Matt Eastwood departs JWT as agency abolishes worldwide chief creative officer role
JWT’s worldwide chief creative officer, Matt Eastwood, has departed the WPP-owned agency as it eliminates the worldwide CCO role.
According to Adweek, JWT worldwide CEO Tamara Ingram made the announcement in an internal memo on Friday.
“I’m writing to share the news that Matt Eastwood, worldwide chief creative officer, has exited J. Walter Thompson to pursue a new adventure,” she wrote.
“We are reimagining the future of the agency. This is a structural decision that will allow us to be more agile, leverage our collective global bench strength and encourage the burgeoning diverse ‘maker culture’ growing within J. Walter Thompson. As such, we have no plans to replace the role.
“Creativity remains at the very core of our business, but today it is an even more collaborative process. It is borderless. It is broadly focused. We are increasingly relying on the people who are closest to making and creating the work. And, we are re-imagining the future of how this shift will be reflected within our organisation and our leadership structure.”
Eastwood became the worldwide CCO in 2014 from his previous role as the chief creative officer at DDB New York.
Throughout his career he has also held positions at Y&R New York and M&C Saatchi London.
“I’m writing to share the news that Matt Eastwood, worldwide chief creative officer, has exited J. Walter Thompson to pursue a new adventure,” she wrote.
It hurts less than saying “he’s been sacked”.
Although my personal favorite is, his or her’s “skills’ set is not compatible with our new direction.”
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what exactly is a ‘maker culture’ ?
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With 2,000 million Facebook users around the world, everybody’s a publisher. Therefore, a maker.
Just like, with 100 years of YouTube videos available to watch, everybody is a film director/producer, and, er … maker.
Bad news for people working in the media.
And especially legacy media.
(But not Mumbrella – which is cleverly and deliciously niche.)
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People (CEOs from account management and planning side) are getting the message from the P&G head completely wrong. The P&G head wanted the CEO or big post held by account management to go and clear the space around the creatives. Now this action gone the other way – may be to save own job. Guess the P&G head should say the names next time. If a global CCO’s role is no more important then a global CEO’s role should be also useless. No?
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The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire
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JWT seems to be imploding at the moment.
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I predict this will become fashionable (like copywriters calling themselves storytellers).
Watch other agency networks follow suit.
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The role that needs to be replaced is Tamara’s writer. Exactly what does “burgeoning diverse ‘maker culture’ growing within J. Walter Thompson” mean? Head back to the brutal simplicity of thought Matt.
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Following this worse case scenario of gobbledygook, I wonder if Tamara went on to thank Matt?
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