Friday, January 25, 2008

Hill to climb to top of 4As hill ... ha!

The news that former Lowe and BBDO exec Nancy Hill is in all likelihood going to be the next head of the 4As came out of left field for me. I've never met her, but I guess the 4As has so long epitomized the ad industry's old-boy network that it never even occurred to me that the person replacing Burtch Drake would be a woman. This seems partially a step in the right direction. If I had a personal wish list, however, on what the next chief of the 4As should have on his or her resume, it would be substantial digital street cred, and, far as I know, Hill doesn't have that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've actually spoken at great length with Nancy about the future of digital, and its importance within advertising -- and the agency system.

She believes in it all the way, and I, for one, am glad that it's her (and her views on digital's importance) at the head of the 4As. They need a change agent in there. I believe Nancy can be that.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Nancy Hill is one of the most digitally-forward agency leaders out there--she was an early technology evangelist--lived in SanFran during dot.com infancy, worked on tech accts like MSN, Cisco, Verizon, Lucas Arts...at BBDO ran global Motorola biz, AOL, etc. Early adopter. She knows what clients need from their agencies--important for 4A's head. She's big into education too and working with kids. She is a surprising but INSPIRED choice. She'll shake it up.