McCann Worldgroup Canada has named Ian Mackenzie—one of Canada’s most successful creative leaders in recent years—its chief creative officer, part of an organizational realignment that will see its three-year-old network Performance Art folded into McCann.
The appointment follows the departure of previous CCO Josh Stein to LG2 last fall.
Mackenzie started his career as a copywriter, but over the last decade has emerged as one of Canada’s most accomplished data-led creatives.At Tribal DDB he was a key contributor on “Our Food, Your Questions” for McDonald’s, for example, while at FCB/Six he was a key contributor to BMW’s “Stage Your Driveway” and PFLAG’s “Destination Pride.He was also creative lead on both "Go Back to Africa" (at FCB/Six) and "Black Elevation Map" for Black and Abroad (at Performance Art), campaigns frequently cited as examples of the kind of post-traditional creative solutions to client business problems in a digital, data-rich world.
“Ian has been a true innovator for years, building enduring creative platforms for our clients and showing every time an innate ability to create cutting edge work that becomes part of culture," said McCann's global CCO Javier Campopiano in a statement to Campaign. "As a creative leader, he represents and embodies the spirit we want to transmit in our work: a relentless pursuit for a human truth and an obsession for bringing it to the world in its best expression.
"He’s created some of the most undeniably bold and progressive creativity the industry has seen, and most importantly: he is an amazing human being. He is going to be a phenomenal creative leader for Canada and global AI creative lead for McCann Worldgroup.
“What seems clear today is that innovation, if it was ever a fringe offering, has now moved to the centre of what clients are asking for and need from their agency partners,” added Mackenzie in a release.
McCann has been performing at a high level in Canada and internationally the past few years, but Mackenzie will add a new dimension of innovation and data-led creativity to that mix, Ryan Timms, president, McCann Canada told Campaign on Friday.
“We'll continue to deliver on the things that got McCann to where it is today,” he said. “This is an opportunity for us to now start to bring something new. Some of the magic that he brings is a way to, yes, tap into data, but turn it into something creatively beautiful,” he added. “There's an artistry to the visualization of information for instance.”
Mackenzie has earned more than 500 industry awards, including the Grand Prix in Creative Data at Cannes, the D&AD Black Pencil, Best of Discipline at One Show, and the ADC Fusion Cube Grand Prix for DEI.
“Many organizations have so much data, but they have no idea what to do with it,” said Timms. “What Ian has done for a number of organizations is taken that data and turned it into something creatively compelling, deeply memorable, and deeply meaningful for the organizations that he's worked with.”
Mackenzie will oversee all creative work for the network’s creative operations in Canada, which includes McCann, MRM and Craft, and offices in Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary. He will also serve as McCann’s global AI creative lead.
McCann staff were notified of the appointment last Wednesday and Mackenzie started his new role today (March 4).
IPG created Performance Art in 2021 as a spin-off of the successful, made-in-Canada agency brand FCB/Six, which was seen as an industry innovator. The intent was to adopt the FCB/Six approach of turning out breakthrough creative campaigns using data and technology, but deliver it across the IPG network, rather than just for FCB clients.
However, the Performance Art agency brand will be absorbed into McCann, a move that aligns with a larger holding company trend of simplifying operations by reducing the number of agencies through mergers. “What we're doing across Worldgroup globally is we're going to focus on our four power brands: McCann, MRM, Craft and FutureBrand,” said Stephanie Nerlich, the Canadian who was named global president for McCann last August.
Interpublic created Performance Art with three of the core leadership team that made FCB/Six a breakout success at a time when the interest in performance marketing was widely regarded as antithetical to creative brand work.
"We are entirely focused on dispelling this industry belief that there needs to be a compromise between high performance and creative," said Andrea Cook, who was named CEO at the time. IPG described Performance Art as "the highest performing work, in the most creative way."
Cook has also been moved into a new position as part of the shakeup; she is now leading McCann’s L’Oreal business across North America, and is also chief innovation officer for McCann globally, working alongside Nerlich.
“Andrea is one of those modern leaders who saw the early benefits of data and technology to inform strategy and elevate creativity, and we need that everywhere,” said Nerlich. “And L'Oreal is really leading in that space. So she was the perfect leader to take on that assignment.”
The reorganization will see roughly 35 people from Performance Art join McCann in Canada while a smaller team in New York will join the McCann office there.
“This is an iconic agency group in Canada, with a continuum of success that its current leadership has further elevated,” said Mackenzie. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to help unlock more of its value with the teams and can’t wait to get started.”
