Less than one year ago, trade pubs reported that Tara Levine had joined the New York offices of Deutsch to serve as the IPG agency’s chief marketing officer.
She replaced Michael Goldberg, who left to become CEO of Fort Lauderdale’s Zimmerman (where he had previously served as CMO) and who happens to be very pleasant in person. Or so we hear.
Earlier this month we noted that Levine had left Deutsch after approximately 9 months in the chief marketer job, and now we know where she went: she’ll will be CMO at the as-yet-unnamed agency created by Omnicom to handle the media side of the Procter & Gamble business.
You’ll recall that P&G effectively shut out Publicis North America in one of “Mediapalooza’s” biggest reviews last December. The client retained what was then still known as Starcom Mediavest Group outside the U.S. but went with OMG and Carat here in an effort to “[integrate] planning and buying … across North America markets to streamline operations and increase efficiency.” Publicis North America retained only the portions of the business that P&G plans to sell–namely its cosmetics brands, which makeup giant Coty agreed to buy for $12.5 billion last year.
As Adweek reported concurrently, the win was big enough to prompt the creation of a new media network, which will launch with P&G as its “charter client” before presumably expanding to serve other brands in the consumer goods space. Additional details regarding the still-forming network are not available at this time, and Omnicom Media reps could not be reached for comment.
P&G spent approximately $2.66 billion on domestic ads in 2014 according to Kantar Media, hence the need for a separate agency within Omnicom.
Earlier in her career, Levine worked in accounts and business development positions at several prominent agencies including DDB and the New York offices of Arnold Worldwide. She later served as director of new business at Havas/Euro RSCG for nearly two years before moving to Omnicom’s OMD, where she handled U.S. business development before being promoted to managing director of OMD U.S. in New York.
Deutsch continues to look for both a new CMO and a chief creative officer in its New York office.
Updates to come on Omnicom and P&G.