DDB Needham Shakes Up Creative

Mike Rogers to Exit as Dual Chiefs Emerge
NEW YORK–Mike Rogers, executive creative director and vice chairman at DDB Needham here, will leave the agency shortly as part of a restructuring in its creative department.
David Nathanson, group creative director on DDB’s Compaq Computer account and Steve Landsberg, creative director at Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto, will run the department as co-chief creative officers, a setup that echoes the joint creative management method the office tried in 1994.
“Jobs like this don’t come around very often,” said Landsberg, who confirmed his Sept. 1 start date. Landsberg, who first worked at DDB in the early ’80s, has been at O&M since 1995.
DDB is expected to announce the changes this week. Nathanson and Rogers did not return calls, while Peter Tate, president of the New York office, declined comment.
The shakeup comes nearly two months after DDB grabbed the $200 million Compaq account. The win was the office’s sole bright spot in recent years, as sister shops in Chicago and Dallas have shined. Nathanson, among others, has been credited with the Compaq win.
The departure of Rogers, an 18-year veteran, comes amid DDB’s defense of its New York State Lottery account, for whom Rogers helped create the award-winning “Hey, you never know” ads.
–with Steve Krajewski