He talks faster than my pen can write, each word is linked with the
next so that it’s almost impossible to get a word in edgeways, and he is
as smooth and quick as a Ferrari. This is the new hand at the unsteady
helm of CIA Medianetwork, the Italian-born Mainardo de Nardis, who
became the agency’s chairman and acting chief executive last week.
From the moment I set foot in his office, he outlines how the interview
will proceed and bombards me with information. ’Can I talk about myself
so that you know where I am coming from? Let me start from the
beginning.’ As he talks a picture quickly emerges of an ambitious,
focused man whose strength of character and leadership could arrest
CIA’s current decline. ’If I understand clearly what the objective is, I
will get there. Nothing is impossible.’
This resolve took shape at an early age. At just seven years old, de
Nardis decided to go into advertising. ’I was playing in Young & Rubicam
(Rome) with the father of a friend, looking at production, seeing
movies.
It created a passion.’ Since then, de Nardis, who continues to be
responsible for CIA Medianetwork Europe, has been credited with rapidly
building up CIA’s brand across 25 countries and getting it on to all the
major European pitches.
Last Thursday, a slew of directors left CIA as de Nardis made his first
move to create a leaner group with a sharper edge. He declares: ’The
market sees us as a strong brand but our credibility has been fading
away in the last few years.’ He maintains that CIA is ’the best-kept
secret in the industry’, but the agency has suffered from marketing
itself ineffectively.
Chris Ingram, chairman of CIA’s parent company, Tempus, has put de
Nardis in place to repeat his success with CIA’s international network.
’The underlying product is good, the profile certainly isn’t high enough
and the senior client relationships aren’t well enough established.’
According to Ingram, de Nardis will create respect for the CIA brand. ’I
don’t think anybody reflects the CIA spirit better than Mainardo. He’s
the ultimate can-do operator. He’s a great achiever while being a very
nice person. You don’t often get those two things together.’
After starting his career at McCann-Erickson in Rome, where he worked in
client marketing, de Nardis decided to return to Y&R. ’I packed the car
and went to Milan, told Y&R that I had always wanted to work for them
and talked my way into a job.’ At 26, he was invited by the creative
director of McCanns, Alberto Cremona, to come in on his start-up
agency.
It was this venture which was to bring him into close contact with a
media independent and seal his fate. Rather than creating an internal
media department, de Nardis persuaded a small independent in Verona
called the Medianetwork, led by Marco Benatti, to join forces and open a
Milan office. ’It was the first time that I learned something in media
and I found out that it was not so boring!’
Two years later, and for reasons de Nardis is unwilling to divulge, he
fell out with Benatti. De Nardis instead threw his energy into building
up Medianetwork’s international links. In 1989, he met Ingram, who was
looking for specialists to work with in Europe, and the Medianetwork
began its relationship with CIA. By December 1993, CIA merged with the
Medianetwork and, within seven days of the merger, de Nardis was
installed in the UK to head the agency’s European operations.
Although de Nardis is confident that he will get to grips with the UK
market, he confesses to feeling a bit of an outsider. ’One peculiarity
of the British market is it’s more difficult to have a senior position
if you are not part of the establishment. It’s very much a personality
market. In Europe it is much less so. When I stop working I like to be
with other people and have another life.’ But how much time de Nardis
has left to devote to his wife, Christiana, and his two children, aged
six and four, is debatable. One industry observer says: ’He’s the sort
of guy that you get e-mails from at 4am and can often be found in the
office at weekends.’
De Nardis has a clear view of where CIA needs to be in a year’s
time.
’I couldn’t care less about size. What is important is that it’s on the
map and people see what we stand for. It needs to emanate success, where
clients are happy and people are relaxed enough to do the job well. Back
to normal life!’
THE DE NARDIS FILE
1980
McCann-Erickson, client marketing
1981
Young & Rubicam, account director
1986
Alberto Cremona, co-founder
1988
Medianetwork, Milan, vice-chairman and partner
1993
CIA Medianetwork Europe, managing director
1997
CIA Medianetwork Europe Holdings, chief executive
1998
CIA Medianetwork UK, chairman and acting chief executive
.jpg)
.jpg)