Advertising Age reported WPP Chief Marketing & Growth Officer and Open X CEO Laurent Ezekiel—whose latter role involved overseeing the White holding company’s bespoke Coca-Cola unit—is bailing out for Publicis Groupe.
The move signals yet another leader abandoning WPP, although this shift presents additional twists.
For starters, the executive originally spent 16 years at Publicis Groupe before migrating to WPP in 2019. The Coca-Cola EVP Global CMO credits Ezekiel as a key architect in creating the WPP Coca-Cola unit.
Publicis Groupe wrested Coca-Cola’s media business from WPP in March of this year.
The crisscrossing events could all be coincidental, but the scenario sure smells fishy.
There was a time—not so long ago—when the mythical Cola Wars involved battling for global market share with splashy campaigns delivering award-winning entertainment.
Now, the competition features c-suite scheming, corporate politics, and poaching cronies.
WPP’s Laurent Ezekiel leaving for Publicis
By Lindsay Rittenhouse
Laurent Ezekiel, chief marketing and growth officer of WPP and CEO of WPP Open X, its bespoke Coca-Cola unit, is leaving for Publicis Groupe.
His departure comes after Coca-Cola shifted its North America media account from WPP to Publicis after a closed review. It’s unclear what Ezekiel’s role will be at Publicis.
A WPP spokesperson said a successor for Ezekiel will be announced shortly.
Publicis declined to comment.
Manolo Arroyo, executive VP and global CMO of Coca-Cola, confirmed the news in a memo obtained by Ad Age. Arroyo wrote that the beverage giant would work with WPP to identify Ezekiel’s successor.
“When we began our global marketing assessment in late 2020, Laurent was at the center of our partnership and eventually took on the leadership role as CEO,” Arroyo wrote. “He helped architect WPP Open X. ... He established a fully integrated, agile modern marketing team representative of the best of WPP across leading agencies and regions.”
WPP won Coca-Cola’s creative, media, data and marketing technology business spanning more than 200 countries in 2021, and formed the bespoke Open X team to service the account following the win. WPP retained the rest of Coca-Cola’s global business following the recent review.
Ezekiel joined WPP as CMO in 2019 from Publicis, where he had spent the majority of his career beginning in 2003. He most recently was president of North America and international for Digitas and a client lead on Publicis Groupe’s GSK business.
Contributing: Brian Bonilla
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