Young & Rubicam has poached Dave Downing, the planning director of
Publicis Focus, and John Howkins, a group planning director at
McCann-Erickson.
At the same time, Mike Bentley, a Y&R board account planner since 1995,
has been appointed deputy to Tim Broadbent, the agency’s planning
director.
Broadbent said: ’This is both recognition and reward for the terrific
job Mike has done since he joined us.’ Bentley works across a whole
range of the agency’s clients, but his chief accounts are Quaker and
Scottish Courage.
The Liverpudlian has been at Y&R for three years, following spells at
WCRS, Partners BDDH and Generator.
Bentley commented: ’My appointment fits into the long-term future of the
Y&R planning department. In a day-to-day sense, it will not make too
much difference because we all work very closely together.’
Of the new recruits, Broadbent said: ’John and Dave have the experience
to look at communications issues from a wider business perspective than
just an agency one. Both of them have a puppy-like enthusiasm for great
ideas.’
Downing has been the planning director of Publicis Focus, where the main
clients are Shell, Renault and Whirlpool, for six years.
Previously he was a board planning director at Saatchi & Saatchi.
Howkins became group planning director at McCanns in 1993. He was in
charge of planning on Reckitt & Colman, with global responsibility for
two of its four business divisions including brands such as Harpic and
Daz in the UK. He has worked at DMB&B and Lowe Howard-Spink and
co-founded the Planning Consultancy in 1991.
Y&R claims that the new appointments have been necessitated by an influx
of new business from clients including Ford, which has given the agency
three car launches this year. Y&R has just been appointed by AT&T to
work on its European account, and new projects have also come from
United Airlines and Citibank.
Broadbent, who is a managing partner at Y&R as well as planning
director, joined the agency in the planning director’s role three years
ago. He was poached from WCRS, where he was a board planning director.
