The Martin Agency promotes Chief Creative Officer Danny Robinson to CEO, taking over from MullenLowe Global CEO Kristen Cavallo.
The Martin Agency has named Chief Creative Officer Danny Robinson CEO, effective immediately.
Robinson, who has been with the Interpublic Group of Cos. agency since 2004, takes the reins from Kristen Cavallo, who has held the CEO post at the agency for the past six years. Cavallo added the title of MullenLowe CEO to her remit in November 2022.
The Martin Agency said it will announce its new chief creative officer in February.
Robinson’s promotion reflects what Cavallo calls her drive to “double down on creativity,” which was also apparent in her decision to appoint Frank Cartagena, former New York chief creative officer at The Community, as U.S. CEO of MullenLowe last November.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that there are tons of agencies whose product is creativity, [where] the person at the helm of that organization isn’t borne out of creative,” Robinson told Ad Age. “The CEO’s job is problem-solving. Creative jobs are problem-solving. You need innovation and new ways of thinking to move companies forward.”
Robinson’s career at The Martin Agency has not solely been on the creative side. After serving as a senior VP and group creative director for many years, he was named chief client officer in 2018, a role he held for two years before moving into the chief creative officer position in 2020.
“Moving from CCO to CEO is uncommon, but it shouldn’t be,” Cavallo said in a statement. “Our industry has become increasingly focused on consolidation and efficiencies, and we need to return the conversation to creativity. Some of the industry’s most enviable work has been made by agencies led by creative people. Too often, they leave to start their own agency to be taken seriously as business leaders. Danny has held roles across the agency in preparation for just this moment.”
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“The Martin Agency is iconic in our industry” and “that’s in no small part thanks to the quiet contributions Danny has been making for many years, in a variety of key leadership roles,” IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky said in a statement. “He knows our business, our clients and the industry. As importantly, he believes in the power of our industry to do good.”
Prior to The Martin Agency, Robinson co-founded Vigilante, a cultural insights-driven creative shop behind the famous Oprah Winfrey Pontiac giveaway, leading to the iconic line: “You get a car! And you get a car!”
The Martin Agency at the time said Robinson’s work at Vigilante would be indicative of the type of campaigns he would lead for the IPG shop, having back then showcased how to use entertainment to drum up buzz before the rise of social media.
That’s been reflected in the wide breadth of campaigns he’s since led for The Martin Agency.
Most recently, the agency led Solo Stove’s buzzy campaign starring Snoop Dogg. The effort, which teased that the rapper was giving up smoke, has been hotly debated within the industry. It significantly boosted brand awareness, yet Solo Brands President, CEO and Director John Merris stepped down as the company’s interim chief financial officer said that the Snoop Dogg ad did not “lead to the sales lift” the company originally planned.
The Martin Agency also notably got longtime client Geico to launch Adam Sandler’s Netflix movie “Leo” last year, with the iconic gecko brand mascot co-starring in ads with the animated Leo. Robinson said the Geico-Netflix partnership was born out of Martin Entertainment, the shop’s entertainment studio launched last year.
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Robinson said that in his first “30, 60, 90 days” as CEO he will look to build out existing offerings such as Martin Entertainment and the agency’s Cultural Impact Lab, which delivers cultural activations for clients through a combination of communications strategy and earned and paid media.
“Frankly, we built the car,” Robinson said. “My job is not to screw up the car, not to overheat the car, not to push it until the wheels fall off. We need to get the things that we’ve already put in motion humming and working.”
The creative industry is being squeezed by declining client budgets and fewer big account pitches. Robinson said The Martin Agency will continue to be selective this year on the new business front, choosing to chase clients that align with the shop’s vision of impacting culture.
“We are still being selective,” he said. “This is not news; the size of pitches have been smaller than they have been [in] years. There are fewer $10, $20, $50 million power accounts out in the world. But, not unlike all other agencies in the world, we are always on the lookout for what’s next. We’ve spent a lot of time making sure that we are not taking on new business because it’s there.”
Last year, The Martin Agency lost its Buffalo Wild Wings account to Stagwell’s Anomaly, but picked up several wins including Papa Johns and Sanofi Consumer Healthcare North America.
Robinson has been at the forefront of industry diversity efforts and sits on the board of Creative Ladder, the nonprofit founded by Ryan Reynolds to increase the accessibility of creative careers for underrepresented people.
