Hasta La Creative!

Publicis announced this morning that Saatchi & Saatchi executive chairman and Publicis Groupe head coach Kevin Roberts will resign as of September 1 — ahead of his previously scheduled May 1, 2017 retirement.

Roberts had been placed on a leave of absence following a Business Insider interview in which he made controversial comments regarding gender diversity issues. He told Lara O’Reilly saying “The fucking debate is all over” and he sees no need to spend “any time” worrying about gender diversity at his agencies. He also dismissed those who spend time campaigning over the issue, taking aim at Cindy Gallop specifically as having “problems that are of her own making.”

The press release from Publicis read simply:

“Publicis Groupe announced today the resignation of Kevin Roberts Head Coach de Publicis Groupe, Executive Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi/Fallon, Member of the Management Board. The Supervisory Board and the Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe took note of Kevin Robert’s decision to step down with effect from September 1st 2016, prior to his retirement date due in May 2017.”

Roberts’ PR firm released his own statement to media in which he apologized for the “upset and offence” caused by his “miscommunication on a number of points.” Here’s the statement in full: 

“Fail Fast, Fix Fast, Learn Fast” is a leadership maxim I advocate.

When discussing with Business Insider evolving career priorities and new ways of work/life integration, I failed exceptionally fast.

My miscommunication on a number of points has caused upset and offence, and for this I am sorry.
I have inadvertently embarrassed Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis Groupe, two companies I love and have been devoted to for almost 20 years.

I have expressed my regret and apology to the companies for the furor my remarks and language stimulated, and I extend this to colleagues, staff and clients.

So that we can all move forward, I am bringing forward my May 1, 2017, retirement from the company, and will leave the Groupe onSeptember 1, 2016.

There is a lot of learning to reflect on, and within the thousands of tweets, comments and articles there are many powerful and passionate contributions on the changing nature of the workplace, the work we do, what success really looks like, and what companies must do to provide women and men the optimal frameworks in which to flourish.

I believe that new thinking, frameworks and measures are needed to make more rapid progress on diversity in all its forms, in all professions and occupations. Hopefully, the focus on this serious and complex issue will gather momentum.

Cindy Gallop, who Roberts mentioned directly, released her own statement to Business Insider in response to the news of Roberts’ resignation. She claims Publicis could have made a greater statement to the women it employs if it had fired Roberts but says she anticipates greater change moving forward.

Gallop’s statement in full:

I’m pleased to see that Kevin Roberts has resigned, given that his comments made him non-credible as a chairman charged with inspiring, motivating and promoting into leadership the thousands of women who work for Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide; as a coach charged with training and developing the industry leaders of the future; and a leader whom huge clients selling brands. products and services to millions of women trust with their own brand reputation, communication and sales.

However, given he was forced to resign, PublicisGroupe would have made a far greater statement to every woman working within their network, at every client brand they represent, and to the industry as a whole, if they had fired him.

I look forward to Maurice Levy and Publicis Groupe now spearheading a very dramatic seachange in the way the white male leadership of our industry welcomes women and people of color up to the leadership ranks shoulder to shoulder with them, and to seeing tangible, visible action on their part in the coming weeks. Starting with Maurice Levy attending and speaking at the 3PercentConference in NYC this Nov 3/4 (where I will also be speaking) – the perfect platform to address the female talent and creativity in our industry and demonstrate how much he values it.

Some context for the interview that led to this imbroglio: O’Reilly declined to speak to us about it directly, but we hear that a PR firm that represents Roberts as a client (but has no relation to the Saatchi or Publicis organizations) set up the meeting when Roberts happened to be in London last month.

This interview was more about promoting Roberts as a thought leader than discussing any of his work or future plans for Saatchi & Saatchi/Publicis Groupe. During the same session, O’Reilly asked him to comment on the current U.S. presidential election; he noted that Donald Trump has a simple and effective slogan and said that Hillary Clinton is “bereft of a selling line … bereft of a dream.”

There do not appear to have been any PR professionals in attendance during the interview. Otherwise someone surely would have told Roberts to either avoid the issue of gender equality altogether or to stop while he was ahead.

It’s not clear at this time whether Saatchi & Saatchi plans to name a successor.

In case you haven’t seen it already this morning, The Publicis Groupe officially rewarded Maurice Levy for his failure today by extending the current chief executive’s role until (approximately) The Avengers 3.

Despite the fact that Levy assured The Guardian that he would “not be seeking a new term” in the halcyon days of 2010 and that other reports had him set to leave next year, it seems that Levy will stick around at least until the approval of all accounts at the end of 2016 — and that he will leave in early 2017.

Obviously, “No clear successor has been appointed to replace Levy.”

Two former candidates will definitely not be replacing him, though.

(more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Over the weekend you may have heard of some newfound uncertainty regarding the world’s soon-to-be-biggest agency: the bastard child of Publicis and Omnicom.

Let’s review the reports, shall we?

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We can’t say that the term “mega region” is embedded in our lexicon, but that’s what they’re calling Publicis North America, the new entity that combines Publicis USA and Publicis Canada to create the largest Publicis Groupe region outside of the holding company’s hub in France.

Eleven-year Publicis vet and Publicis USA boss Susan Gianinno has now assumed the role of chairman of the newly expanded region, focusing on global/regional clients and “priority global initiatives” while working in tandem with recently appointed Publicis Worldwide CEO, Arthur Sadoun. Along with her new chairman role, Gianinno will also be heading to Harvard next for a one-year fellowship. Meanwhile, Andrew Bruce, who has spent the last 15 years at Publicis Canada, where he most recently served as president/CEO, will now take on the CEO post of the newly formed Publicis North America.

Regarding the new moves, Publicis Groupe chief Maurice Levy says in a statement, “This is a wonderful and very prestigious appointment for Susan and for us. I am personally very proud of her and expect that she will bring even more to our people and clients during, and after, this experience. I am sure that under this new team leadership, Susan and Andrew, this new mega region will generate great work for our clients and formidable growth.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In a somewhat surprising weekend move that’s now been broadcast everywhere, French advertising network Publicis and New York-based Omnicom Group announced today that they are merging, supplanting London’s WPP to become to world’s largest advertising firm.

The news comes as a bit of a shock, especially considering the announcement was made on a summer weekend. Reports of merger negotiations first happened on Friday afternoon, followed by more concrete details on the merger coming out yesterday via a report from Bloomberg. The newly christened Publicis Omnicom Group will be led by Omnicom CEO John Wren and Publicis CEO Maurice Levy, who will acts as co-chief executives.

The merger is sending shockwaves throughout the industry, with reaction to news quite mixed. While many agree that shareholders will benefit from the news, looming doubts remain about how the new company will strike a balance of power with its bases split between continents, as well as how Publicis Omnicom Group will go about solving the many client conflicts as competing brands (Coca-Cola and Pepsi, McDonald’s and Taco Bell) are brought under one roof.

Omnicom (whose properties include BBDO, DDB, and TBWA) and Publicis (whose properties include Leo Burnett, DigitasLBi, Saatchi & Saatchi and media giant Starcom) have a combined annual revenue of $23 billion. We’ve heard that Levy has sent out a network-wide email about the merger.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.