The Institute of Communications Agencies (ICA) has transitioned to its 2015 board of directors, which includes a new chairman: Maclaren McCann’s 16-year president and CEO Doug Turney.
Having served on the board for four years, Turney took over last week from retiring president Arthur Fleischmann.
Turney told Marketing that he sees his primary duty, and the ICA’s, as bringing the industry back to its roots in advertising. He said in the profusion of new media, agencies have focused too much on fancy tactics and lost sight of the central purpose of advertising.
“I think there is a lot of fragmentation in the business, a lot of confusion, with the complexity of media and what that’s done to us overall,” he said. “With a new medium created every two-and-a-half minutes, we don’t connect the dots to get back to the real purpose.”
He pushed back against the industry-wide move to “integrated services,” for example, one-stop-shop agencies that do everything, and argued that media, PR and creative agencies should all have distinct roles. He said part of the ICA’s mandate is to help define where each agency’s duties begin and end in the confusing world of social, content and real-time marketing.
“We need specialty in the craft,” he said. “We need to harmonize rather than homogenize and recognize the importance of the role we each play.”
(L to R) David Gibb, Al Scornaienchi, Paul Reilly, Penny Stevens, Doug Turney, Monica Ruffo, Duncan Bruce, Andrew Bergstrom, Aldo Cundari and Gillian Graham.
New board members that Turney will preside over this year include Duncan Bruce of Publicis, Monica Ruffo of Lowe Roche, Jill King of One and Andy Krupsky of The Hive. Returning board members include vice-chair and treasurer Penny Stevens of Media Experts, second vice-chair Paul Reilly of BBDO, Al Scornaienchi of Agency59, Aldo Cundari of Cundari, Andrew Bergstrom of Aperture1, David Gibb of JWT, Laurie Young of Ogilvy, and Gillian Graham and Jani Yates, both of the ICA.
Arthur Fleischmann, past board chair and president of John St., will go on to chair the board of governors, where he will provide strategic counsel to the current board of directors.
“Arthur has been a passionate and visionary board chair,” said ICA CEO Gillian Graham, in a statement. “Under his leadership, the ICA board forged ground-breaking initiatives, resulting in a surge of new members, and an evolutionary expansion in options for our CAAP certification courses.”
