The Creative Vision Behind Publicis' New Cross-Agency Office Le Truc

Publicis is launching a new cross-agency Le Truc office in New York and bringing in top executive talent from Droga5 and Ogily to lead creative operations. Bastien Baumann and Neil Heymann will serve as founding partners for Le Truc, a creative model that brings together more than 600 creatives, producers and creative strategists from Publicis agencies in New York into one collaborative space. Baumann joins Le Truc as chief design officer from Ogilvy, where he was executive creative director and head of design. Heymann arrives as CCO from Accenture agency Droga5, where he spent the last 12 years, most recently as global CCO. Heymann explained that his decision to join Le Truc was a matter of timing, calling his time at Droga5 over more than a decade a "life-changing experience." "I can’t overstate what an experience it has been, being able to be part of the arc of Droga5 from an agency of [around] 60 people to being part of a huge organization and every step in-between. I have nothing but gratitude, and I feel like I'll always be invested in their success," he told Adweek, citing his work on the 2017 "Did You Mean MailChimp?" campaign, which earned Droga5 a Cannes Lions Grand Prix as one personal creative highlight, as well as the thrill of seeing its creative department succeed during those years. "At the same time, 12 years is several lifetimes in advertising. The challenge and opportunity to work with new folks and a new model is interesting," he said, also citing the ability to shape Le Truc's way of working and bringing together creative talent from this early stage. Carla Serrano will lead the office as president, and Elaine Barker will lead resource management and operations. The creative leadership team will also include Publicis New York CCO Andy Bird and Publicis Communications North America and Leo Burnett CCO Liz Taylor. All of these leaders will act as founding partners of Le Truc. "This is not a one-cult creative leader-type model," Serrano told Adweek, but a variety of approaches and perspectives necessary to meet the complexity of clients' creative challenges. When the team was looking for founding partners, "we wanted someone with experience across the full swatch of creative skillsets form Razorfish to Saatchi & Saatchi, and needed someone to be able to flex accordingly," something Heymann brings to the role with experience across the creative ecosystem, including connecting Droga5's creative services with Accenture, she added. "Very few people have that as an experience. His profile is wonderful and [his] ability of getting the best out of everyone and the logistics and soft skills of building teams is part of Neil’s way of working." Publicis also was mindful of creating a leadership team encompassing both established leaders familiar with Publicis' operations and talented creatives from outside the organization with fresh perspective. "I felt the leadership model was a step in right direction, and there is a real healthy tension between the old and the new here," Heymann said. "I felt a lot of connection with the [leadership team] in terms of the wavelength we're on and how we see the industry." A new way of working Le Truc brings together talent from the New York operations of Digitas, Publicis, Publicis Media, Razorfish, Rokkan and Saatchi & Saatchi. Serrano explained that BBH, The Community and Fallon would be left to operate independently to preserve "boutique-like cultures," while Publicis Health will operate independently as well. Le Truc will introduce a next-generation working model for Publicis and function as a prototype hub exemplifying both Publicis' country model and Power of One approach. Its introduction follows the global launch of Publicis connectivity platform Marcel last year, and the news arrives in the wake of Publicis reinforcing its U.S. leadership team and appointing Tim Jones as U.S. COO. "It’s a natural extension of how we work, providing clients with the right talent [for] the right brief," Serrano said. She explained that agencies would retain their individual identities while combining forces when appropriate, including for some new business opportunities that would see talent come together collectively while anchored in an individual agency brand or customized holding company solution. One current pitch is being handled through Le Truc, she said. Le Truc will be located at Publicis' flagship building at 375 Hudson in New York, with the goal of offering a hybrid work model providing creatives with the benefits of in-person collaboration. The space is being conceptualized by A+I, which also designed the headquarters of Equinox and Squarespace. "Out of all the disciplines, creative has been the toughest hit by remote work. We're missing a bit of that random, beautiful collision of collaborating and co-creating," Serrano said. "Spontaneity just doesn't happen on Zoom the same way. We wanted to provide a space for that when it's safe to go in [to the office], but also make sure every space allows for hybrid engagement." "The last year or so has shown how adaptive we can be as creatives, how flexible and resilient we can be in terms of the creative process. It will be nice on the other side of this to know we can be that resilient, but we don’t have to be all the time," Heymann said. "Publicis Groupe is serious about this and invested a lot in it already. There's a lot of blank canvas to work on a different way of doing things. Who wouldn’t find that appealing?" Open community According to a statement, Le Truc will also foster an open community to incubate diversity. The first of such ventures finds Publicis investing in a Black-owned experimental studio focusing on connecting historical context and nuanced cultural perspective to creative experience and technology solutions. Founders Chijioke Amah, Joy Ekuta, Ajene Green and Quinnton Harris anticipate launching the studio in the coming weeks. Heymann told Adweek that the studio exemplified Le Truc's goals of creating a place where different creative enterprises could coexist and benefit from each other. "Brands that can be retrospective about their past while embracing the changes of the times can truly deliver rich, authentic and inclusive human experiences—in fact, they will ultimately be the ones that endure as we evolve to be a more inclusive and equitable society," Harris said in a statement. "Our studio will complement Le Truc with its focus on delivering these experiences for both social and business impact."