Q&A: JWT's Vega Olmos

NEW YORK The opportunity to work on Unilever enticed Fernando Vega Olmos to sell his Argentina-based shop to Interpublic Group in 1998 and his subsequent award-winning work on brands like Axe and Rexona vaulted him to worldwide creative director on Unilever at IPG's Lowe in 2004.Now, his success on that big global client is what led to a regional leadership post at rival Unilever roster shop JWT. In mid-January, the 50-year-old native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, becomes creative chairman for Continental Europe and Latin America, reporting to worldwide CEO Bob Jeffrey.Last week, a week after the hire, Vega Olmos talked to senior reporter Andrew McMains about his new boss, the expectations of WPP CEO Martin Sorrell and why Unilever global chief marketing officer Simon Clift wasn't entirely pleased with the move.Adweek: What drew you to JWT?Vega Olmos: Over the last month, I had good chats with Bob Jeffrey. And he was pretty clear about what he wants and why he was asking me to join them. After so many years with Lowe, as a partner to my agency in Buenos Aires and then working in London and Madrid, I thought it was a good time to make a change. I'm leaving Lowe with everything going well.How were your conversations with Bob?I had four or five conversations in different places around the world -- in New York, in London...I like him because I think he's a pretty straightforward guy...I have no idea honestly about what I'm going to find in JWT. All these changes at the beginning -- you need time to readjust yourself to the new culture. I also know people at JWT. So, I'm real excited with the change. Let's see if I can do something useful there. How was the job described to you?This was a very honest chat that I had with Bob. He said to me, "Look Fernando, I really have a brilliant creative director in New York and I really have a brilliant creative director in London. So would you consider a kind of global or regional position or something like this?" I said, "Look, thanks for saying that you don't need a global creative director because I don't believe in that kind of role." Why not?Let's be honest here, the world is really big. And for instance, Asia itself is (like) a world. So, I said to Bob, "What if we considered something like Europe and Latin America? Because it's something that I have some experience of doing at Lowe and I think it's doable." How did Tony Wright react to your leaving and did he try to counter the offer?Not really, because I had a very open chat with him. I've worked with him very well for almost four years and I have a very good relationship with him. He was quite shocked at the beginning of the conversation, but then he said, "OK, look, I know that at some point in your career you need a new challenge and I wish you the best." He's a good guy.Is Lowe concerned given your relationship with Unilever and now having to fill your position?I don't think so, because honestly they'll have everything they need to keep on doing great work for Unilever. [VegaOlmosPonce] is a great agency in Buenos Aires, running very important Unilever brands and projects. [Lowe Latina] in Madrid is doing fabulous things with ice cream and other stuff. When things are not going well, you should think twice about a thing like this. ...And of course, having a great relationship with many people at Unilever, I do like Unilever a lot. It's a client that really gave me the opportunity to create great work. I'm going to miss this a lot but at the same time JWT is running some Unilever brands, so I think I'm going to keep in touch with the guys.How do you feel about working at a big agency network?Can I answer that question in one year? (Laughs). Honestly, I have no idea. I've been working on my own agency for years now...so for me the big network is going to be something new. Part of the thing is to really have the right talent and crack the briefs. This is definitely a team thing. It's not a one-man show. I have some experience running global campaigns. It's the thing that I did the last four years, apparently quite well, according to the results.What are you proudest of from your tenure at Lowe?I'm especially proud of VOP. It's still quite small compared to other agencies around the world. Out of Buenos Aires, I think that VOP did a brilliant job, especially with Unilever brands. A brilliant job for Axe, a brilliant job for Rexona and basically the deodorants. Then when I moved to London at the end of '04, Lowe was still running some big Unilever brands but not doing quite well. So... Unilever asked me -- "Could you please try to replicate the good work that VOP is doing?" The first thing I tried to do is organize the people that are going to do the work. Again, I am quite proud of the teams that I've worked with the last four years. We did quite a good job at the beginning keeping the business, and then after this, we started getting more Unilever business...I was lucky to work with very talented people and I was lucky that Lowe gave me the opportunity to do it. At the end of the day, it is about the results. Not only Lions at Cannes, which is just part of the story. The most important part of the story is really cracking big ideas that can travel and can run anywhere in the world.What did you make of Simon Clift's reaction to your news?I know he's not very pleased with this. Together we did good things and, in a way, I'm going to work for other players now as well. But he wished me all the best. He's not quite pleased [about me leaving] because things are going really well between Lowe and Unilever. I said to Simon, "Look, it's not just about myself. It's not at all a one-man show." All the people are still there, so you can be sure that Lowe is continuing to do great work for the brands.Are there people in Lowe's ranks who can fill the role that you're leaving?I really don't know. My role was mainly because of my experience with Unilever brands. So key people in Unilever trust me to lead. It's not that easy a role to replace. Sure, there are people in the Lowe network that are going to deliver great work because they're there. I don't think that they need a global guy to do things. You met Martin Sorrell during the recruitment process?I had a chat with Martin. He was quite clear about his expectations. He was excited about the possibility of me joining JWT.What are his expectations?He said to me, "You did a great job with Unilever and you did a great job running your own agency. This is going to be new for you because JWT is such a big network. So, I hope you can do some of the things that you did in the past." This was like a "good wishes" conversation.What are your impressions of JWT from afar?Let me put it this way: I do believe that creativity needs scale. It's quite hard to crack really big ideas for small brands. Most of them really don't have the budget. They have all the intentions, but they don't have the budget to do it. Well, I am pretty excited with JWT [because] they really have big brands, big brands that need global ideas. I know how to do this. You don't know what's going to happen, but at least you know that if you have the big brands, the resources and the right talent, it's going to happen. You have a credo or philosophy?No, not really. It's quite a pragmatic thing. One way to see this is let the work do the talking. ...At the end of the day, be sure that the coffee is good and great things are going to happen!

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Q&A: JWT's Vega Olmos

Andrew McMains

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Andrew McMains