Do Agencies Need Chief Digital Officers?

In 2012 what’s the role of a chief digital officer? Is it still needed?
That’s a fair question. Agencies still need to move farther and faster to bring in more digital talent and understand how to play in the digital landscape for clients, understand technology and the social landscape and bring it all together for clients. There’s still a lot of places in organizations where they need to understand digital processes, how it gets made and delivered well. I’ve been in the digital game now for 12 years. To be able to bring that to McCann and to decide what kind of people to bring in and build teams and analytics and infuse that into the great people there and the great stuff they’re already doing — that’s the role.

Is there still a divide between digital and traditional agencies? You’ve worked in both.
My philosophy is increasingly clients don’t want to have multiple specialist agencies. Once upon a time the traditional agencies didn’t have the digital chops. Over the last five years as you look at Crispin and Goodby, agencies that have historically been traditional have proven they can be integrated and do digital well. What we’re seeing from clients is they want to have one set of people to understand their brand and move their business forward. They don’t want to have the baton passed.

What’s your favorite thing about advertising and least favorite thing?
I love getting to learn about new businesses. I love the variety. One day you’re working on Clorox the next Intel. That’s one of the great parts of this business. The least favorite is more and more the involvement of procurement and the commoditization what we do that turns it into a calculus rather than focusing on the ideas and the value we can bring. That’s the tough part of the business for sure.

You’re based in San Francisco. What do you think Madison Avenue misses in being as innovative as startups and tech companies?
We try really hard to be connected to Silicon Valley. It’s one of the reasons I want to do this role from San Francisco. I want to continue to have those doors open and see what’s coming next. One of the challenges is we do this thing here in Tribal, innovation sessions. We bring in a startup. Sometimes we say it has little application to our clients or commercial bearing. Other times we say it’s perfect, but then you have to figure out how to work with these guys who are still evolving their model. If you’re a client where every dollar counts so much, you have to have your act together. You have to show how it will make a difference. The challenge right now is there isn’t nearly as much innovation budget or experimentation budget that used to exist more five years ago. It’s getting tougher. There’s also a lot of investment money that’s been around. It’s hard to keep pace with everything that’s starting. There’s stuff getting funded where it’s not clear why it should exist. There’s a challenge of finding the right ideas and how you work with them and get clients to pay for it.