Leo Burnett’s Emily Doskow turns around the legacy creative shop, driving a 12-account win streak

After Leo Burnett Chief Marketing Officer Emily Doskow turned around the legacy Publicis Groupe agency to compete with the rapid rise in young, hot independent shops, her agency won 12 new accounts in 2022, including Jim Beam, Dunkin’ and Kashi. Leo Burnett has managed to unload some of the baggage that comes with being an older, traditional creative agency, plagued by perceptions that it’s not fast or innovative enough. Its recent wins, including the Dunkin’ U.S. creative account, were mentioned as bright spots by Publicis Groupe CEO and Chairman Arthur Sadoun on the holding company’s first-quarter earnings call. That’s thanks to Doskow, who returned to the agency in early 2021 (she had been with the shop for seven years before leaving in 2015), to bring “swagger” to new business pitches and get it back on a winning streak. “It doesn’t mean we weren’t getting our fair share of opportunities,” Doskow said, “but it was about getting more opportunities. When it comes to pitching and winning a business, it can be really draining. What was important was that I created a culture that had a lot of energy, momentum and fun, and that we brought all that to the process of it. And, truly, it’s resulted in a lot of success.” See all of Ad Age's 2023 Leading Women here What advice would you give your younger self? I thought along the way that you have to have it all figured out. You have to excel and succeed in every moment. Nobody has it all figured out. Everyone is building the plane while they’re flying it. I do a lot of that now, but it’s OK to allow for messiness, shades of gray. Follow people who inspire you rather than following a job or a brand. What’s made me so thrilled about this industry and my career is the fact that I’ve stayed around people that I learned from. Heck, I spend more time with them than I do a lot of my family members. What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? I made a choice to go from account management fully into new business. All of a sudden, you’re going from having these great relationships with your clients. Your fee is covered by the agents of the client. I went from that to being an unbilled, centralized resource trying to pull new business. It’s high-pressure, it’s intense, but I love it. I love it, love it, love it. That was a big risk that I took, but it’s absolutely the right fit for me. If you weren’t doing your current job, what would you be doing and why? I would be flipping houses because I’ve always loved design. It would be fun to invest in something, see its full potential and then just transform it completely. And then the success that comes out of selling that would be a great combination of creativity and business, which is why I’m in the industry I am. What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks? Allow women and people of color to be honest and transparent about all that they’re juggling, all that they’re struggling with—and be able to find flexible solutions to solve for that. When it comes to women, there’s a certain expectation in the workforce that things are done a certain way. We’ve all experienced this even in return to office—you know, “This is what we need to get back to.” Women in particular are juggling a ton. But having the flexibility to solve for it will get more women into more leadership positions. How do you expect emerging tech like Web3 and AI to impact your job in the future? It’s going to be an accelerator, especially as it relates to being able to use it for new business purposes, prospecting clients, being able to quickly get information and ideas and even using image and video AI to be able to get prototypes and those kinds of things. It’ll still need that human component—robots are not taking over the world—but it’ll be something that really helps us move faster. See all of Ad Age's 2023 Leading Women here

Leo Burnett’s Emily Doskow turns around the legacy creative shop, driving a 12-account win streak

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