Shawn Paul Wood
May 13, 2022

Snap hires retired W+K president as chief creative officer

DeCourcy left Wieden+Kennedy in December, announcing that she would retire from the advertising industry.

Colleen DeCourcy
Colleen DeCourcy

Wieden+Kennedy vet Colleen DeCourcy is out of retirement. 

Less than six months after announcing that she would step down as Wieden+Kennedy’s president after nearly a decade and retire from the ad industry, DeCourcy has joined Snap as chief creative officer, a new role for the social platform, the company said on Thursday (May 12). 

In the role, DeCourcy will oversee sourcing, development and storytelling for all creative efforts related to the Snap brand’s image and global marketing efforts, according to a press release. She will be based near Snap’s headquarters in Los Angeles, Ca. and report to Snap chief marketing officer Kenny Mitchell. 

“At Snap, I’ve met a thoughtful group of people with values and a mission that can make a difference. That’s 100% why I’m doing this,” said DeCourcy in a statement. “What I didn’t expect is how much fun it would be to take my advertising brain and do something completely different with it. That is an incredible opportunity for a creative thinker.”

Snap has been on a creative tear lately with recent campaigns as well as new products. The platform used AR to reveal Black history in London’s Trafalgar Square, created technology and a new filter to serve the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community and launched a dedicated AR shopping space for users. 

At Wieden+Kennedy, DeCourcy was the advertising agency’s co-president and chief creative officer for more than a decade. She was behind national campaigns from Airbnb, Ford, McDonald’s and Visa, as well as two Emmy-award winning campaigns for Nike: “You Can’t Stop Us” and “Dream Crazy.” 

“Her exceptional strategic and creative leadership makes her the perfect person to help transform the way we bring the Snap brand to life around the world” Mitchell said in a statement. “Colleen has already made a tremendous impact on the organization, and we can’t wait to see how her incredible talent, passion, and imagination continue to fuel creativity at Snap.”

DeCourcy is the latest top tier hire from Snap. Recently, the company brought on Jacqueline Beauchere from Microsoft as global head of platform safety; Anne Laurenson from Google as managing director of global carrier partnerships; Rajni Jacques from Allure as global head of fashion and beauty partnerships; and Konstantinos ‘KP’ Papmilitiadis from Facebook as VP of platform partnerships.

Source:
Campaign US

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