Daga and Litzinger to take a democratic approach
Cossette Communications has promoted Matt Litzinger and David Daga to co-chief creative officers of the agency’s Toronto office.
The creative pair – formerly vice-presidents and creative directors at the agency – assume the roles vacated by Pete Breton and Dave Douglass, who announced a move to Lowe Roche in December.
Andrew Bergstrom, executive vice-president and managing director of Cossette Toronto, said that over the course of their more than four years with the agency, Litzinger and Daga “have provided outstanding creative leadership on our McDonald’s Restaurants account,” for which they oversaw the launch of the McCafé brand in Canada. Their other key accounts include General Mills and BMO.
What can the creative teams at Cossette expect from their new CCOs? Perhaps more say at the decision-making table.
“Dave and I are pretty inclusionary,” said Litzinger. “Some of the best work we’ve ever done has been through fostering a shared attitude within the teams doing assignments for us… We’re the rudder of the ship, but the department is the wind in the sails.”
Litzinger said he wants to avoid the attitude that CCOs are hired to “swoop in as messiahs.”
Daga agreed, saying the Don Draper-types might work in a television-centric industry, “but I don’t think they make for successful communication” in a new media world.
“It’s very much a democracy out there [online]. Communication is so open, I think a creative department has to act in the same way – more of a democracy.”
While the new co-CCOs will have overall responsibility for the Toronto office’s creative output, they will maintain “senior creative responsibility” on the McDonald’s account, which they took over in 2010.
“McDonald’s is a very important client to us… It’s our pride and joy,” said Daga.
