Publicis Groupe has hired Ben Mooge, the former executive creative director of Havas, as chief creative officer of the whole UK group.
In the newly created role, Mooge will work alongside UK group chief executive Annette King and will have "the reach and authority" over all of the Groupe’s creative community.
The CCOs of the individual Publicis Groupe agencies – including Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett and Publicis.Poke – will have a dotted reporting line to Mooge as well as to their agency CEOs.
The role is one of the first country CCO remits in Publicis following the appointment of Nick Law last year as Publicis Groupe global CCO. Mooge will work closely with Law as part of a global creative collective that spans a range of skillsets, including experience design, data, tech and storytelling.
An official statement on Mooge’s appointment said that his role "proves Publicis Groupe’s commitment to putting the creative product at the very heart of the business. It recognises creativity’s value to clients and talent and its true potential when connected with data and technology."
King added: "Ben has a unique blend of talent… he will be a leading inspiration to help nurture our creative community and I know that his input will be integral to ensuring we deliver the most effective creative for our clients."
'One creative vision'
Mooge, who joins the Groupe in September, said that he will sit alongside King for at least the first 100 days in the job, moving around the different agencies with her, though primarily based at the company’s Chancery Lane offices where Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett are located.
He said that his role will not just be to polish the existing creative output of the agencies: "It’s more systemic than that. The Groupe has one P&L and we need one creative vision. These are great agency brands with some truly exciting clients but across the board the work needs to be better. I’ll also be leading pitches and cherry-picking the best talent from across the Groupe’s creative pool to help me do that."
He added that after a year in the job he hopes to have helped make each agency brand "incrementally cooler, with a 30% uplift in creative Picks and awards and great creative hires".
Mooge previously spent a decade at Mother, working on accounts including Boots, Orange, PG Tips and Pot Noodle, as well as being responsible for much of the self-generated Mother brand work and writing the first outline of "Somers Town", the Shane Meadows-directed film funded by Eurostar.
He went on to join start-up Work Club as joint creative partner. In 2014, the agency was acquired by Havas Worldwide and Mooge was appointed ECD of Havas London. He left the agency in March.
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