The name Ira Carlin is not exactly tip-of-the-tongue material when
it comes to global media leaders. The prize for most anonymous
international media person, maybe, but he’s so unknown on this side of
the Atlantic that even his making the shortlist for that dubious
distinction is doubtful.
Last week McCann-Erickson announced that it is finally bringing all of
its media under the Universal McCann name around the world. Time to find
out who Ira Carlin is.
Carlin is 51 years old, describes himself as ’a student of the impact of
technology on modern culture’, likes opera, Russian classical music,
taking long walks and spending time with his family. He also enjoys the
title executive vice-president worldwide media director of Universal
McCann, the so-new-it’s-not-even-here-yet global media network.
Yes, another new global media network. The dominos are finally falling,
but while some of the latest entrants on the international media scene
are fully fledged media specialists, Universal has gone for a different
approach. Which is perhaps why Mr Carlin is a little less easy to get a
handle on.
Because while he is the architect of last week’s decision to roll the
brand out around the world, there is no doubt that Universal McCann is
very much an integral part of the McCann-Erickson agency. Unlike a John
Perriss or a Dominic Proctor, Carlin is hardly forging a new
operation.
More than any other media network, Universal is a rebranding of a string
of in-house media departments. None of this fight-on-your-own-two-feet
stuff for Universal, this media baby is very much clinging to its
mummy’s apron strings. And while that might sound a little dismissive,
what it really means is that Universal McCann can claim something of a
USP in the media market.
As Carlin puts it: ’The trend has been towards unbundling, but we felt
that we needed to make a contrary statement. Media is a core driver not
just in the route you take to speak to people but in understanding how
to speak to them. It’s much more than a one-way window to people, it has
a key role to play in developing the communication and creative
strategies.’
And the best way to effect this, Carlin believes, is to offer a
full-service approach whenever it’s feasible for the client. What’s
more, severing media irreparably from creative as the unbundled media
agencies have ’simply reduces media to a commodity’, Carlin insists.
’We’re not about commodity, we’re about a truly rounded communications
offering.’
But if you buy into the idea that media is slowly elbowing creative
aside in the battle for the client’s ear and the number one slot in the
decision-making hierarchy, isn’t that easier to achieve outside of an
agency for whom creative credentials are still key? Carlin says he has
not had to struggle with internal politics to win media its due
recognition within the agency. ’The chairman of McCann-Erickson, John
Dooner, is an ex-media man and he truly understands the value of media.
The huge successes of our media offering in recent years have been
recognised throughout the agency.’
Then there’s the fact that McCann media handles a chunk of business
which is completely independent from the main agency, giving it its own
client portfolio and independent income stream. In fact, Carlin says
that McCann’s US media department won more media-only business last year
than any other media operation. ’But we weren’t getting the public
recognition for that and for the achievements of our media team,’ he
explains. ’That’s one of the reasons we’ve decided to take the Universal
name worldwide.’
The Universal McCann global media network will take the European
Universal McCann as its blueprint, building on its media approach which
goes well beyond planning and buying to embrace all of McCann’s areas of
communications expertise.
All of which seems relatively straightforward compared with the pain of
merging separate in-house media departments like a MindShare or a
Zenith.
So why leave it so late to join the global media party? Carlin believes
that because much of the hard work has already been done this is simply
not an issue. Besides which, with billings of dollars 13 billion, ’we’re
bigger than most and our approach to media is ahead of the game’.
Carlin points out that the agency began laying the foundations for the
change four years ago, introducing standard systems, professional
planning processes and proprietary research. ’This is almost the icing
on the cake.’
THE CARLIN FILE
1971: Grey Advertising, media executive
1974: The Marschalk Company, associate media director
1981: Interpublic, director of media systems
1982: McCann-Erickson New York, media director
1986: McCann-Erickson, media director, north America
1993: McCann Erickson, worldwide media director.
