Commentary

Longtime Allstate CMO Lisa Cochrane Is Retiring. Is An Agency Review Far Behind?

Uh-oh. Longtime Allstate Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Cochrane is leaving the brand. Why uh-oh? Because we all know the proverbial poo hits the fan when there's a CMO change. But this is a particularly sensitive situation with a ripple whammy. Allstate has been with Leo Burnett since the fifties, Cochrane has been Allstate CMO for an unheard of 15 years, and she is said to have close ties with Leo Burnett Chief Creative Officer Susan Credle.

Any one of you who has worked in this business for more than two minutes understands that relationships are everything -- they take a long time to build and ripples within those relationships can result in an ominous death knell.

Cochrane, who has been with Allstate since 2000, was instrumental in the development of Allstate's Mayhem campaign as well as making Dennis Haysbert the voice of Allstate as much as James Earl Jones is the voice of Darth Vader.

Although possible, it’s unlikely Leo Burnett will sail through this change unscathed or avoid an obstacle course of hoops put in place by the incoming Allstate CMO who, of course, will have to prove their worth by launching an agency review.

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