Publicis Groupe has named Nick Law, longtime R/GA creative leader, as chief creative officer of the holding company and president of Publicis Communications.
Law, who has been at Interpublic Group's R/GA since 2001, most recently as global CCO, will officially take on the newly created dual Publicis role in May. He will also join the executive committee and report directly to Publicis Groupe Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun.
Sadoun told Ad Age that the decision to create the Publicis Groupe CCO role originated last June at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity when he announced the launch of AI-powered professional assistant platform Marcel and the decision to take a year off from any awards programs or promotional investments.
At that time, Sadoun says the group needed "a real reboot," which is when he began looking at "who could be the creative leader that is really well-balanced between technology and creativity." Sadoun says that Law fit that description and has the ability to bring big ideas to big clients and transform as large of an organization as Publicis.
"He's somebody who has a strong point of view about the future of creativity," says Sadoun.
Law will work with the leaders across the group's creative agencies, such as Leo Burnett, Saatchi and Saatchi, Publicis Worldwide, BBH and Fallon, as well as the creative leaders across Publicis Groupe's other hubs, such as Publicis.Sapient, Publicis Health and Publicis Media.
"I am incredibly grateful for all Nick has done for R/GA, our clients, and our staff over the past 17 years," said R/GA founder, said Chairman and CEO Bob Greenberg in a statement.
"Among many things, he leaves a legacy of developing some of the best talent in the industry. It is that talent, spread across the entire R/GA network, that will continue to push boundaries and produce award-winning work designed to drive our client's businesses forward."
Sadoun says that Law will help leverage Publicis' capabilities in data, content, creativity and technology to bring big, transformative ideas to clients.
On the talent side, Law will be tasked with attracting, retaining and training talent because "we know how important it is to empower the new generation," says Sadoun.
Law will also work on Marcel, specifically advising on how the platform can help creatives in the network. "We believe there is an absolute need to reinvent our model for a generation that want to work differently and this is something Nick understands extremely well," adds Sadoun.
In September, R/GA branded its own internal operating system as R/GA O.S., which has been fully functioning since 2007 and works for 2,000-plus employees across 17 R/GA offices. Publicis Groupe "has a brand, but not the capabilities, yet," said Greenberg at the time.
Law, who has been one of Ad Age's Creativity 50 honorees multiple times, will remain in New York for the role. U.S. is Publicis Groupe's biggest market in which half of its revenue comes.
