Fiona Johnston joins dentsu with plans to bring back the ‘fun and lightness’ of creative comms industry
Former CEO of UM Australia, Fiona Johnston has been appointed as chief client officer for dentsu’s media agencies, and second in command to Danny Bass.
Johnston left the Mediabrands agency in 2020 to take on a group role as chief growth officer, based in London. However, she returned this year and was originally touted to be in the mix for the media group CEO role at dentsu.
Johnston: The current challenges are ‘not easy for anyone’
Johnston told Mumbrella CMOs are struggling with the balance to produce effective comms, in an ever more complex, fractured and changing environment, with this issue now becoming cultural, as well as digital.
“It’s not easy for anyone.”
“The changed ways of working, along with the obsession of data as the only source of truth, means that at times we have forgotten that the business of media and communications is a human business too,” Johnston told Mumbrella.
“Data and tech is a great, vital, and exciting evolution of our industry, when harnessed, but communication is also still about human insight, and engaging truths.”
Bass, who was CEO of Mediabrands Australia while Johnston was at UM, and also working together at GroupM, said he is excited to have her filling the newly created role to help grow its Carat, iProspect, and DentsuX brands.
“The media landscape is changing rapidly, and clients are increasingly looking for simplicity and Fiona is absolutely the best person to have by my side as we push dentsu into the never before and build the media partner of the future.”
Johnston and Bass set to work together for the third time
“Finding time and space to inspire self and others, whilst allowing people to be themselves and work in their best way, is a balance that takes time and energy for the CMO to strike,” continued Johnston.
She said there is an inherent need to reignite “some of the fun and lightness” in what has been a ‘creative communications’ industry.
“It wasn’t perfect, but being together wasn’t all bad, and even the commuting at times held vital ‘to and from space’ to create human separation needs,” those being, what is work time, and what is not.
“Regaining inspiration in a sea of data, with working environments will be on task,” Johnston said, while adding to the mix fear in our socio-economic environment, interest rates, Covid, ESG etc, “and you have a sort of fiscal and human perfect storm”.
“Stay profitable and keep everyone happy, and as they all individually need… it’s an impossible brief.”
“No one has the answers,” Johnston said, “but Danny and I are passionate and committed to helping find solutions, to help reduce uncertainty that exists for CEOs and CMOs,” in both a team and media sense.
It has been a big year for not just dentsu’s media business, but for the business as a whole locally, and globally.
This month, the group revealed its new domestic CEO as Patricio De Matteis after Angela Tangas’ move to the UK, while Bass was only appointed himself in recent months.
On top, the past 12 months has seen Kirsty Muddle as Dentsu Creative CEO, John Riccio leading Merkle across ANZ and APAC, and Chris Bower at Dentsu Solutions, while Rob Gilby, was appointed APAC CEO, and Wendy Clark was also a surprise departure as global CEO.
So what does success look like for dentsu under the new team of Bass and Johnston?
“That clients feel like their life is easier and more fulfilling with us as their media partner, the work is strong, the ‘machinery’ is under control, and teams are happy (including the CEO).
“This of course intrinsically means ensuring respect, motivation and support for the talented people who work with them all. Driving positive change in what and how we do things is vital in this, especially given the world we are in today, and that is what excites me about this opportunity. A great foundation and the honour to bring it to life more with the best people.”
Johnston will start at dentsu on 5 December.
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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