Hamish McLennan is leaving Y&R Advertising, the agency he has served as chairman and global CEO since 2006. He will be replaced by David Sable, vice-chairman and COO of Wunderman, one of Y&R’s sibling agencies within the WPP network.
The news comes amidst a rough patch for Y&R, which has seen the defection of several longtime clients and is also battling in a review for the Sears account and a chunk of tech titan Dell’s creative business. Both Y&R and Wunderman are part of WPP’s Y&R Brands network. McLennan will remain chairman until end of year. He will return to his native Australia for family reasons.
While in many respects the work at Y&R has improved in the U.S., the clients haven’t stuck around to benefit. In October, MetLife’s U.S. advertising account went to MDC Partners’ CP&B after a review; Y&R retained the global business. And last September Y&R lost 7Up, the last piece it had of the Dr Pepper Snapple Group account after a 40-year relationship, when the beverage giant moved the brand to McGarryBowen without a review. Most recently, in January, it lost Hilton Hotels to Cramer-Krasselt.
Meanwhile, Sable is highly respected around WPP. He, along with Chairman-CEO Daniel Morel, has been responsible for Wunderman’s growing global marketing-services network. Ad Age recently named Wunderman the No. 2 agency on its “Standouts” list, noting that in the U.S. it may soon pass Y&R in revenue. Global wins have included CVS, Best Buy and Kodak.
In addition to direct-marketing experience at Wunderman, which he joined in 2000 to lead the New York office, Sable has logged time in PR (at Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe) and at creative agencies. He joined Y&R early in his career and returned in 1990 to lead the United State Postal Service account.
Sable will walk into a sticky situation. Earlier this year, Dell launched a creative review that involved three accounts: its consumer; small and medium business; and public business, which involves advertising targeted to public institutions. Dell remains the brand-advertising agency for the tech giant and may hold onto the consumer and small- and medium-business accounts. Sears, an account Y&R has handled since the marketer consolidated there in 2005, is also in review.
Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, considers the move a silver lining. “It’s a great pity Hamish has to go Australia but he’s put his family first,” he said. But he praised Sable: “He’s almost a Y&R lifer. He’s well known in the agency … and under [CEO] Daniel Morel at Wunderman the two of them have taken Wunderman to leadership in the digital industry. Wunderman has grown to almost $1 [billion] in revenue.”
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