WPP’s Grey is the latest agency network to double down on creative talent with the promotion of two of its top execs. Worldwide Chief Creative Officer John Patroulis is moving up to the role of global creative chairman and president, creative business, while Javier Campopiano, who last served as global creative partner, will step up as Grey’s new worldwide chief creative officer.
The promotions arrive on the heels of major wins at Grey and its parent WPP. In November, Grey landed the Modelo account, while WPP won the majority of the hotly contested $4 billion Coca-Cola business spanning creative, media, data and marketing technology across more than 200 countries.
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Campopiano joined the agency in 2019, serving as chief creative officer for Europe and creative chairman of the U.K. before his last post. He played a central role in WPP’s win of the Coke business and will continue to lead the account and its creative, overseeing a team comprising talent from Grey and all WPP agencies that make up Open X, the holding company’s bespoke unit dedicated to Coca-Cola.
Along with the Coke duties, Campopiano will be responsible for leading Grey’s creative performance across the global network. Under his watch, Grey Europe produced notable out-of-the-box campaigns such as one for Pringles that lured a zombie out of Twitch into the real world; Volvo’s “Ultimate Safety Test” that suspended a car from a crane to make a surprising point; and a pandemic push that allowed consumers to “adopt a keg” for Carlsberg. While he had served as chief creative officer at Saatchi & Saatchi New York, he oversaw groundbreaking campaigns such as Procter & Gamble's highly decorated “It’s a Tide Ad” Super Bowl push that earned Grand Prix and Titanium at the Cannes Lions as well as a Black Pencil at D&AD.