McCann Moves Social Upstream, Puts It On Par With 'Creative'

Kandace-Hudspeth

McCann New York, the flagship agency of Interpublic's McCann Worldgroup, is elevating the role of digital media in general, and social media in particular, in its strategic planning process, putting it on par with the creative product that big Madison Avenue agencies are normally associated with.

The shift follows a change in the agency's approach to planning to more of an "integrated" approach that incorporates multidisciplinary views of media, marketing, research and creative, in hopes of creating campaigns designed the way most consumers experience them - across an array of digital and analog media platforms - and increasingly, ones with social components.

As part of the transformation, McCann New York has hired the first in what the agency says will be a team of "digital/social media" strategists that will carry the weight and influence of its most senior creative executives.

"Clearly, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that marketers are spending more money in social and digital. And they are going to continue to spend more money on it. So as we looked at our talent pool here and realized it was extremely important that we got people in here with that perspective and background," explains Devika Bulchandani, Chief Executive Strategy Partner at McCann New York.

Bulchandani says that shaking up the agency's talent mix is a critical step toward shifting the role of digital and social "upstream" in the strategy process, so that it happens at the earliest stages of the brand's advertising planning process, not "downstream" after the strategy has been set, and the implementation is more about a tactical selection of media and executions.

Bulchandani says McCann New York already has been hiring mid-level digital and social strategists who will work under its new senior digital/social star, Kandace Hudspeth, who actually rejoins the agency after a stint at Havas' Euro RSCG 4D, where she led digital and social strategy for the agency's IBM account.

At McCann, Hudspeth will hold the title of executive strategy partner-creative technology, reporting to Bulchandani, who says she will carry the sway of the most senior creative executives inside the agency. Hudspeth's responsibilities will include oversight of the agency's digital and social strategy practice, including its social media AOR assignment from Weight Watchers, the global IKEA Catalogue business and DTC pharmaceutical brands handled by the agency's McCann HumanCare unit.

Bulchandani says other senior digital and social recruits will be announced shortly, and that the transformation has important implications for both the agency's clients, and the media it and its sister media and digital agencies work with, because it will mean elevating the strategic role of social and digital media in the mix.

Bulchandani says McCann will continue to work with sister agency specialists including MRM Worldwide and UM for technical support around its digital and social strategies, but that having the expertise upstream in its strategic planning process will have a dramatic effect on the types of campaigns the agency creates.

The result, she says, will be ad campaigns that resonate better with consumers, because they will be conceived and developed with consumer insights and benefits at their start.

"How do you create signal in all the digital and social noise, and create real value-added digital utilities and social programs for consumers. Strategy plays a critical role in that," she explains, adding, "That's what the consumer really needs, more value, as opposed to more noise."

Hudspeth appears to be an ideal candidate to begin that process, with experience working on social strategies for some of the biggest marketers in the world, and with deep roots inside McCann's organization.

She joined Euro RSCG 4D in March 2010 as global strategy manger on the IBM business, where she co-developed IBM's digital strategy, drove digital and social CRM programs and helped train teams around the world for a rollout of a suite of digital services to evolve IBM's digital presence.

Before that, she was New York-based director of digital strategy & user experience planning at McCann Worldgroup's MRM Worldwide, where she developed the company's social marketing offering and served as senior strategic planner for both Intel and the U.S. Army.

1 comment about "McCann Moves Social Upstream, Puts It On Par With 'Creative'".
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  1. John Jainschigg from World2Worlds, Inc., September 8, 2011 at 3:23 p.m.

    Question -- is this the same Kandace Hudspeth as this person?

    http://kandacehudspethfittips.com/

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