After a nearly yearlong search, Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, has a new creative leader, John Condon, a 19-year veteran of the agency, who is an executive VP/group creative head, will assume the chief creative officer role in March. Condon will succeed Cheryl Berman, who will continue to serve as chairman of Leo Burnett USA, while also offering insights into accounts such as McDonald’s, Hallmark, Disney and Coca-Cola, as well as new business prospects.
“After an extensive search both internally and externally, John emerged as the best leader to take our creative department into the future,” states Berman. “He understands the Leo Burnett brand.”
In addition to Condon’s appointment as chief creative officer, another long-time Leo Burnett executive, Chris Rossiter, was upped to executive VP/director of broadcast production at the agency last November, succeeding Jonathan Davis, who left the agency to return to London, where he is now with bicoastal/international @radical.media.
Condon and Rossiter have collaborated extensively during their tenures at Leo Burnett, including on the whimsical animated spot “Poptartica” for Pop-Tarts, directed by Sam Morrison of Nexus Productions, London. The agency pair looks forward to continuing and expanding on that collaboration. “We’re going to continue what we’ve done on a larger scale,” relates Rossiter. “What I know people here are so excited about with John is that he is one-hundred percent about the work, and doing the best work that we can. I think that makes it very easy for people to put anything and everything else aside and just do that.”
THE NEXT GENERATION
Condon will oversee a 200-person department that works on accounts such as Kellogg’s, Procter & Gamble, Nintendo, Altoids, as well as the aforementioned McDonald’s, Disney, Hallmark and Coca-Cola. While Condon has not yet made any plans to restructure, he notes that as advertising evolves into new mediums and consumer participation, ideas will be paramount. “The simple aspiration of the Leo Burnett Company has always been to be the best in the world bar none,” he states. “[It’s] a lofty goal, but the way I take the brief, is step by step, day by day, idea by idea, let’s try and close the gap between where we are and where we hope to be.”
The agency is no stranger to exploring media solutions outside of the traditional. When the U.S. Army effort “An Army of One” was launched in early 2001, the campaign included a series of Webisodes under the “Basic Training” banner, which allowed users to go to a Web site to view recruits’ progress through boot camp. (The Army account recently shifted over to McCann Erickson, New York.)
More recently, Condon was one of the key creatives on the Cadillac “Under5 Seconds” campaign, which launched during the 2005 Super Bowl to promote the Cadillac V-series. The packaged featured five second spots like “Don’t Blink,” “Introducing” and “Burnout” that illustrated how cars in the V-series line are capable of going from zero to 60 in five seconds. The spots directed viewers to the www.cadillacunder5.com Web site, which contained tie-ins to the feature film Be Cool, as well as to the Cadillac five second film contest, which invited filmmakers to submit a five-second film that incorporated the acceleration rate–the carmaker received 2,600 films.
Condon and his department will continue exploring new ways to get their clients’ messages heard in a crowded media landscape, starting with solid ideas. “There are shifts going on in the media mix, but I don’t know that it’s all shifting to any one thing in particular,” explains Condon. “What you see, I think, is that the idea is really the key thing to get–probably more so than ever before.”
And those ideas need to be all encompassing to succeed, with the ability to easily move among media. “Bigger, better, stronger, more scalable ideas [are needed],” stresses Condon. “Ideas that can be taken into a variety of different channels readily and easily. … I don’t anticipate all of our clients rushing into any particular channel or section–it’s case by case, what’s right and relevant for that particular product at that point in time, and the people they are trying to talk to.”
PRODUCTION DEPT.
Rossiter, who has been with Leo Burnett for 17 years, most recently as senior VP/executive producer, will oversee the entire production department at the agency, including: Music Aid, the agency’s in-house music studio headed up by Ira Antelis; art buyers; and the shop’s in-house editing and visual effects arms. “In terms of structure,” explains Rossiter, “what we try and do is align ourselves and cast the producers and the production groups, and attach them to creative groups that allow everybody the best opportunities to work together and advance the work.
Rossiter will take some of his cues from how Condon restructures the creative department, though nothing concrete has yet to be determined. “What we’ll do over time is adjust things according to whatever restructuring that John [might do] with the creatives.”
Rossiter relates that while the department still has broadcast producers and art buyers, over time “people are going to–and I don’t know how immediate this really is–but people are going to produce whatever work their project calls for, whether that’s an online component, short film, long form stuff, a :30 in the broadcast medium and/or print.
“I think that in order to work smarter and faster, we need to continue to have everybody cross-purpose so to speak,” he continues, citing as an example the agency’s work on the aforementioned Army campaign.
As for teaming more closely with Condon, Rossiter looks forward to the collaboration. “The work part for us has always been really easy,” he notes, “because we get along so well.”
