We knew something was in the air when just the words “Matt Ian” popped up in our tips box on Saturday of all days. Well, as we alluded to in our earlier TBWA\Chiat\Day NY-related post this morning, the “big announce” is that, yes, Matt Ian, is taking over for Mark Figliulo as creative head of said agency’s New York office. As tipsters mentioned, the CCO title does not apply as of now; Ian, now in his second stint at TBWA, instead joins as executive creative director. Figliulo, who spent the last five-plus years as CCO/chairman of Chiat NY, is moving on to start his own shop.
Ian, meanwhile, joins from Deutsch L.A., where he served as EVP/group creative director on VW (recent examples include the baseball and Rubik’s Cube/racing spots). Prior to joining Deutsch, Ian worked as a senior creative at the likes of CP+B (on Microsoft Windows) and BBH New York, the latter of which he spent nine years at working on, of course, Axe as well as Johnnie Walker and Levi’s. In a statement regarding his move back to NYC, Ian says, “I wasn’t actively looking to leave Deutsch, LA or Volkswagen. But when I met Robert and talked with him about his plans for the NY office, jumping at the chance to write the next chapter of the TBWA\Chiat\Day NY story was a no-brainer.” Ian will officially join TBWA\Chiat\Day NY in August.