The creator economy and creativity might be on the rise in business, but it’s having the opposite impact on creative advertising agencies. Clemenger Group announced to staff this morning that CHEP Network CEO Lee Leggett would become the new boss of a merged agency group that will go end-to-end on services delivering “brand creative, experience, media, digital and commerce, powered by data and innovation”. 

Mi3’s story two weeks ago signalling likely changes and a restructure in the lead-up to an Australian visit last week by BBDO global CEO Nancy Reyes and Worldwide Chief Creative Officer Chris Beresford was confirmed today by Clemenger Group. Clemenger, CHEP, Traffik are all coming into one merged entity: Clemenger BBDO. 

Clemenger BBDO CEO Dani Bassil has resigned and will leave the business. “Dani has worked with us over recent months on the plan for the unification of our two leading Australian advertising agencies and believes this is the right time for her to depart Clemenger Group,” said Clemenger Group CEO Les Timar. “Under her leadership, Clemenger BBDO Australia has delivered ground-breaking work for our clients and attracted extraordinary talent to the team.”

Still, it was CHEP’s Leggett who won the agency consolidation pitch – there has been speculation for some time the two groups were jostling and presenting strategy for supremacy in a merged agency scenario.

The consolidation was positioned by Leggett as a “modern agency ready to navigate a world where the need for smart, creative thinking remains more important than ever”.

Redundancies and layoffs were limited and small in number, according to a Clemenger Group spokesperson when asked by Mi3 this morning: “Our ambition for the agency’s new structure is to give our people new and interesting opportunities across each area and discipline. There are a small number of overlapping roles that are present across the agencies – in the few areas in which this arises, the first and most important thing we will do is talk directly with any relevant people.”

Timar, Clemenger Group’s low-profile group CEO, was a well-regarded government relations and issues management operative at Clemenger–owned GRACosway before taking the group role. He played down efficiencies and cost-out as key drivers for the merger.   

“Our focus is to create ideas that embrace and define the future – in service of our clients, people and creativity. We are embracing strength and scale to create a truly game-changing agency that perfectly balances our integrated capabilities across performance, marketing and brand platform creativity," Timar said. "This is not about doing more with less. This is about doing more with more.”

Clemenger BBDO has long been a globally recognised creative shop but for some years the future and growth has been hitched to CHEP Network with its push beyond advertising creative into media, digital, tech and commerce. The surprise addition of Clemenger Group’s experience and activation group, Traffik, is a signal the overhauled operation intends to compete with a full-service, full-funnel offer for clients which include Samsung, Asahi, Mars, Michael Hill, 7-Eleven and The University of Sydney.

More details and an interview with Clemenger executives will follow in tomorrow's Mi3 Daily Edition.