M&C Saatchi's New Europe CEO Introduces Client-Focused Model

Advertising agency group M&C Saatchi has promoted Carlo Noseda to become its chief executive for Europe (EU), bringing with him a new client-focused operating model that will aim to engender collaboration across the business with a number of specialist hubs also being introduced. Noseda, who has led M&C Saatchi Milan since 2010, will work closely with Wendy Dixon, chief growth officer, and Justin Graham, head of advertising network, to introduce the agency group's new client platform under the Moving Forward strategy. The new strategy will see M&C Saatchi EU move from individual office profit and loss reporting to creating a P&L for each client instead. The approach was created to support clients without using a location-based approach with high costs and limited flexibility. The Ongoing Tug of War for Ownership of M&C Saatchi The incoming operating model will aim to introduce collaboration across creatives, teams and clients from across various locations in Europe, including France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy acting as the European headquarters. Each EU client will be able to choose their own creative solutions, including services from media, sustainability, CRM, PR, and social and talent management, as well as data, technology and digital transformation, rather than employing a whole agency. Noseda explained to Adweek the repositioning of M&C Saatchi would see it become “a creative solutions company” that will now offer “the diversity of talent that we have across Europe” to each client across different countries. “We are changing the vocabulary of the industry so we no longer have ‘offices’ but we will have ‘houses’ where our employees can work wherever they want to, depending on where the client is based,” he continued. Additional specialist hubs will also be introduced, with one Brussels set to tackle world issues while Stockholm will become a base for brand and experience projects across digital landscapes. Milan will house a strategy hub, while Berlin offers a marketing hub. “We are trying to present ourselves as a creative solution partner, because for clients the world has changed and they need more than one thing to address the issues they have. They can no longer ask one agency to handle advertising, and for another one to handle media, and then another to specialize in marketing,” Noseda said. He admitted that the model was yet to be tested, but Noseda knows the culture and people across the agency well enough to feel confident that this new model of connecting the agency’s best talents was the correct one to introduce in order to offer value to clients. “There are very few places in the world where you have such a clash of diversity that can come together easily,” he added of the interconnectivity around Europe for travel, as his plane from Milan to Germany was set to take off. “The power of our job is to bring different points of view to one business and one client. So we love to have integrated teams that can work in different industries and different markets as much as they can.”