Commentary

BBH Has A Chief Experience Officer. How Long Before It Has A Chief Reception Officer?

Akin to the incessant proliferation of "Ten Pictures Of Kim Kardashian That Don't Show Her Butt...You Won't Believe Number 3!" headlines and Donald Trump news items, the ever-expanding collection of CxO titles is becoming quite laughable in its own right. That's not to say the people who holed these "new" positions are without merit but, seriously, does every title have to have the words "chief" and "officer" in them? It's like everyone has a serious case of inferiority complex and they need a constant reminder of how important they are.

Anyway, one of the latest additions to the CxO family of titles is Chief Experience Officer. After all, as you all know, marketing isn't marketing anymore, right? It's all about the experience the consumer has with your brand. It's almost like you brand people don't actually want people to buy your products as long as they "engage" and undergo some sort of transformative experience with your brand.

Jumping on the experiential bandwagon, BBH has given the title of Chief Experience Officer to the agency's Head of UX Adam Powers and charged him with... wait for it... overseeing the "customer journey."

I can almost hear Don Draper screaming, "What the fuck is customer journey???"

So just what the hell is the customer journey? According to BBH, it's all about the in-store experience, customer service, brand culture. You know, all that touchy feely crap that was foisted upon kids back in the self-esteem club/award-for-participation days. Or in less buzzwordy speak, the customer buying cycle.

Of Powers taking the new title, BBH London CSO (that's Chief Strategy Officer if you're keeping score) Jason Gonslaves said, "This promotion is a recognition of the huge impact Adam has made in helping us develop new capabilities, persuading clients to go with us and translating that into mold-breaking work like British Airways' ‘picture your holiday’ and Clarks’ e-commerce redesign. He is a world-class expert in his field, a user experience practitioner with peerless credentials. But what makes Adam special is that he is more than that. He is a collaborator, a connector – someone who is constantly curious and hugely generous."

No doubt, Adam is an awesome guy and very deserving of the new title. But the title game is getting crazy. It won't be long before we have Chief Reception Officers greeting new business prospects in the agency lobby

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