• by David Kaplan , April 13, 2005

Universal McCann has lost its top research executive, marking the latest in a round of top defections that represents a virtual meltdown of its senior management team. Jim Kite is leaving as director of global research at the Interpublic unit to take the top research post at Publicis' MediaVest unit.

Last week, Omnicom's OMD unit announced that Mark Stewart, chief strategy officer at Universarl, was joining as managing director for its eastern region operations. That move marked an unraveling of Universal's so-called communications architecture team. Last November, Marston Allen, director of the Universal unit, also joined MediaVest as director of business development and marketing. Last month, Robin Kent was replaced as worldwide chief executive of Universal McCann by Murray Dudgeon, the agency's chief operating officer, on an interim basis.

The departures come as Universal has had to defend roughly $1.7 billion in combined billings in reviews being conducted by current clients General Motors and L'Oreal. Interpublic said Kent was reassigned to a special project for the holding company, presumably to work on General Motors' media buying account review.

Meanwhile, Kite, a 16-year media veteran who has spent half his career at Universal, will join MediaVest as executive vice president and director of Insights, Research, and Accountability. Among other things, he oversaw Universal's highly regarded Media in Mind research, a series of annual studies about how consumers engage with media.

"I've had a great home for eight years at Universal McCann, and I have a lot of affection for the agency," Kite said. "As for signing on with MediaVest as opposed to other agencies, I feel that they are at the head of the pack when it comes to communications planning and research. It's easy to think all media agencies are the same. But at MediaVest, holistic, media-neutral planning is part of the process from the very beginning of the client relationship. It's not something that's just pulled off the shelf from time to time."

Another defector who has left the agency in the past year noted that there is a degree of confusion regarding the media shop's approach to research.

"I think there's a view that UM hasn't made the full commitment to change from traditional media planning to communications planning," said the defector, who currently works at a rival agency. "But in terms of people leaving, this is a very cyclical business, and some years you're hot and some you're not. Still, that can affect clients, and even a creeping form of uneasiness can easily mushroom."

A person close to the company noted that financial troubles at parent IPG also have left UM staffers and clients feeling somewhat skittish. Last week, Wall Street analysts and credit ratings services downgraded IPG's debt when it failed to meet a deadline for reporting audited financial results for 2004.

Some of the sheen off the "hotness" the agency had developed started becoming somewhat tarnished last year when UM lost more than $400 million in the U.S. alone when Nestle consolidated its $1.5 billion global media account after a roster review with WPP Group's MindShare and Publicis Groupe's ZenithOptimedia. One of UM's biggest losses was the fight for Coca-Cola's decision to consolidate its $300 million account with MediaVest, which was the buying incumbent on the account. UM handled planning.

Still, the agency has had some good news recently, such as winning the media business on Intel's $300 million global account. And last month, Catherine Warburton-Scott left Aegis' Carat USA to come to UM as senior vice president of national broadcast for client Sony.

Perhaps recognizing its problems--or at least the perception of problems--IPG said last week it would organize its media brands into a single media-side unit that would include UM's sisters Initiative, IPG's global negotiating arm Magna, Media First International, and smaller shops. The operation is tentatively called IPG Media.

As for UM, it has no immediate plans to replace Kite, a UM spokeswoman said.

"It's business as usual; our global research council, which is responsible for our tools/systems, remains unaffected," she said.