February 2022 saw some global restructuring at FCB with the network’s Global CEO Carter Murray stepping down. Susan Credle was named the Global Chair and continues as global Chief Creative Officer, and North American head Tyler Turnbull was promoted to Global CEO. Tina Allan was appointed as the new Global Partner, Head of Data Science and Connections. In an interview with Storyboard18, Credle and Allan speak about their new roles after Murray’s departure, the roadmap for FCB and the opportunities and challenges in a post-pandemic world.
Edited excerpts.
As Carter Murray moves on from FCB, what is in the roadmap for the agency and how are you going to steer it with Tyler Turnbull through your partnership?
Susan Credle: I was fortunate that in 2016, Carter asked me to help him write the story for FCB and that was such an incredible partnership and journey. We did a lot of work that we didn’t know was preparing us to deal with the pandemic. We really concentrated on designing a point of view, thinking what are we going to do with the agency next and we bet on creativity, that was our north star. What I loved about Carter is that he is a turnaround champion. With Tyler we have been doing our road tour that we have actually been able to do since January and it’s been interesting to see what is sticking around the world and what people are leaning into.
It’s interesting that you mention things that are sticking and the things that are changing. In these last two years, many new consumer behaviors were formed that are likely to stick around, like the boost to digital media and e-commerce. What is your advice to your clients who are trying to grapple with this dynamic environment?
Credle: COVID was a catalyst to a lot of great change and in these 2 years at FCB we did with our clients, with the push of COVID what would have taken 5 -10 years. So it’s both our behavior changing and consumer behavior changing. We are using technology in smart ways, so what I’d advise clients is that do not think of the behavior as COVID behavior, think of it as getting to the new behavior faster.
Tina, in your new role as the Head of Data Science and Connections, what is your vision for the agency? How do you hope to marry data with creativity?
Allan: Our brand bedrock has always been fueled by data, technology and diversity all along. Clients are looking for building brand value and building their business and everything with the consumers is speeding up. In bringing data into this we are very focused on the consumer but also the business and brands and we don’t choose, we deliver an all for our clients.
Credle: We say data fuels our creativity. One of the dangerous things is that clients have got all the data in the world and just don’t know what to do with it and with FCB we fuel creativity with data. Creativity is not just creating an ad, it means creative thinking, problem solving through the lens of what data is telling us.
If this pandemic has done anything good, it’s probably the boost it has given to digital, tech and innovation. In your new role Tina, what are your challenges and what are the opportunities?
Allan: There is so much availability of data and how do we harness that because everything is very quick and what are we doing now, next and in the future. When I look at the Indian market, what are the opportunities we have in a mobile first world and how can we use this opportunity to leapfrog everything we have known before with the ability of data to test and learn.
Susan, what are the clients’ demands globally vis-a-vis the Indian market?
Credle: Mobile market in India will teach us what mobile can do and as Malcolm Gladwell says don’t be first, be third. What we are hearing a lot is that there were not a lot of firsts in India when it came to mobile, so everyone else did the dirty work of trying to figure out what to do with mobile and India just came in with an audience and all you have to do is ride down the street. One of the other important things we are seeing in India also in North America is that diverse mass versus general market, we can’t look at India as one India, we have to look at India as diverse mass. And what’s beautiful about technology and data is that we couldn’t do diverse mass earlier but today we can.
