17331: Expelling Excrement On The CMOs’ Expectations Study.

 

More About Advertising reported on the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) CMOs’ Expectations Study, which revealed what CMOs really want from White advertising agencies.

 

The study spotlighted an obvious contradiction. Specifically, CMOs are seeking relationships built on trust and deep business involvement—yet they prevent the possibilities via constant pitching and switching.

 

Not mentioned in the study is how CMOs perpetuate systemic racism in Adland by pursuing partnerships from an exclusive pool of White advertising agencies.

 

What’s more, CMOs comprise an exclusive, predominately White group themselves.

 

After all, there’s plenty of data showing non-White advertising agencies are underrepresented, underutilized, and underpaid by clients. The few shops receiving assignments are compensated with crumbs.

 

Sorry, the CMOs’ Expectation Study shows CMOs can be expected to deliver deliberate discrimination, disinterest, and disrespect.

 

EACA report: do clients actually want real agency partners?

 

By Stephen Foster

 

A new report from the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) with Kantar, reveals the contradiction at the heart of what clients want from their agencies.

 

The CMOs’ Expectations Study reveals that nearly all (94%) clients believe agencies can be true partners they can trust but they continue to undermine the process of building trust by constantly holding pitches and changing partners.

 

Nearly half of those questioned ran a pitch within the last year, and 65% of those resulted in an agency change. Such constant turnover makes it harder to agencies to behave as true partners and produce more effective communications. Research into Effie Europe 2025 entries reveals that partnerships that have lasted five years or longer are far more effective and successful than those that have shorter tenures.

 

The report, designed to help agencies understand how they can better meet client needs, is the most comprehensive European study to date on what CMOs expect from their agencies, based on responses from 141 different companies in 22 European markets, with 95% of respondents in marketing/communication or top management roles across a broad range of brand-driven sectors such as consumer goods, banking, insurance, energy, tech and services.

 

EACA worked closely with Kantar to analyse responses, using both closed-question analytics and open-ended semantic analysis, delivering both a clear ranking of CMO priorities and a deeper understanding of the emotional and cultural expectations shaping today’s client–agency relationships.

 

The result is a clear hierarchy of what truly convinces CMOs when choosing an agency, or to continue to work with an existing partner. Trust (49% first choice) and deep business involvement (41%) emerge well ahead of creativity. However, both can only really develop over time and are constantly undermined by inefficient repitching, where six out of 10 winning ideas are never even implemented.

 

Creative excellence remains important (it’s a Top Three factor for 72% of respondents), but only when paired with strategic intelligence, operational reliability and strong brand stewardship.

 

“This report confirms the anecdotal evidence from the industry that the agency remit is continuing to expand, with client expectations at an all-time high, while output timelines are shrinking,” says Charley Stoney, CEO of EACA. “It is critical that the industry tackles these expectations and work with advertisers to help them flex remuneration models that pay for this expanded remit, included technology investment. It supports the EACAs opinion that agencies need to move away from the time-based payment structure towards an agile model that works with a blend of human and artificial intelligence services.”

17304: Unilever CMGO Going Away.

 

Adweek reported on CMO moves at Unilever, whereby the mega-marketer appears to have simultaneously reduced DEIBA+ and increased the employment challenges faced by US Black women.

 

Unilever Won’t Replace the CMGO Title as Esi Eggleston Bracey Exits 

 

Instead, beauty and wellbeing CMO Leandro Barreto will add enterprise duties to his remit

 

By Rebecca Stewart

 

Esi Eggleston Bracey, Unilever’s chief marketing and growth officer (CMGO), is set to leave in January 2026 after just over two years in the role and eight years with the business.

 

The CMGO position will not be replaced like-for-like, Unilever confirmed to ADWEEK. Instead, Leandro Barreto, chief marketing officer, Unilever Beauty and Wellbeing, will extend his remit to include Unilever’s enterprise marketing agenda.

 

The move reflects what Unilever describes as the next phase of its marketing transformation, which will bring global marketing capabilities closer to its business groups, resulting in faster execution and impact.

 

Bracey will stay on through January to support Barreto in the transition.

 

A new marketing era

 

In 2023, Unilever (which owns over 400 brands) restructured its business around five key groups: personal care; beauty and well-being; nutrition; home care; and ice cream, which was spun off in December 2025 as the Magnum Ice Cream company.

 

As the restructuring took hold, Eggleston Bracey was appointed as CMGO to lead the team of marketers overseeing these divisions.

 

She also took responsibility for Unilever’s network of digital marketing, media, and commerce hubs, which pool talent from across the business to deliver “seamless consumer experiences” across platforms.

 

Bracey joined Unilever in 2018 as evp and chief operating officer overseeing its personal care division in North America.

 

During that time, she pioneered the company’s then purpose-driven marketing approach. She also spearheaded Dove’s efforts to back the Crown Act, a proposed federal ban on workplace discrimination based on hairstyle or texture.

 

In her two years as CMGO, Bracey has been credited with leading Unilever into its digital marketing era, placing an emphasis on driving brand relevance at scale across brands, including Dove, Hellmann’s, and Persil. She’s also pioneered AI experiments to drive marketing and content efficiencies.

 

Barreto, a 23-year Unilever vet, will now be tasked with bridging Unilever’s long-term growth ambitions with business group-level execution.

 

A ‘sales and marketing’ machine

 

Since taking the reins in March 2025, CEO Fernando Fernandez has been increasing Unilever’s marketing budget to build a “marketing and sales machine” in an environment ripe with challengers and where consumers are cutting discretionary spend.

 

So far, his strategy has included a pledge to invest 30 to 50% of its $8 billion annual ad spend to “social-first” campaigns, and work with 20-times more influencers in the process.

 

Beauty and wellbeing, for which Barreto oversees marketing, have been central to pushing up Unilever’s profits, which increased 3.9% year-on-year to reach $17.2 million in October.

16848: Verizon Extinguishes Heat Shield, Exponentially Expands Exclusivity.

 

Adweek spotlighted performative PR presented by Verizon following the decision to quietly dissolve its annual adfellows heat shield. Launched in 2017 by former Verizon CMO Diego Scotti, adfellows will reportedly be integrated across existing talent development programs.

 

The Verizon SVP Chief Talent and Diversity Officer vomited the following corporate gobbledygook:

 

“[Verizon’s] strategy for talent has evolved. … It’s really about integration, not isolation. … This is really about us investing and hopefully having these folks work at Verizon. … The intent is to continue to focus on this space and grow it bigger. … We are not abandoning the goals [or] the investment in diverse talent in advertising and marketing.”

 

First, what was/is Verizon’s strategy for talent—and how has it evolved? Incidentally, Verizon’s SVP Chief Talent and Diversity Officer joined the company in 2022. So, it appears CDOs—like CMOs and CCOs—are prone to come on board and shake things up, providing little rationale for the disruptions.

 

Second, the “integration, not isolation” notion sounds… odd. According to Adweek, adfellows created career growth opportunities for diverse candidates. Who will be integrated with whom? Wasn’t the program supposed to address isolation experienced by the underrepresented?

 

Third, “This is really about us investing and hopefully having these folks work at Verizon” counters an original goal. That is, adfellows also exposed participants to opportunities with White advertising agencies, consultancies, and brands. It was part of Scotti’s diversity demands directed at enterprises partnering with Verizon. Turning adfellows into an internal recruitment tool essentially ignores and ignites the exclusivity in Adland.

 

Fourth, claiming Verizon is “not abandoning the goals [or] the investment in diverse talent in advertising and marketing” smells like bullshit. Adweek noted 97% of adfellows graduates were offered full-time roles upon program completion. Why would such strong outcomes inspire ending the initiative?

 

Finally, the Verizon SVP Chief Talent and Diversity Officer said cutting adfellows resulted in the layoff of one person. It would be outrageously ironic if the dismissed employee was a person of color.

 

To summarize, nixing adfellows probably represents developing disinterest, disrespect, and disdain for DEIBA+ dedication.

 

Verizon Quietly Cuts Adfellows Program, Severing Key Path for Diverse Ad Talent

 

The program had recently planned to increase its fellowship class by 2026

 

By Cydney Lee

 

Verizon is ending its annual adfellows program, ADWEEK has learned. 

 

Founded in 2017 by the telco’s former CMO Diego Scotti, adfellows’ nine-month fellowship provided career growth opportunities for diverse candidates. 

 

Adfellows will now be integrated across Verizon’s early talent programs, according to Christina Schelling, svp and chief talent and diversity officer. These include collegiate internships, military fellowships, and apprenticeships for people from underserved communities looking to switch careers.

 

One person was laid off as a result of the program’s closing, she said.

 

Schelling said the decision to sunset adfellows was because the telco’s “strategy for talent has evolved.”

 

She said BIPOC talent have a better opportunity in Verizon’s early talent programs, as opposed to something standalone. “It’s really about integration, not isolation,” she said.

Adfellows’ final cohort is slated to graduate in May 2025. The adfellows name will be sunset, and its previous website URL reroutes to the Verizon careers home page. 

Schelling claimed Verizon will continue cultivating diverse talent.

 

“We will still be just as direct and clear as far as making sure that we are advancing underrepresented and diverse employees, candidates, [and] people for the advertising and marketing sector,” she said.

 

According to its 2023 environmental, social, and governance (ESG) report, 60.3% of its U.S.-based workforce identify as women and minorities.

 

A pipeline to a diverse ad industry

 

Unlike Verizon’s other early talent programs, adfellows was designed to shepherd diverse talent into the marketing and advertising industry through rotational programs and career acceleration opportunities. Fellows have gone to work at major agencies, consultancies, and brands, including R/GA, Accenture, and Walmart.

 

During the program, fellows rotated through various roles at partner brands and agencies, such as Publicis New York, McCann New York, and Disney Advertising, to better understand what a career in the industry might look like. After four rotations across nine months, the cohort graduates, and many are offered full-time positions, either at the companies where they rotated or at Verizon.

 

A version of the adfellows website from July 2024 touted that 97% of graduates were offered full-time roles upon completion of the program.

 

The fellowship is fully paid and required eligible candidates to have a bachelor’s degree, over a 3.0 grade point average, and to be able to work in the U.S.

 

Schelling confirmed this pipeline “won’t exist in the way that it had with adfellows,” and that the company is shifting its resources toward internal recruiting efforts. 

 

“This is really about us investing and hopefully having these folks work at Verizon,” she said. 

 

The decision to sunset the program comes 18 months after Scotti departed Verizon, though a Verizon spokesperson said changes to the program were “well underway” before new CMO Leslie Berland’s arrival in December. 

 

But in May 2022, Verizon had planned to expand the program by increasing each cohort from 30 fellows to 250 fellows by 2026.

 

Verizon says DEI is still a priority

 

Schelling maintained that DEI is still a priority for Verizon, especially as many large companies retreat from commitments to underrepresented groups. 

 

In 2025, Verizon plans to create a marketing track for its Verizon Leadership Development Program, a two-year rotational program for early-career employees transitioning into full-time roles at the company. Verizon said it plans to use learnings from adfellows for the new marketing track.

 

“The intent is to continue to focus on this space and grow it bigger,” Schelling said. “We are not abandoning the goals [or] the investment in diverse talent in advertising and marketing.”

16817: Programming Chief Marketing Officers…?

 

Here are additional thoughts about the previously spotlighted Kellogg Executive Education | Chief Marketing Officer Program:

 

Does the program cover CMO consideration for diverse vendors—as well as scrutinizing the diversity of White advertising agencies chosen as partners? Historically, CMOs seemingly prefer to underutilize, underfund, and undermine non-White enterprises—and appear overjoyed to conspire with White ad agencies.

 

Why is the program an invitation-only affair? The Northwestern Kellogg website states, “The CMO program is invitation-only to ensure a strong peer group.” Um, that sounds like perpetuating Whites Only exclusivity.

16815: Does CMO Program Cover Conscience Coursework?

 

Does the Kellogg Executive Education | Chief Marketing Officer Program include coursework on considering how self-absorbed decisions adversely impact the livelihoods of workers at White advertising agencies? Probably not.

16741: Performative Primer On Supplier Diversity.

 

While Northwestern Kellogg School of Management offers a Chief Marketing Officer Program for 12 months, University of Chicago offers an Inclusive Business and Supplier Diversity Strategies Course in one day. Yep, sounds about right in terms of dedication and prioritization.

 

Although Chief Marketing Officers and advertisers will continue to perpetuate non-White suppliers’ underutilization, underfunding, and underrepresentation—while White advertising agencies will continue to fabricate performative heat shields to check boxes on the subject.

 

In Adland, systemic racism is in endless supply—and needs no formal instruction.

16727: Programming Chief Marketing Officers.

 

Northwestern Kellogg School of Management offers a 12-month Chief Marketing Officer Program…?

 

Seems like a lengthy course, given CMOs tend to last for roughly 4.2 years. So, maybe the lessons include instruction for making rapid transitions—as well as Caucasian cronyism.

16607: Cultural Appropriation, Minimal Allocation.

 

Mediapsssst at MediaPost spotlighted a new campaign from the Hispanic Marketing Council that cautions Chief Marketing Officers on adverse career consequences associated with creating inauthentic Latino marketing via insufficient funding.

 

In short, engaging in ‘Latino Coating’ for crumbs could lead to being bounced from C-Suite to CUL8R.

 

Unfortunately, HMC can offer no data to support the position. Indeed, the typical CMO has thrived by allocating underwhelming interest, intelligence, and investment toward Latino marketing—or any other non-White marketing. You can’t beat the systemic racism, amigos.

 

So, the HMC campaign presents empty threats—unless they can rouse the public to threaten boycotts or threaten legal action.

 

¡Ay crumba!

 

HMC To CMOs: Continue ‘Latino Coating’ At Your Own (Career) Risk

 

By Richard Whitman, Columnist

 

The Hispanic Marketing Council today unveiled a new campaign calling on marketers to stop the practice of “Latino Coating.” Which is kind of like greenwashing but instead of pretending to care about the environment, it’s about brands that pretend to care about properly marketing to Hispanic communities.

 

Or as the Council put it in a statement, “Latino Coating is defined as a superficial marketing approach coating products, campaigns, media or entertainment with Latino elements for the appearance of diversity without genuine understanding or respecting Latino culture. This behavior involves surface-level attempts at inclusion, such as incorporating stereotypical imagery, language, or cultural elements into marketing campaigns, without a deeper connection or meaningful representation.”

 

The Council cites research that the Hispanic market constitutes 20% of the U.S. population and represents $3.2 trillion in GDP, “essentially making it the fifth largest economy in the world.” By contrast, brands spend less than 4% of their advertising budgets on Hispanic-targeted efforts.

 

The creative development for campaign, #StopLatinoCoating, was led by Luis Miguel Messianu, Founder, President and Chief Creative Officer of MEL (Messianu Edelman Lerma). Creyentes and Casanova//McCann also contributed, with input from the Council’s board.

 

“To us, Latino Coating is a form of cultural appropriation that seeks to capitalize on Latino identity for marketing purposes without genuinely valuing or respecting the culture,” explained Messianu. “It’s akin to whitewashing, greenwashing, or rainbow washing, but it preys on Latino identity—offering a mere illusion of inclusivity by adding Latino elements on the surface. It’s activating during Hispanic Heritage Month and patting yourself on the back.”

 

The Council also points to McKinsey research asserting that more than a third of Latinos are dissatisfied with current products or value propositions being offered.

 

“CMOs who do the bare minimum, check boxes and engage in Latino Coating are not only doing their organizations a disservice but they are also risking their careers,” the Council warns.

 

The HMC offers the following advice:

 

• Increase Hispanic marketing spend levels commensurate with the Latino $3.2 trillion buying power. The general market is dead, and marketers must be savvier to capture the hearts and minds of today’s multicultural consumer.

 

• Delve deeper into understanding Latino culture, respecting its complexity, and acknowledging diverse perspectives and experiences to ensure their products and services stay relevant and valuable to Latinos.

 

• Ensure there’s meaningful representation. Authenticity comes from genuinely representing Latino communities, not just by being visible but by understanding and respecting their values and experiences. Latinos don’t want to be targeted; they want to be seen and valued.

 

• Seek and pay for the right help. Work with partners who truly understand the Latino cultural context so brands can forge real connections with the U.S. Hispanic market.

 

More from the campaign can be found here. It was introduced at the HMC’s annual summit in New York.

16261: Dysfunctional Disconnection From Verizon…?

 

Advertising Age published a lengthy lambasting of former Verizon CMO Diego Scotti, painting him as a head-butting butthead prone to bullying behavior. The report also presented all that is wrong with Adland, including exclusive parties in exotic locales attended by CEOs of White holding companies.

 

Additionally, Ad Age quoted anonymous executives who charged Scotti exhibited dual identities—a Jekyll and Hyde whose self-hype sharply contrasted his self-absorption. An example of the two-faced tendencies involved Scotti’s alleged dedication to DEI, which turned out to be performative propaganda—as evidenced by his partnership and partying with systemically racist White holding companies.

 

Inside Verizon CMO Diego Scotti’s Exit—How His Creativity Clashed With The Company’s Cost-Efficiency Focus

 

The former chief marketer built a reputation for driving big creative ideas but his agency relationships were tense and Verizon leadership was losing faith in his ability to deliver

 

By Lindsay Rittenhouse

 

Argentinian native Diego Scotti celebrated his 50th birthday in late February with a swanky soiree in Buenos Aires—and the guest list is indicative of his stature in the industry. Bigwigs flying in to help him celebrate included former American Express Chief Marketing Officer John Hayes, Interpublic Group of Cos. CEO Philippe Krakowsky, Publicis Groupe CEO-Chairman Arthur Sadoun and MediaLink CEO-Chairman Michael Kassan, according to two people at the party.

 

His status as a high-profile marketer is among the reasons that his recently announced departure as Verizon CMO has the industry talking—not just about what is next for Scotti, but what marketing direction the telecommunications giant will take in the coming months.

 

Scotti, whose exit was announced on May 15 after an eight-year stint, closes a tenure that saw him push big creative ideas while establishing his reputation as one of the most high-profile names in the marketing industry. He is also regarded for championing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

 

He is seen as a stalwart of creativity, but is also known to have a brash style and tense relationships with ad agencies, according to three people who have worked with him. As such, the leadership change might be welcomed by roster shops, although they might also have to guard against agency changes under a new CMO.

 

One thing is certain: Scotti’s exit signals big changes coming for the telecommunications giant as it deals with market share losses and pressure to spend marketing dollars more efficiently, according to multiple people familiar with the company.

 

Some argue that Verizon’s next CMO will need to be far more data-driven, a departure from Scotti, who is best known for big brand campaigns such as overseeing star-studded Super Bowl commercials from 2018 to 2022.

 

It’s unclear if and when Scotti’s successor will be named. One person close to Verizon said the company is considering taking different approaches, including implementing a new structure that would embed marketing into different business units, and not appointing a new CMO at all. Chief Strategy Officer Rima Qureshi has taken on an interim leadership role over Verizon’s marketing organization in the meantime.

 

“Verizon is awash with data and needs to leverage it in a more effective way to better measure outcomes,” said Greg Paull, co-founder and principal of consultancy R3. “Diego arrived at the right time with the right mindset, but the industry has changed dramatically in eight years. The new leader needs to have analytics at their heart.”

 

The wireless service market is becoming increasingly saturated with competition ramping up from new players including Meta and Google, which have introduced rival services that let consumers make calls through home internet services, according to market researcher IBISWorld’s “Wireless Telecommunications Carriers in the U.S.” March report.

 

According to the report, in 2022, Verizon Wireless held the No.1 spot in market share, at 21.9%, among its competitors, including Deutsche Telekom and AT&T. But it still shed about 1.4% annually in market share from 2018 to 2022 as wireless carrier rivals such as T-Mobile and AT&T ate away at its customer base.

 

In its most recent first quarter, Verizon reported losing 127,000 wireless phone subscribers. As part of its plan to win back subscribers, the company recently announced it would cut the costs and number of its wireless plans from six to two to make its offers less confusing for consumers.

 

Verizon CEO-Chairman Hans Vestberg implemented a new cost-cutting initiative last year that is expected to save the company $2 billion to $3 billion annually by 2025.

 

One former executive at Interpublic Group of Cos.-owned R/GA, which is a Verizon roster agency, suggested the company would be better off investing more in promoting its Verizon Fios cable business than wireless, “since it lost so much ground on the cellular network side.”

 

The former R/GA executive said Verizon also doesn’t need the type of flashy advertisements for which Scotti advocated. This person argued Verizon needs to focus on traditional sales tactics, such as making co-op deals with city apartments that would give every tenant in one building access to Verizon’s cable packages for a lower cost.

 

“That’s traditional marketing,” the former R/GA executive said. “Someone needs to be working on old-school marketing. Get back to basics is what they need to do to compete. I’ve lived in three New York apartments and they all did that with [Charter Communications’] Spectrum.”

 

Scotti did not return requests for comment for this story.

 

“We aren’t going to comment on industry speculation,” a Verizon spokesperson said in a statement. “As our CEO Hans Vestberg stated in his announcement of Diego’s departure, we have benefited from having Diego as our CMO during a time of critical importance for our company. His impact on our brand and our business has been immense, and we are grateful for his energy, partnership, and leadership.”

 

‘Fiercely defends creativity’

 

Scotti has been seen in the industry as a more traditional marketing leader who believes in the power of big brand ideas, and that’s not something Verizon is likely to look for in its next marketing head.

 

The three executives who spoke to Ad Age for this story, including the one who used to be at R/GA, said Scotti had started to butt heads with Verizon over that thinking as the company focused on cost efficiencies.

 

“He fiercely defends creativity and is a strong advocate for the need to invest in brand building,” said an executive who has worked with Scotti and spoke on condition of anonymity. “[Verizon’s] marketing has been challenged to gain momentum on a clear strategy due to shifting leadership and priorities. Within the marketing team specifically, there has been a shift to cost-efficiency.”

 

For example, this person said last year Verizon consolidated all of its media under Rafael Rivero, senior VP of media and marketing effectiveness, who has been leading a lot of the company’s cost-cutting initiatives within its marketing department. The executive said it was “not a popular move” among those in Verizon’s marketing department who want to see the company investing more in creativity.

 

Scotti’s exit also comes nearly seven months after the departure of Andrew McKechnie, Verizon’s chief creative officer, an Apple alum who built the company’s in-house agency.

 

Verizon still spent a record $3.6 billion on advertising in 2022, “an increase in advertising expense of $454 million primarily due to the inclusion of TracFone [which it acquired in November 2021] results and brand marketing, including the launch of the 5G Ultra campaign in early 2022,” according to the company’s annual regulatory filing.

 

The former R/GA executive said Scotti, in general, doesn’t make quick decisions and Verizon leadership was feeling like he “and his team weren’t coming up with ideas and so budgets weren’t getting provided.”

 

This person said that was the reason Verizon didn’t run an ad in the Super Bowl this year; Scotti wanted to air a Big Game ad, but Verizon leadership wouldn’t approve the ideas or budget. It was the first time the company sat out of the Big Game in five years.

 

Under Scotti, Verizon ran Super Bowl commercials such as the McCann-created 2022 spot that starred Jim Carrey reprising his character from “The Cable Guy.”

 

In a big shift around this year’s Super Bowl, Verizon aired a 30-second post-game spot that emphasized how the wireless carrier helps coaches better communicate with each other in NFL stadium.

 

As a result of the inner turmoil, the former R/GA executive said Scotti was putting even more pressure on Verizon’s agencies to come up with ideas that would win over leadership, souring already tense relationships.

 

Verizon’s roster agencies include R/GA, WPP’s Ogilvy, which won the company’s business-to-business account in December of last year, along with Interpublic Group of Cos.’ McCann. Verizon late last year consolidated media under Publicis Groupe following its acquisition of Tracfone.

 

While still under Scotti’s direction, an agency team led by Ogilvy New York created its most recent 30-second ad, “It’s Your Verizon,” for the launch of the company’s new flexible plan, called “My Plan.”

 

Scotti has garnered attention for his focus on diversity, including leading Verizon’s Responsible Marketing Action Plan, which implemented last year the tracking and reporting of Verizon’s diversity and inclusion data within its various marketing teams and advertising spend.

 

But according to people who have worked with him, Scotti can be difficult to deal with. “He can be temperamental and fosters a relentless culture that is deemed as being unsustainable,” said the executive who has worked with Scotti.

 

Both the former R/GA executive and the executive who worked with Scotti said his public persona and how he handled business relationships didn’t always add up.

 

The former R/GA executive said there’s been high turnover on the Verizon account across agencies with people often asking to be removed because of his temperamental nature.

 

“It bothered a lot of people; the profile the world sees and who he really is,” the former R/GA executive said. “He’s formed an image that he’s a nice guy but it’s completely the opposite.”

 

The former R/GA executive said specifically he often yelled at executives in front of other people. “He would constantly move deadlines and call people out for not meeting them. He was constantly undermining people. It was demeaning,” he said.

 

Regardless of how agencies viewed him, the former R/GA executive said Scotti was the connective tissue keeping shops including R/GA and McCann on Verizon’s roster. He said Publicis Groupe’s Sadoun is the only holding company CEO who has a close relationship with Verizon’s CEO, Vestberg, and that might ultimately save that network’s business.

 

One consultant who works with Verizon, and spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the company isn’t immediately looking to replace Scotti and predicted there will not be an agency shakeup anytime soon.

 

“They’re not likely to have a leader in the short-term to make that decision,” the consultant said. “Every agency is assuming that they’re going to get fired, or they're going to get the business as a result [of Scotti’s exit] and they’re trying to line up and jockey to the extent that I don't think [Verizon’s marketing executives] want to go to Cannes because they just don't want to be followed around by every agency under the sun.”

 

Still, it’s common for a company to launch an agency review under new marketing leadership, meaning Verizon's agencies are likely on shaky ground.

 

Verizon is a major client for its agencies and a loss of its size will be monumental. It would be an especially bad hit for R/GA, which just underwent a second significant round of layoffs in the U.S. in under six months.

 

“The ripples of this will be huge,” the former R/GA executive said.

 

Contributing: Judann Pollack

 

~ ~ ~

 

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to a former R/GA executive as still working at the agency.