After 17 years at WPP, including a thrilling five years in New York (promotions, summers in the Hamptons and the full Carrie Bradshaw-social whirl), King left the company in 2017.
After her enforced gardening leave finally came to an end, she arrived at Publicis last year for what is a far bigger job overseeing all the French giant’s businesses in the UK. That means everything from ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, to advertising planner Zenith Optimedia, to Sapient, a consultancy that helps old-tech companies go digital.
She works on an open-plan floor in Chancery Lane, honestly admitting she eschews having her own office as it would feel lonely. The recently opened building is a nice metaphor for the new Publicis structure.
At the front is Leo Burnett, the legendary Chicago ad agency. Imposing and sparse, the lobby speaks to the 70-year history of the firm, complete with the obligatory bowl of apples that has graced every Leo Burnett office since 1935.
Through the entrance at the rear is another world; Saatchi & Saatchi. Here, it’s all bright lighting and pop design. You sit in giant egg-shaped chairs like a hatching chick and order drinks from easy-on-the-eye staff at a well-stocked bar.
Two very different agencies under one roof. And that’s kind of the point: Publicis is changing itself to offer clients a one-stop shop across its various marketing brands, from Sapient’s coding boffins to Leo Burnett’s artistic creatives. To do that, it has created cross-agency country heads like King to sit above the brands, coordinating and deploying the most suitable brains from its various firms to help the client. The thinking is that big companies increasingly no longer want to buy different services from multiple agencies. They’d rather put their whole marketing contract out to one company.
There’s an example next to King’s desk, where a team dedicated to the cereals group Kellogg’s sit. They’re drawn from a muesli mix of three different Publicis companies, but are working for just one client.
Hang on, though. Other big agencies are doing similar integrations. And isn’t that exactly what she was reluctant to do for WPP in Ogilvy — merging multiple departments? “That was different,” she says.
Ogilvy was forcing diverse business types into one and doing away with individual firms such as Ogilvy PR and OgilvyOne. Firms whose individual ethos and culture employees had enjoyed working for, where they could see what their career path might be. Bad plan, says King: “I thought we’d lose talent and not be able to service our clients as well.”
According to the trade press, a key test of the new Publicis structure is coming up now. Like Vodafone and Unilever before it, Centrica is one of those big companies funnelling its marketing, PR and advertising work from multiple companies to just one. Reports say Publicis is bidding for the contract, as are WPP and Interpublic. The pressure is particularly high on King to win it because she handled the Centrica account at Ogilvy. As one agency analyst puts it: “It’s a winner takes all shoot-out. She has to deliver.”
King resolutely refuses to talk about any pitches, not even acknowledging the Centrica account’s existence.
The pressure of these multi-million pound pitches must be horrendous. But possibly not as bad as for WPP’s global chief executive Mark Read. Not only has Read got to turn around the stricken oil tanker he’s captaining, but he has endured a host of client losses. One wonders if that’s just too big a job? King won’t be drawn to comment in much detail, but they are good friends. She shrugs: “If anyone can do it, it’s him.”
Some in the ad world have speculated King may go back to WPP eventually, but there’s plenty to busy her at Publicis. Its worldwide operations have had a somewhat torrid time lately. Last month it warned of weak revenues, triggering a 12% crash in its shares on the Paris stock exchange. Chief executive Arthur Sadoun blamed it on big US consumer goods companies cutting traditional advertising. Analysts took that to mean the switch from big agencies to Facebook and Google.
King acknowledges the Silicon Valley giants have made a huge impact, but says Publicis works with, rather than against them. “We have people from Facebook and Google in our Baker Street offices practically every day,” she says. “You can’t fight the fact that they’ve made a seismic impact on the industry in the past three to five years and I’ve no doubt that in the next three to five years everything will be completely different again.”
King insists Publicis in the UK is still doing well, particularly Sapient. “Nobody else has a Sapient,” she says. Not true, I point out. The accountancy giants like Deloitte are fast turning themselves into media consultancies by buying specialist agencies, and they eat digital transformation for breakfast.
Again, the beady eyes respond before the voice: “The accountancy firms are acquisitive in the media space, but it will be interesting to see how many creative people really want to work for those places. They are big, successful businesses, but creativity is not at the heart of what they do.”
In a much-needed sign of confidence in the UK, Paris-based Publicis has taken up grand offices in the trendy former BBC building in White City. The new development is so “media” it even has its own branch of the Soho House members’ club. No fewer than 2200 staff from six Publicis media agencies are moving in. The creatives will stay in Chancery Lane and Baker Street, while Sapient is moving to Publicis’s new offices in Farringdon’s Turnmill development.
The French, it seems, have still got faith in post-Brexit Britain. Keep flying the flag, Annette.
