In October 2023, The Drum published a story on the “highest internal priority” at MullenLowe: to promote more people of color to positions of power.
The “solution” involved a standard heat shield designed to provide junior and mid-level non-Whites with special guidance for advancing in a predominately White workplace.
A MullenLowe mouthpiece dubbed the initiative a sponsorship program versus a mentorship stunt, as if there’s a discernable difference between faux sponsors, pseudo mentors, or embryo facilitators.
In April 2024, Advertising Age reported new hires at MullenLowe West resulted in a very diverse leadership team—although the content did not connect the moves with the “highest internal priority” mentioned in the previous performative PR.
In June 2024, Mediapsssst at MediaPost reported IPG nixed an offer from a Russian advertising agency executive seeking to acquire MullenLowe. So, it looks like a historically White advertising agency embraced diversity—and IPG considered sending the culturally competent crew to Siberia…?
Content from The Drum:
MullenLowe U.S. Hopes a New Take on Career Paths Can Put More People of Color in Charge
The agency’s newly appointed chief culture officer walks us through the plan to upend the structural prejudice that plagues US advertising agencies.
By Sam Bradley
US agencies don’t promote enough people of color into positions of power. Research published recently by the 4A’s found that the proportion of agency leaders identifying as white increased to 90%, compared with 73% in 2021.
According to Kelly Fredrickson, the agency’s newly appointed US chief culture officer, promoting more staff of color is the agency’s highest internal priority.
“Jobs that have been created in the US since the social justice movement following George Floyd’s murder have been predominantly filled by people of color,” she explains. “But we realized we’re hiring in the junior and mid-levels. What we need to do now is promote and create opportunities for people to develop.”
To achieve that goal, Fredrickson says the agency must “unlearn” practices that uphold structural prejudice inside the business and create means of developing and promoting staff hired into lower-level positions.
This week, it’s set to launch a pilot ‘sponsorship’ scheme developed between management and staff-run employee resource groups (ERGs). The program lasts a year and will take six candidates from across MullenLowe’s US business and train them for future leadership and management roles. Each ‘protégé’ is paired with a senior sponsor who helps forge connections within the company, increase the candidate’s profile at MullenLowe and “personally invest in the advancement of their career,” according to Jacqueleen Johnson, development and inclusion director at MullenLowe US.
Fredrickson says it’ll mean the agency is more active in career progression than usual. “We’re specifically calling it a sponsorship program, not a mentorship program. A sponsor is somebody who can advocate for you in the rooms that you’re not in, who can actively help your career move forward,” she says.
The scheme is also intended to boost MullenLowe’s own staff retention rate. She says she’s witnessed Black colleagues leave the agency in the past when faced with a shortage of progression opportunities. “One of our most talented strategists left the agency because she got a call from a Black female president. She said, ‘I’ve got to go – when am I going to get this call again.’”
She reasons that if staff in junior and mid-level roles see that there are chances to move into higher positions down the line – even if it might take years to get there – they’re more likely to stick around.
“That intentionality from leaders is going to make the difference for people of color in the ad industry,” she adds.
Fredrickson previously served as president of MullenLowe Boston, after rising through the ranks at both brands and agencies. She began her career as a ‘floater’ providing vacation cover for any position going before working as a producer for the best part of a decade. She shifted into management when family responsibilities began to curtail the constant travel associated with shoots.
“The things you learn as a producer have served me so well. Bringing teams together toward a common goal or helping people to stay on track, on budget and on time. Managing through the mini-crises of production helped me manage through real ones as a leader later on.”
That experience – and the memory of how teams actually gel on the ground – means she expects to spend time listening to staff concerns and working with ERGs rather than “approaching from the heights.”
“Culture isn’t in the handbook; it’s in the employee making the right decision when nobody’s watching. It’s in the 1,000 decisions everybody makes every single day,” she says.
MullenLowe’s ERGs – the agency boasts five, run independently from management – were major partners in designing the new sponsorship scheme. Fredrickson says: “It sounds so trite, but it is really about being open. I think the listening part of my job is probably the most important part.”
Despite the creeping return among agency competitors towards mandatory office presence, she says MullenLowe doesn’t plan to roll back its current flexible policy.
“We need to stay open to it. People have set up their lives since the pandemic,” she says. “The fastest way to create a culture is to hire really smart, curious people that share your values. With people who share your values, you know, you can trust that they’re going to get their work done.
“When we have a new business pitch that requires people to come in and work together, they do. Or if there’s a client presentation or something, they come in. We don’t have to tell them.”
Corporate fears that remote working is too generous are unfounded, she says. “It’s a rare, rare person – I’ve yet to find them – who would abuse the privilege of having a hybrid work arrangement.”
Content from Advertising Age:
MullenLowe West Shakeup—new President Named And Creative Leaders Exit
Jenn Wong joins as president from SoundCloud in one of the first big moves made by MullenLowe U.S. CEO
By Brian Bonilla
Major executive changes are underway at MullenLowe West as the Interpublic Group of Cos. agency installs a new president and seeks a new top creative team.
The shifts mark one of the first big moves made by MullenLowe U.S. CEO Frank Cartagena, who took on the role in November.
Jenn Wong has been appointed president of the West region, which consists of MullenLowe’s Los Angeles office, after most recently serving as the head of global brand marketing at SoundCloud. Wong has also held lead marketing roles at Curaleaf, Beats by Dre and Gap, and worked at agencies including TBWA\Chiat\Day and Wieden+Kennedy.
She replaces Javier Passerieu, who had been promoted to the role from managing director in September of last year. Passerieu did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this month, the office’s two executive creative directors, Carlos Alija and Laura Sampedro, resigned and will depart in May “to ensure a smooth transition,” said Sampedro.
The search for a new creative leader is ongoing and Cartagena will fill those roles as needed in the interim.
Wong was hired to help the Los Angeles office become more of a “modern marketer” for its clients, said Cartagena. While the agency has strong capabilities in PR and design, Cartagena is hoping to work more on social and digital offerings for clients for the office, which he felt had “pigeonholed” itself into doing more TV advertising.
“I saw us in danger of becoming one-dimensional, and that’s the worst place to be,” Cartagena said. “The reason I brought Jenn in is because she speaks two languages. She speaks client and she speaks agency. So she’s going to be able to come in with both perspectives … and help dive in with me to create a situation for our current clients and future clients that brings the best possible creative solution to their business problem that’s beyond TV, and we do TV really well.”
Cartagena said the goal isn’t just to do more digital work but also to explore experiential and AI solutions. He pointed to MullenLowe’s recent campaign for Change the Ref which utilized AI to create deepfake voices of gun victims, as an example of the type of modern work he wants the agency to put out.
“One area that I’m looking towards is how we tackle some of the innovations that are happening right now,” Cartagena said. “That’s my next order of business is how do we use AI to optimize, and I don’t mean optimize operationally,” he said. Rather the focus is on, “How do we use AI to help us out with ideas or help us make the best creative ideas in the industry?”
In the U.S. MullenLowe also has offices in Boston (its largest office) and New York (its third largest behind Los Angeles) The U.S. network overall has about 400 employees. MullenLowe West clients include Acura, Corona, Grey Goose, Patron, Hawaiian Airlines and Ghirardelli, which it won in December.
The Ghirardelli win is part of an ongoing strategy to have both offices involved in more pitches. Previously “[MullenLowe West] focused on solidifying the clients that we had, making sure they were happy and making sure that they were growing organically so while there hasn’t been an external growth our clients have grown internally,” said Cartagena. “Now we’re in phase two and we’re actively pitching from both regions.”
While the East and West regions will remain as is, Cartagena is also looking to have the different offices work closer together in the future.
“What I don’t want to do is change any of the culture” between the offices, Cartagena said. “What I want to do is open up for clients the ability to pull the good that’s happening in all the different offices and flex up and down for them and really use our full offering. It’s not for everybody at all times, but more so when they need it.”
MullenLowe East’s president is Jordan Muse, the son of advertising legend Jo Muse, who led the multicultural marketing movement. Between Cartagena, Wong, and Muse, MullenLowe’s U.S. executive team has become significantly more diverse in a short amount of time. Cartagena touted MullenLowe West’s diversity and highlighted its multicultural work for Corona as an example of the “diversity of thought” the office has available.
Content from MediaPost:
Report: IPG Says ‘Nyet’ To MullenLowe Sale
By Richard Whitman
Interpublic was reportedly approached about its interest in selling its global creative agency network MullenLowe.
But according to a report by Campaign, the holding company has no interest in selling the network and turned down the offer.
The publication indicated that the offer came from a Russian agency executive who previously served at a long-time joint venture partner of the holding company in Russia. IPG pulled out of the operation shortly after the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Word of MullenLowe approach surfaced within days of a Wall Street Journal report that IPG is interested in selling its pioneering digital agency and design consultant R/GA and that Tata Consulting Services may be the buyer.
IPG doesn’t comment on what it calls rumors or speculation about it in the press.
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