Mindshare Names Kathy Kline Chief Strategy, Innovation Officer

With the recently announced merger of Essence and MediaCom, the formation of the technology layer GroupM Nexus and the formalization of Mindshare’s meshing with Neo, GroupM is in the midst of a big change. This extends to expanding its leadership team, and today it announced a new c-suite hire in Kathy Kline, who will join from Publicis’ Starcom as Mindshare’s chief strategy and innovation officer in North America. Kline has over 30 years of experience and comes from the global chief strategy officer position at Publicis Media’s Starcom. “I really admire and think WPP is in the right place right now in terms of how it's structuring its businesses,” Kline told Adweek. “I think some of the recent changes with MediaCom and Essence and with Mindshare and Neo feel really smart in terms of simplifying things for our clients,” she added. Leadership appointments surge Kline’s hire comes after a series of others at Mindshare. The agency brought on Lesley Conway as CEO in Canada and Kelly Garland as managing director, Invention+ lead for the U.S. It also elevated Jeff Malmad as global head of commerce and Brian DeCicco as chief data strategy and analytics officer in North America. The hires are not surprising as it becomes more common for agencies to bolster leadership teams with specialists in certain areas, like technology, for example. As GroupM invests in technology more broadly, Mindshare is working on its own initiatives. It recently launched a new suite of machine learning products, which it calls Precisely Human Intelligence (PHI). The tech helps clients understand consumers’ motivations, mindsets and emotions so they can then buy the right audience segments. “In today's agency landscape and the landscape of advertising and media, we have to constantly change, to create better solutions for clients, but it feels like [Mindshare’s] in a good place for me right now,” Kline said. Kline succeeds Joe Maceda, Mindshare’s former U.S. chief instigation officer, who the agency last year elevated to global chief strategy and innovation officer. From a global to a North American purview Holding companies are currently going to market in varied ways, creating an agency landscape where leaders must choose which go-to-market strategy best aligns with their experience and goals. For example, Publicis is homing in on a country-based strategy and with its Power of One model, increasingly pitching at the Publicis Media or even the holding company level. WPP also creates bespoke units for its clients, but it's taking a slightly different tack by consolidating its agencies into larger brands but refusing to lean into GroupM as its own public-facing entity. In this transition, Kline is pivoting from a global role at Starcom to a North American purview at Mindshare, and will focus on forging a connection with her global counterparts. “There's also the global to local market—let's call North America a local market—collaboration that needs to happen as well. And that all needs to be pretty seamless,” Kline said. Attracted to Mindshare by its commitment to “Good Growth,” Kline’s value system is aligned with the agency’s. She told Adweek she aims to catalyze sustainable growth instead of “focusing simply on short term outcomes and a chase for the lowest CPM, but really thinking about the good things that media can do to drive growth for businesses, and for people and for our world.” Essence and MediaCom to Merge While WPP Launches a 9,000-Large Tech Group

Leadership & Talent

Mindshare Hires Starcom Vet Kathy Kline as Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer

GroupM agencies are going through a series of leadership changes

Olivia Morley

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Olivia Morley