After 12 years spent at various incarnations of RAPP, Rich Whalen has headed to McCann’s New York office to take on the job of SVP, director of project leadership, which, yes, sounds like and indeed is a newly created post. His responsibility, in McCann’s words, is to “help ensure the agency’s successful refocus to a more collaborative and agile approach to client businesses.” Sounds like a plan.
During his decade-plus stay at his former employer, Whalen held various titles including VP, digital marketing at Rapp Collins, VP, digital marketing strategy at Rapp Collins Worldwide and finally, SVP, head of delivery at RAPP.
In other McCann NY news, the agency’s been named global AOR for the IKEA catalogue, marking the first time the Swedish brand has handed out a global AOR assignment (all of its other agency relationships are local but are not affected by this). McCann NY will work closely with IKEA’s in-house, Almhult, Sweden-based communications team, ICOM. With this new partnership, McCann NY/London creative boss Linus Karlsson gets to reconnect with an old client. In a statement, he says, “This is a dream opportunity because it exists on the cutting-edge media, arts and commerce for a company I know and grew up with. Ultimately, it about creating a more exciting and useful IKEA experience for the many people, and letting the story of IKEA come alive in new ways in the catalogue.”
Finally, to answer a tipster’s question, we’ve been told that there has been no winner announced for McCann’s push-pin story contest as of yet. Don’t worry, fella, we’ll let you know.