Ansible global boss Travis Johnson out of Mediabrands as fallout from Tajer departure spreads
Ansible global president Travis Johnson has become the latest IPG Mediabrands executive to have been culled from the group following the sensational departure of Mediabrands’ global CEO Henry Tajer in May.
Travis Johnson the latest Australian to leave Mediabrands in massive shakeup
In what appears to be an ongoing assault on executives with Australian connections, Johnson joins a number of other senior Australian IPG staffers airlifted into New York by Tajer as part of his transformation of the business who have now been removed from their roles.
IPG announced in May that Tajer was leaving the global leadership role he had been promoted only to two years previously. His departure triggered a series of other senior executive moves including former Starcom Australian boss John Sintras, who was brought to New York as Tajer’s right-hand man, and Asia Pacific CFO Reg Davidson, whose departure was announced in July.
A spokesperson confirmed Johnson’s departure in an email to Mumbrella stating simply: “We can confirm that he’s no longer actively involved in the leadership of Ansible as we work through a transition period.”
The wording matched the language Mediabrands has used in confirming other departures.
Johnson was recruited from Mnet by Tajer in June of 2015, highlighting his success in driving the company as a global leader.
As well as being global president of Ansible, Johnson was also head of IPG Media Lab in New York.
Johnson was not available for comment on the statement from Mediabrands.
However, the executive has been seen as one of the rising stars of the business and was handpicked by Tajer to run the global mobile business which has been one of the leading divisions at Medibrands over the past four years.
In May, US publication Adweek named Johnson one of the top 15 most innovative leaders in media buying and planning.
The split with Mediabrands ends a 12-year stint for Johnson with the group, having led both UM and Initiative in Australia.
He also launched independent digital agency Cadreon in Australia in 2011.
Over the past four years Ansible has become the most awarded mobile agency in the world according to some measures, with more than 100 awards globally.
The agency had also grown to 25 offices in 19 countries.
Tajer’s original Entourage | Artwork: Elke Aspillera
Dubbed Tajer’s “Entourage”, half a dozen Australians made the trek to New York to join his reinvention of Mediabrands including Johnson, Sintras, Mat Baxter, Di Richardson, Cadreon boss Marc Lomas and audit specialist Charles Godbold.
Only Baxter, Richardson and Godbold remain, with Lomas having joined Amazon.
Tajer also recruited Omnicom’s Leigh Terry to become APAC CEO of Mediabrands with Terry still in the role.
Sources close to the situation have blamed the sudden shift on push back in the US against the scale of change Tajer was introducing, while at the same time the direction of the business pivoted away from Tajer’s model.
However, critics of Tajer’s approach have accused the businesses of scaling up too quickly while not matching the agency growth with new business.
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Hi Icanhazajtocorecwt?
I’m not yet awake enough to fully decode your screen name, but I have corrected the mistakes I could see in the story.
Thanks for flagging (and feel free to corecwt me if I’ve missed any),
Vivienne – Mumbrella
When your mates go the test is whether you can hold your own, if you can’t then hopefully you made the most of the coat tail ride – cause you are out.
We’ve all got mates who got places because of mates, problem is the domino effect. Look at the recent changes in COO at iFlix
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. Travis has been a pioneer in the mobile space for a bloody long time , created a great business with Mnet and then Ansible here and has done some incredible things with the business on a global scale. The industry of mobile marketing and advertising has benefited from Travis’s passion for the space and his thought leadership over a long time now and has paved the way for a lot of us to be able to have more meaningful conversation’s in the industry around ” that thing in your customer’s hand ” . Look forward to hearing about his next chapter in due course
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Sorry, which part of Cadreon is independent?
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I agree what you are saying is true in some cases.
However in this instance the fact is that Travis is a successful and dynamic executive who has performed and delivered. Unfortunately few management folks, to satisfy their ego, took an irrational decision.
Time will tell how wise or foolish this decision was.
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This whole episode is a really sad story and a black eye for our industry. Good, talented people have been displaced without much reason given from Mediabrands. Would be great to read a good old Mumbrella investigative journalist piece of what went wrong with the Tajer era…
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@Mark
Ansible (formally m.Net) was founded in 2001 and acquired in 2013 by IPG. They had been building Telstra, Yahoo!7 amongst others mobile websites for a decade prior to the IPG management takeover which looks like a cheap/smart deal when it was closed at $5.5MM.
Not to diminish the great campaign work, awards and “feeding-in” of IPG group client business overseen by Travis since he went into the role.. but some clarification is warranted seeing m.Net was already a seasoned mobile development agency with great chops, built by some original digital pioneers who weren’t very good at self-promotion.
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It’s a shame to hear of this departure. I have known and worked with Trav in number of roles in the past 15 years – he’s one of the smartest and driven execs in this industry, and has done amazing things at Mediabrands in the past 12 years. He’s been a pioneer of innovation, given loads of his time to this industry via MFA and other industry bodies, mentored many, provided thought leadership and educated many at industry events… In the past two years has built an increasingly profitable, global network in Ansible. Whatever the reasons, good luck whatever comes next Trav – won’t take long to land a bloody awesome gig.
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and also deeply in trouble when the app store launched and people stopped buying ringtones on the back page of magazines and the Australian Idol votes @ 55c a pop dried up. they overpaid
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Incredibly smart, decent and passionate guy. Worked with Trav at a couple of different businesses. Wherever he goes next he will do great things.
Well said Scott Player and I completely agree. One of the smartest and most talented people I’ve worked with. Travis will bring great value to which ever venture he takes on next.
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Media brands is a small agency group so no sure why it’s getting so much attention. The Australian team were not a good fit, let’s all move on to more positive news
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Travis is a great guy indeed. He should have just stayed away from the politics like Baxter. Totally agree with Deckchairs on getting more information.
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