Cheil Worldwide creates Cheil Connec+ to boost agility

Cheil Worldwide has set up a division that brings together strategy, creativity, innovation, technology, data, retail, CRM, pricing and performance marketing.

Cheil Connec+ will be led by Ian Millner as chief executive. He also retains his role as chair of Iris Worldwide.

Jill Smith, chief marketing officer for North America at Iris Worldwide, becomes global CMO, and Jo Holliday, marketing director for Europe, has been named global marketing director.

The trio will bring together specialisms from Cheil Worldwide agencies Cheil, Barbarian, BMB, Iris and McKinney to answer global client briefs, spanning 53 offices and 6,500 staff.

They aim to position Cheil Connec+ as more "agile and focused than traditional offerings".

Millner told Campaign that he has witnessed a change in businesses, whereby many clients are looking for "tech-level growth" regardless of whether they are a technology company. He said they want strategy, creativity, innovation, technology, data, retail, CRM, pricing and performance marketing "all in one big intense hit".

Millner referred to the clients with which Cheil Connec+ will work as "birth or rebirth", by which he means they will be either start-ups or businesses that are going through a turnaround or transformation.

He added that Cheil Worldwide has already been working in this manner for Samsung. The network has helped the technology brand increase its brand value fourfold over the past 10 years.

"We have grown up as a collective of agency talent, all of whom thrive on the intensity of working with ambitious and competitive clients," Millner said.

"As more clients seek immediate impact and higher levels of performance from their agency partners, we have created a way for clients to work with us seamlessly across time zones and disciplines that brings together strategy, creativity, innovation, technology, data, retail, CRM, pricing and performance marketing, and to unlock their performance headroom.

"Cheil Connec+ offers a more agile and focused approach to collaboration, intentionally eradicating legacy siloes, structures and baggage. Change has changed, and agency networks need to get ahead and seek to become a mission critical multiple for client businesses."