The revolving door on Madison Avenue has always squeaked a bit more loudly when it deposits someone at a new address after a notably brief stay elsewhere.
Matt MacDonald, who joined the American outpost of the London-based agency VCCP just two years ago, is departing for Merkley+Partners, the Omnicom-owned shop announced. He will take the title of chief creative officer, a position that has been empty since Andy Hirsch, who had been with the agency since 1999, retired at the end of last year.
Mr. MacDonald's tenure at VCCP was something of a pit stop. Before arriving there in the fall of 2024, he had spent a decade at BBDO, where he oversaw the AT&T account as chief creative officer in New York. (A decade at one agency, followed by two years at the next — the math suggests either restlessness or opportunity, and perhaps both.)
At Merkley+Partners, a midsize full-service agency based in New York, Mr. MacDonald has been charged with reshaping the shop's creative vision and approach, according to the agency. What that reshaping will look like, and whether it will involve the sort of dramatic personnel changes that often accompany such mandates, remains to be seen.
His arrival in November will end what has been nearly a year without a chief creative officer at the agency, a vacancy that in the advertising business can either signal institutional drift or a patient search for the right candidate. The agency, it seems, is betting on the latter interpretation.
For Mr. MacDonald, the move represents a return to the Omnicom fold — BBDO being, of course, part of that holding company's network — after his sojourn at an independent shop. Whether the familiarity of the corporate parent will make the transition smoother, or whether Merkley+Partners will feel like an entirely different country despite the shared passport, is a question only the work will eventually answer.
Original story published in adweek.com: "Matt MacDonald Leaves VCCP for Omnicom's Merkley+Partners"