“2007 will be about reasserting our leadership position. Peter will build on our already solid foundation to get us there,” said Deutsch New York president Val DiFebo in reference to the recent naming of Peter Nicholson to serve as partner/chief creative officer at the agency.
Indeed Nicholson is up to the challenge, having been executive creative director at JWT New York for the past couple of years, helping to break new creative ground and to bring new business there, including most notably the Jet Blue account. In fact, work for Jet Blue garnered a Gold Lion at last year’s Cannes International Advertising Festival. Nicholson was also instrumental in helping JWT secure Stride gum, Smirnoff, Cadbury corporate and Sunglass Hut as new JWT clients.
Prior to that, Nicholson was at Publicis–first in its Chicago office as chief creative officer and then in the same capacity on the East Coast after that operation was consolidated into Publicis New York. D’Arcy New York was subsequently folded into that shop as Nicholson took over the creative reins on such prominent brands as Heineken, L’Oreal, BMW, Whirlpool, UBS and business for Procter & Gamble, among others.
While Nicholson has enjoyed success in the New York market, his industry roots grew in fertile West Coast creative soil. During a three-and-a-half-year tenure at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, he moved up the creative ranks from art director to group creative director. He came over to Goodby from Leagas Delaney, San Francisco, where as an art director he worked on the adidas account.
Nicholson got his start in the business at San Francisco-based business-to-business ad boutique Anderson Lembke (which has since been acquired by McCann Erickson). There he cut his art director teeth on Microsoft, now a flagship account at McCann Erickson, San Francisco.
SHOOT: What attracted you to Deutsch New York?
Nicholson: When I was on the West Coast, I had always admired Deutsch from a distance. It represented to me what a New York advertising agency was all about–cool work, aggressive creative like the Snapple stuff, the initial efforts for Ikea [an account which has since returned to the agency]. It was a place that turned out intelligent, bold advertising. And it was part of a New York heritage that included smart, creative shops like Kirshenbaum, Cliff Freeman, Goldsmith Jeffrey. So when the opportunity to creatively run Deutsch came up, I was immediately drawn to it–the opportunity to revitalize this place and that wonderful heritage.
And I see that heritage and smart culture here already. The people here are willing to take on any new challenge, jump right in and go full out. No one’s timid. You might not always be right but that’s how you discover new interesting things, set new bars and ultimately help your clients succeed.
Another factor that attracted me to Deutsch is that everything is under one roof–creative, media, production, interactive [iDeutsch] and branded entertainment [via Deutsch’s Media Bridge Entertainment].
These different elements aren’t segregated. You’re not necessarily working with outside partners all the time. Being under one roof, we all talk to each other, which is a better situation where you can team to set and achieve more lofty goals. You go back to truly concentrating on what’s the idea that we want to bring forward in the marketplace.
You don’t have to worry about bringing an outside partner in and making sure they’re truly on board with us and the idea–and then have to explain that outside collaborator to the client.
SHOOT: What’s on your agenda?
Nicholson: Deutsch is a great business advertising agency. It takes care of clients’ businesses very well. We need to continue that while also injecting more creativity into the equation. A priority for me is to form an environment that encourages and nurtures creativity. Creative culture can come from anywhere–not just the creative department. We need to think big and foster creativity from all segments of the agency.
New business is also key. We’re on the ascent with some new business wins–Olympus Cameras, Prevacid, the Bronx Zoo. We need to attract more. We need to have sexy brands here–they deserve to be at Deutsch, which has a heritage in that kind of business, handling anything and everything from Old Navy to Ikea to Snapple to Mitsubishi.
The heritage here is to find the unique and interesting thing in a client that in turn makes their advertising bold.
SHOOT: In the branded entertainment space, do you see Deutsch New York primarily turning to the commercial production house community? Hollywood? A mix of collaborators/suppliers?
Nicholson: I envision kind of a mix. There are hybrids out there–companies in both the worlds of advertising and Hollywood–that I want to talk to and explore opportunities with. A lot depends on the specific project. Some projects we may do internally. We have a couple of guys at the agency whose side jobs and pursuits are as directors. One has a film coming up at Tribeca. This talent represents an internal resource we can take advantage of. I want to encourage that kind of growth among our people. But the bottom line is we will partner up with whomever necessary to make a project successful.
SHOOT: Reflect on your experience at JWT and what you bring from there that will help you at Deutsch?
Nicholson: [JWT co-president/chief creative officer] Ty Montague brought me in there about two years ago, about a month after he came in. Jeremy Postaer and I worked as partners there as co-creative directors on a bunch of business and helped that place get reconfigured and transferred from J. Walter Thompson to JWT. I learned a lot about branded content and different forms of communication from Ty–that’s kind of his thing, what he’s so well known for. We pitched and won Jet Blue, scored with a never ending kind of integrated campaign for Stride gum, won new Smirnoff business and Sunglass Hut. Most satisfying was being able to start a creative culture that Ty wanted to have there, a culture that gained momentum and continues to rise. We had a hand in taking an agency not necessarily known for creativity at that time and then turning the tide, making it a new creative force as reflected in some Cannes Gold Lions, One Show Pencils and other recognition. It was a very gratifying experience to see that growth evolve.
The tide has changed over there and the situation has some parallels to what I hope to see happen here as we revitalize ourselves creatively. When you get on a roll, start winning business and turning out interesting work, the phone rings a lot more. Opportunities of all kinds open up. For instance, it’s easier to get talented creatives to come to work with you, which is key. Everything spirals upward exponentially. I had a hand in getting that going at JWT and it’s an experience I bring to Deutsch.
I’ve been lucky over the years to work with and learn from great people–Ty Montague at JWT New York, David Droga at Publicis, Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Harry Cocciolo and Sean Ehringer at Leagas Delaney [who are both now directors at bicoastal Tool of North America].
I learned so much from all of them and that’s helped to shape me to where I now can contribute in many ways to Deutsch.
