15673: Ass & Dickie At You & Mr Jones Media…

Campaign reported You & Mr Jones Media Founding Partner Nick Emery—canned from Mindshare in 2020 after staging a “bathroom prank”—hired a new CFO named Dickie. Sorry, couldn’t resist the opportunity to craft the headline for this post.

 

Mindshare global CFO joins You & Mr Jones Media

 

By Arvind Hickman

 

Dawn Dickie leaves WPP after 27 years and will reunite with former Mindshare CEO Nick Emery.

 

Mindshare’s long-serving chief financial officer Dawn Dickie has left the Group M business to join You & Mr Jones Media as a partner.

 

Dickie was one of the first employees at Mindshare, which was formed in 1997 when the media arms of J Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather were spun off and merged to set up the agency.

 

At You & Mr Jones Media, Dickie will be based in London and lead the agency’s global financial and commercial operation.

 

She joins Nick Emery, her former boss, who exited from his global CEO role at Mindshare in October 2020.

 

Emery, who joined You & Mr Jones in April 2021 to establish its media operation with a $300m (£216m) war chest, said that Dickie’s appointment reflects “the rapid growth the global brandtech group’s media operation has experienced in its first nine months and the continuing disruption of the legacy marketing sector”.

 

Emery, founding partner of You & Mr Jones Media, added: “Dawn is the most brilliant CFO and commercial brain. We’re building something special with special people and Dawn is certainly that.”

 

Dickie is one of four recent senior appointments by You & Mr Jones Media. Last year, Michaela Keough (formerly of MediaCom) joined as director of performance and programmatic media, Patrick Rubenstein (formerly at Group M’s IBM unit EightBar) joined as director of media services, and Ryan Potts (formerly of Focus On Media) joined as head of paid search.

 

Since its launch, You & Mr Jones Media has hired former global president of EightBar Jeff Matisoff (partner), former Media by Mother chief operating officer Will Heins (partner) and Hearts & Science’s Jess Nachtigall (associate partner).

 

You & Mr Jones, a technology-focused group of marketing agencies that includes Oliver, Gravity Road, 55, Mobkoi, Mofilm, Blood, and Collectively, was founded by former Havas Global CEO and Facebook Client Council founding member, David Jones, in 2015.

 

In the first three quarters of 2021, the group managed year-on-year organic revenue growth of 50%. It operates in 40 countries, with clients including Adidas, Banco Itaú, Danone, Facebook, Intuit, LVMH, Microsoft, Renault-Nissan, PayPal and Unilever.

 

Jones said its media division had “exceeded our ambitious plans”. He added: “Their growth has been such that it’s now time to bring in an extremely senior CFO. At You & Mr Jones we’re thrilled to have a disproportionately fair share of brilliant senior female leaders and Dawn is the latest addition.”

15646: Publicis Groupe Is A Toilet—But A More Gender-Inclusive Toilet…

Digiday published an interview with Publicis Groupe Égalité Business Resource Groupe Leader Jenn Renoe, who discussed the White holding company’s new official set of guidelines for transgender employees. Renoe remarked, “We need to get past talking about pronouns in bathrooms.” Well, guess that means Publicis Groupe isn’t a future employer possibility for Nick Emery. Or Dave Chappelle.

 

‘We need to get past talking about pronouns in bathrooms’: How Publicis Groupe is making a more gender-inclusive workplace

 

By Kimeko McCoy

 

In November, Publicis Groupe rolled out an official set of guidelines for transgender employees, as part of its mission to become a more supportive employer — and more gender-inclusive. The 28-page resource, which is currently for the U.S. market, includes a glossary of key terms as well as a sample transition plan with future plans for additional content and workshops.

 

The guidelines are an effort from Publicis’ Égalité Business Resource Groupe [BRG], helmed by Jenn Renoe, a trans woman and trans community advocate. Digiday caught up with Renoe to talk about gender inclusivity, why we need to move past pronouns on bathroom doors and what the industry at large can learn from Publicis’ latest initiative.

 

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

 

Why was it important to have an official set of transgender guidelines?

 

I want to create a space that’s safe for anyone who is coming out. You’re constantly coming out, it feels like when you’re transgender. People talk about how scary it is to come out to family, but coming out to work is terrifying. Even though we live in a society where there was the recent Supreme Court ruling that you could not be discriminated against at work for being transgender, that doesn’t necessarily mean that protections are in place to ensure your safety and essentially your own self-care and mental health throughout the process. What I really love about these guidelines is that they offer that to anybody who is ready to make the step, live as their authentic self.

 

We’re always nervous to talk to people that are different from us because we’re always afraid of offending someone. Being able to help educate employees on ways to interact and engage with people who are different really helps. I’m someone who always approaches it [from] a place of, “There’s positive intent behind it.” People aren’t trying to be offensive. If we can approach it that way and use everything as a learning experience, it’s a really good opportunity to help drive change for the better.

 

Let’s back up. What are the guidelines?

 

The document itself has four primary sections. [There’s] guidance for our HR and talent professionals on how to engage with someone who comes to you as being transgender with a desire to transition at work. We try to set guidelines on how long a person can expect it to take from the time that they announce it to the time that we’re ready to make sure that everything is done. We also have a section that’s dedicated to managers because managers are very important in this process. We give the employee flexibility in how they want to alert the manager. One thing that’s very important is that a person’s transition is not one size fits all.

 

The third [part] of this guidance is for the transitioning employee. It sets standards, ideas and baselines for what they can expect throughout their process. We’re also working on the opportunity to pair with one of our members of the BRG to be an advocate for them through the process. It can be difficult and challenging, and it’s nice to know that you have someone within the community who has your back and is looking to advocate for you. The fourth part, which is critical, is guidance on travel. There are countries in the world where we may have agencies where a trans person cannot exist without the repercussion of illegality or the penalty of death. There are parts of the United States where it is unsafe for trans people to travel.

 

How does this tie into the conversation around the future of work?

 

We’re in the middle of what’s known as the Great Resignation. There are a ton of things that feed into this, but the fact of the matter is we’ve been able to work from home for so long that we haven’t had to code switch. We haven’t had to go into an office where we’ve had to present as somebody other than who we are. We can exist as ourselves. A big part of what we’re seeing from a community standpoint is when people have to go back into the office, they don’t want to have to code switch. So they’re looking for opportunities to go elsewhere, opportunities where they can live as their authentic selves. My hope is that work like this is changing things.

 

What should other agencies be doing?

 

I want to see other agencies adopt these. I want to see other companies across the country adopt these. This should be standard for every company. We need to get past talking about pronouns in bathrooms. That should be table stakes. We’re almost to 2022. We should be beyond that. We need to be talking about transition guidelines, inclusive healthcare and how to guarantee the rights of our transgender employees in the workplace.

15411: Rising Like A Phoenix From The Asses.

Advertising Age posted a video interview with Nick Emery. Um, shouldn’t any video starring Emery be marked as potentially NSFW?

15399: Bathroom Prankster Hired At A New Toilet.

 

Advertising Age reported Nick Emery’s ass has surfaced to lead a new media division at You & Mr Jones. Hopefully, his new office has a private bathroom.

 

Nick Emery To Lead You & Mr Jones’ New Media Division

 

Former Mindshare CEO sets out to disrupt media buying by ‘putting brands in control’

 

By Jeanine Poggi

 

You & Mr Jones, the global brandtech group, is launching a new media division that will be led by former Mindshare CEO Nick Emery.

 

Emery, who was ousted from the WPP agency last year amid controversy, is joining as founding partner of You & Mr Jones Media. The group is setting out to “disrupt media buying and selling” by giving control to brand marketers by empowering them to take control of their first-party data and media technology, while increasing transparency and speed.

 

Emery exited Mindshare in October 2020 following what WPP called “a clear breach of the company’s code of conduct.” It was later reported that the incident in question involved what has been called a “bathroom prank.”

 

At You & Mr Jones Media, Emery will have a $300 million war chest to build a new media model for brands, according to the company.

 

“With privacy and rise of first-party data, media is too important to outsource,” Emery says. “You need to take more control of your strategy.”

 

Emery adds that the big media agencies “do a great job, but they were built, I know because I built one, they were built for scale, not for technology and automation.”

 

But bringing media in-house for brands can often seem overwhelming.

 

“When clients take media in house themselves they feel, correctly or not, like they miss out on volume discounts and don’t have access to technology,” says David Jones, who founded the company in 2015. You & Mr Jones’ media division is looking to help clients create those in-house media capabilities without feeling like they are missing out, he says.

 

The new division comes amid a shakeup in the media industry. As traditional TV ratings deteriorate and the ad world grapples with transparency and historical processes, brands are looking to be more efficient and precise with their media spend.

 

You & Mr Jones Media will look to make new acquisitions and work closely with the company’s current technology platforms and investments like AI-driven media planning company Elsy and content personalization business Jivox.

 

“We will make media the most creative, trusted and dynamic business to work in across everything from Marvel to Amazon, WeChat to Pinduoduo and Discord to Shopify,” Emery said in a statement. “Media is a fantastic business to be in and I am delighted to be joining You & Mr Jones who have the rare ambition to make that happen and put clients back in control, making media as it should be, different, fun, inventive and a key source of client growth.”

 

Emery says the ultimate success over the next two to three years would be if there are no more media pitches because brands are looking to take it in-house.

 

You & Mr Jones boasts clients including Adidas, Facebook, Microsoft, PayPal, Intuit and Unilever.