AdWeek has a great interview with the new CEO of MediaCom. (Disclosure: I used to work at MediaCom)
A few distinct quotes caught my attention in the interview:
Were you surprised when MediaCom offered you the top U.S. job?
I was. It wasn’t something I had planned on or saw coming, but it didn’t take a long time to decide it was a good idea. Having spent my career in Canada it was a great opportunity to go and look at something brand new. Having had some distance from it allows more freedom of thinking.
Are you planning any structural changes?
It’s about how do we insure that we bring digital thinking to the core of everything we do.
…and finally one quote in particular that really stood out for me:
Overall, how much of a makeover will MediaCom get in your first year on the job?
There’s an old MediaCom and there will be a new one.
I have many feelings about MediaCom which can of course cloud an objective stance on such a change. From a marketing standpoint it is great to hear that they are receiving a new CEO such as Checkeris. He is talking about some major changes, based on my knowledge of the agency, and time will tell if he is able to make them.
I have stated many things about traditional agencies at Marketing.fm, and maybe some of the things that Checkeris will bring to the table will prevent some of hardships happening to many big firms. Agility, adaptability, innovation, and talent have all been a problem for many major large agencies over the past two years. The sweeping changes happening are no longer simply apparent in the dollars spent on ad flowcharts, but are visible via the decisions of brands to go with different kind of advertising agencies. Some of which did not even exist ten years ago – some less than two years ago. As always, actions speak louder than words so we will see what happens.
In the meantime, I have an open invite to Doug Checkeris to come on the Marketing.fm Podcast for an interview.
[tags] Doug Checkeris, MediaCom CEO, MediaCom, Marketing.fm, Marketing, Advertising Agency [/tags]
