on the strategic objectives will be imperative to bring about change.

AW: What advice would you have for others handling DE&I within their companies to seek more support in their role? 

SM: Often, DEIB professionals can feel isolated and overwhelmed in their roles due to the vast nature and importance of the role. A key point of advice would be to form relationships with stakeholders across the business, e.g., advocates within leadership teams, employee resource groups, HR/People teams, etc, and align your focus areas with the key priorities of the business. This way, DEIB no longer seems like a “separate task,” and naturally, you’ll gain more support with progressing change.

For luxury conglomerate LVMH, Scotch brand Glenmorangie is a jewel in the crown of its wine and spirits portfolio.  

In 2022, the category brought in just over $7 billion in revenue for the French group. Since 2018, Glenmorangie doubled its profits and charted record sales under the leadership of former president and CEO Thomas Moradpour.

When Moradpour departed after five years in the role in July, the Scotch brand turned to its chief marketer Caspar MacRae to fill the top seat. Just a few months in, he’s making his mark with a strategy that builds on his predecessor’s success by bringing a marketing mindset to the top job.

“Marketers can bring a lot of transferable skills from the CMO role to the CEO one,” he told Adweek.

The path from CMO to CEO is a natural one, he added, not least because marketers are naturally oriented to think customer-first but also since they bring a combination of “left-brain, right-brain” skills to the job.

“Marketers understand how important creativity is, but they also understand the desire and need to drive bottom line growth,” he said.

The commercial value of creativity

MacRae is one of a small group of marketers who have made the leap from CMO to boss in recent months.

Mindfulness app Headspace’s Christine Hsu Evans, one of Adweek’s Marketing Vanguard Award honorees, was promoted to president in July, while in 2022 ex-Artsy CMO Everette Taylor was appointed CEO of crowdfunding marketplace Kickstarter.

Though the CMO position has a famously high churn rate, a recent report from executive search firm Spencer Stuart revealed a growing trend of CMOs moving on up.

The annual survey found that 77% of CMOs who left their jobs at one of the top 100 advertisers last year went on to higher-level positions—divisional manager, president or executive vice president, for instance—either within their own organization or at another company.

MacRae believes this evolution is rooted in marketers’ awareness about the “transformative value of creativity,” which can easily translate across other business functions.

In his previous role, MacRae committed to making Glenmorangie’s selection of single malts and blends more accessible to drinkers across all demographics. He introduced “It’s Kind of Delicious and Wonderful” in 2020, a brand proposition created in tandem with DDB Paris and Bill Lumsden, the veteran distiller behind Glenmoragnie’s single malts.

The platform ditched legacy whisky tropes in favor of colorful creative intended to showcase how whisky could elevate special experiences. MacRae said it’s helped the brand “perform very strongly” commercially.

As he climbs the C-suite ladder, MacRae is still focused on putting creativity and curiosity at the heart of everything the brand does.

“That mindset is essential for companies in our line of business to succeed, whether you’re talking about whisky makers, artists or creatives,” he explained. “You need to invest in creativity to build brand value.”

Innovation and curiosity

“It’s Kind of Delicious and Wonderful” has become a brand manifesto, according to MacRae, informing the brand’s marketing and product decisions globally.

“It’s not just given our comms a new perspective, it’s informing our innovation too,” he said.

While the distiller searches for another marketer to fill his previous role, MacRae is leading the charge on a campaign to promote A Tale of Tokyo, the newest blend from Lumsden, who has travelled extensively through Japan and long held a fascination with the country. The new blend was matured in rare Japanese mizunara oak casks in homage to Tokyo.

To commemorate the release, Glenmorangie called upon Japanese artist Akira Yamaguchi to design artwork that will adorn each bottle’s packaging.

The design showcases the artist’s perspective of the city, including landmarks and characteristics from both Tokyo and the Highland distillery, as well as traditional Japanese pastimes with nods to the whisky’s flavors.

Often described as the “Willy Wonka of Whisky,” Lumsden’s unconventional approach is actually what attracted MacRae to go work at Glenmorangie in the first place, he revealed.

“[Bill] is pretty much the epitome of nonlinear thinking,” the CEO said. “He’s always surprising us with his ideas, which are always a great creative leap-off point from a brand and marketing perspective.

“He’s been instrumental in his whole outlook, which embodies our brand values and purpose,” he added.

“There’s a wonderful synergy between the way he makes whisky. He does it in a way that is full of curiosity and imagination. We love embodying that in the brand itself. It’s fair to say that he’s, is in some ways, a creative director for the brand.”

In a business sector that has seen the emergence of Deloitte and Accenture into the advertising sector, WPP’s merger of two of its flagship agencies—VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson—to form an entity of 30,000 people across 64 markets is, in some ways, a response to that competition.

Mark Read, CEO of WPP, told Adweek he has been developing the move with the leadership of VML since the summer, when he first proposed the concept of bringing the agencies together to the new entity’s global CEO Jon Cook and global president Mel Edwards.

“You only have to look at what’s going on with AI and technology to understand that scale matters,” Read told Adweek. “Clients need great creative ideas. They need the application of technology, increasing AI, to their business and their processes, and they need a global scale and consistency around the world, and bringing these two agencies together can deliver that. They are very complementary in terms of geographic strengths and their expertise in commerce and marketing technology.”

Another fundamental reason for the merger is to create what WPP claims to be “the industry’s largest creative company,” while eradicating duplication of services and skills.

The process of the merger began with a discussion about how to make WPP a stronger company and better serve clients while attracting top-tier talent.

The two agencies are both themselves the result of previous mega mergers from the last five years. In November 2018, Wunderman and J Walter Thompson were combined under Edwards’ leadership just two months after VML and Y&R merged under Cook. Since then, they have partnered together over the years, working with clients such as Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé and The Coca-Cola Company.

The world does move on, and these brands have to move on as well.

Mark Read, chief executive, WPP

With the announcement made and the formation of VML set to be completed by Jan. 1, the work begins to integrate them. An internal source has already informed Adweek the merger will see greater investment in the creative, strategy and technology sides of the business, with non-client-facing resources likely to be reviewed around duplicated resources.

“VML will be the world’s largest creative company and probably the leading agency in seven or eight of the world’s top 10 economies,” Read said of his ambitions for the new agency. “For clients looking to have a partner that can help them seed around the world and for people looking to build a great career, I think it’ll be a powerhouse. It’s committed both to creativity and to innovation and technology.”

He also cited the rising application of AI as “a once-in-a-lifetime shift” for the business, which he added wouldn’t have been “easy to do 25 times within one company.”

Meanwhile, in one fell swoop, with the return to the VML brand comes the loss of three major legacy agency brands—Wunderman, JWT and Y&R. And while Read has worked with all three and was CEO of Wunderman prior to his rise to lead WPP, he doesn’t believe there is room for sentiment as a barrier to progress.

“They’re great brands, and I can have nostalgia for them as much as anybody else,” he said. “But I think the world does move on, and these brands have to move on as well.”

Other leadership roles announced following the formation of VML include Debbi Vandeven as global chief creative officer; Eric Campbell as global chief client officer; Juan Pablo Jurado as CEO for LATAM; Ewen Sturgeon as CEO EMEA; and Audrey Kuah and Yi-Chung Tay, co-CEOs for APAC.

WPP has merged Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R to create VML, a new agency that combines brand experience, customer experience and commerce under the leadership of Jon Cook as global CEO and Mel Edwards as global president.

The merging of the two agencies creates a business of more than 30,000 people in 64 markets.

According to WPP, the new entity will begin doing business on Jan. 1, supporting clients on creative brand growth strategy and transformation while offering data operations, technology platforms and partnerships with major tech companies, which Wunderman Thompson has partnered with to develop its AI offering. It will also offer B2B and healthcare services.

In a statement, Mark Read, CEO of WPP, said: “Scale matters in today’s world as AI and technology transform marketing and global clients look to simplify their relationships. VML will combine world-class creativity with deep expertise in data, marketing technology and platforms to deliver competitive advantage for ambitious brands. It’s another important step forward for WPP as we continue to reshape our offer for the future, simplify our business and unlock further benefits of scale.”

He continued: “Separately, Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R are two of WPP’s strongest and best performing agencies. Together, they will deliver an even wider, fully integrated suite of capabilities to our clients in every market. Marketers today expect seamless links between their brand advertising and technology solutions and platforms. VML provides an immediate solution to this business imperative.”

Immediate leadership appointments include Debbi Vandeven as global chief creative officer; Eric Campbell as global chief client officer; Juan Pablo Jurado as CEO for LATAM; Ewen Sturgeon as CEO EMEA; and Audrey Kuah and Yi-Chung Tay, co-CEOs for APAC.

“The future of building strong brands and businesses requires the interconnectivity of brand experience, commerce and customer experiences,” said Cook in a statement. “We recognized the immediate opportunity to create what every consultancy and advertising agency aspires to build with the formation of VML. We’re especially excited to present our new offering to the industry, as we don’t believe there is another company as creatively awarded with our depth in customer experience and commerce.”

Edwards added: “This is the right suite of capabilities, offered at just the right moment, at unprecedented scale. … The opportunities it affords our people and the growth we can deliver for our clients at a global scale make this a real game-changer for each business and the wider industry.”

Previously, Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R have partnered globally across clients such as Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé and The Coca-Cola Company.

The rationale for the merger will see greater investment in the creative, strategy and technology sides of the business, with non-client-facing resources likely to be reviewed as a result.

How do you reach multicultural audiences in a market that’s rapidly approaching a “majority-minority” status?

The Community, which has just been crowned Adweek’s 2023 Multicultural Agency of the Year, is helping brands figure out just that.

On the latest episode of Yeah, That’s Probably an Ad, community editor Luz Corona and digital editor Colin Daniels are joined by The Community’s CEO, Luis Montero, at Brandweek’s Marketing Vanguard lounge to discuss how the agency’s approach to creative goes back to its roots planted by brothers Joaquín and Jose Mollá.

The Publicis-owned shop also chimes in on its inclusivity commitments inside and outside its (unique) office walls, which house staff from across 30-plus nationalities.

Stream the new episode below, listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or find it on Spotify.

This story is part of the “Building a Better Agency” special feature.