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BBH USA has hired two leaders from independent creative agency Fig to strengthen its Black Sheep agency brand and better blend its strategy practice with the might of Publicis’ data arm Epsilon PeopleCloud.
Samantha Deevy joins as BBH USA’s chief strategy officer, and Lindsey McNabb Hover is now the 25-year-old shop’s first CMO. Fig—the shop former TBWA chief creative officer Mark Figliulo founded and later rebranded—has grown steadily behind its proprietary StoryData tool, which was one of the industry’s first tools to use AI to analyze creative.
McNabb Hover led Fig’s new business operations and is credited for her work closing deals with clients like Campari, Tyson and Viator. Deevy, known as a media-savvy creative with a grasp on audience insights, led Fig’s strategy practice.
The two report to Agnes Fischer, president of BBH USA, who wants to keep building on the agency’s momentum with the new hires. The Publicis agency recently won AOR work for Duracell, and it has launched new campaigns for the likes of Meow Mix, Milk-Bone, J.M. Smucker and Samsung.
Hiring two leaders from the same agency turned out to be helpful for the duo, and it’s streamlined their BBH on-boarding.
“The unique thing about this leadership team is that we all know each other,” McNabb Hover said. “We’re not finding our sea legs for the first six-to-12 months of this new partnership. We are able to literally hit the ground running on day one, and we’re already finishing each other’s sentences.”
A strategy lead with media chops
In a strategy lead, Fischer sought a visionary leader—one willing to take on client work when needed.
Having held roles at Droga5, Omnicom Media Group agency PHD and another Publicis agency, Digitas, Deevy’s skillset spans media and creative practices. Her former clients include HBO’s Game of Thrones, Kraft, The New York Times, SC Johnson and Cover Girl.
The strategist’s media background resonated with Fischer. For one, BBH utilizes Publicis’ data arm Epsilon PeopleCloud to inform its creative work. In order to convince its clients to take more creative risks, Fischer thinks Deevy is capable of encouraging marketers to make those leaps, armed with data and insights that support their effectiveness.
Define the next 25 years at BBH USA
When Fischer crafted a role to drive the agency’s growth, she opted for its first chief marketing position and not a chief growth officer. BBH wants to double down on efforts to hone and amplify its agency brand ahead of its 25-year anniversary in the U.S. market coming up this fall. The role had to encompass more than new business growth.
“It’s about really refocusing on what our brand is,” Fischer said.
McNabb Hover will give the BBH brand a boost, making clear both its creative style and the characteristics it looks for in clients. It’s the right time to amplify BBH’s brand, according to the CMO. She’s observed clients reinvest in brand-building creative work, veering away from the laser-focus on performance marketing most adopted during the pandemic.
“Obviously, the last few years have been very data centric,” McNabb Hover told Adweek. “CMOs are wanting a creative partner with a little bit less risk than they’d get with engaging with the pure-play independents.”
Is an agency brand at odds with the Power of One?
BBH works within the Publicis’ Power of One model, in which sister agencies sometimes collaborate to service a single brand, like BBH client Smucker’s.
“We have the creative piece of that Power of One, in terms of the strategic brand and creative leadership. But it is surrounded by all of the other offerings of Publicis,” said McNabb Hover, noting that when Publicis agencies collaborate on the Smucker’s account, it’s challenging to tell if teammates hail from BBH or a media agency.
The BBH leaders find the Power Of One working model supports the agency’s own brand-building objectives.
“The unique thing about Publicis is that they let us be BBH,” McNabb Hover said. “They embrace their brands, they believe in the power of their brands. We are not white-labeled when we go into those [Power of One] situations.”
Independent creative thinking, but with hold co resources
When leading Fig’s strategy, Deevy missed having holding company resources at her disposal, like she had in her previous roles. For example, data and insights were harder for employees at the independent agency to access than they likely would have been at a holding company agency.
Working at media agencies made Deevy obsessed with audiences, and she regards Epsilon PeopleCloud as a differentiator for BBH.
“Already, on my second week, I’m obsessed with Epsilon … If you don’t figure it out how to actually get [the creative] out into the world in a meaningful way, at scale—that’s not going to deliver for the business,” she said.
Data is also an important strategic tool for Deevy, who expects Epsilon data will underpin the entirety of BBH’s strategic process, creative development and creative testing.
Joining BBH gives the two Fig leaders access to Epsilon PeopleCloud, but also access to its sister agencies and their resources. The model, it turns out, lines up with the duo’s professional goals in much the same way it does its clients’.
“We are truly in a unique position in the marketplace, and really differentiated in that we are fiercely creative and have this amazing culture of creativity and creative ambition––but that is underpinned by the world’s most powerful holding company,” Fischer told Adweek.
