JWT announced today the creation of an “Experience Department” to be lead by Ingrid Bernstein (pictured) in New York and Maciek Gorzkowski in London.
The program is meant to set New York and London as the hubs for digital knowledge within the network, according to the agency, with NY CEO David Eastman as the strategic leader for worldwide operations.
“This newly created division is a reflection of our agency’s mission to put digital at the forefront of all of our clients’ businesses,” Eastman said. “We have two fantastic centers of excellence in London and New York, headed up by two of the most experienced and exciting minds in global digital thinking, and we are hugely excited to launch this next phase of JWT’s worldwide development.”
Excited indeed. With the shop’s leaders Ty Montague and Rosemarie Ryan set to depart by summer, they’ll need a new path to follow. Still no word on Montague’s replacement, by the way.
The group will focus on social and emerging technologies and work with existing teams to integrate their findings in client offerings. The word “seamless” was used to describe how this will work, but nothing ever is — especially when an agency is blue (following the loss of their dear leaders). Nonetheless, it’s a good PR move for JTW which has been going through a digital renaissance of sorts. Also, they’re well aware of how many trees they use.