I didn’t want my successor to be a mini-me: Susan Credle

In an interaction with IMPACT, Susan Credle, the Global Chair of FCB and the first-ever creative advisor for IPG, discusses her new role and her vision for it.

Susan remains patient, giving importance to real progress over rushed success, as FCB India sees a slower metal conversion at Cannes Lions 2024 compared to the previous years. Furthermore, she advocates balancing creativity with business impact and launches praises on campaigns that add levity.

Excerpts from the conversation:

Congratulations Susan, on your new big role. Tell me, what is going to be your approach for fitting into a role which never existed?

My approach is such that in the first year, I observe what people are doing, see what is happening internally and externally, and then I start to shape things around it. I chose the title creative advisor because I've always believed that when you're talking to CCOs that are running companies, they should be the leaders.

Even I wanted that autonomy when I was in those roles. For me, what I wanted was someone who was in my corner coaching me. Being in this business for 30 years, I have had a lot of experience. The first part of being an advisor is to help people not have the same failures I had.

I also think that our perception of holding companies is wrong because by definition, a holding company doesn’t get involved with the products and the services of the companies it holds; it manages them from a portfolio of finance. But IPGs of the world are directly involved with the products and services of the companies they hold. As Philippe Krakowsky recognised last year, we need to have a creative voice at the table. You have to have somebody representing that part of the things that we do in marketing and advertising. The aim is to advise IPG on what gets our agencies the amount of success fast and having a voice at that table, representing agencies, underneath IPG.

While you'll be handling many more agencies under IPG, does it make you sad that you'll also be relinquishing your role at FCB?

I don’t have children but I can imagine what parents must feel when their 20-year-old drives away in a car with all their stuff, and they are not coming back. You just wish them well and hope they have taken with them some of the things you taught them. When I left BBDO to go to Leo Burnett or when I left Leo Burnett to come to FCB, that was a big hard cut-off. But this one, it's different and far more gentle.

What made you pick Andrés Ordóñez as the successor in the CCO role at FCB?

Firstly, I'm really proud of all the CCOs that we have around the world. I've always talked about having a succession plan. We knew that in the next 3-5 years, the best thing for FCB would be to lift someone from the inside and we have a suite of CCOs who could have easily taken up my job but Chicago is our biggest office, and hence Andrés. To have someone else come in and start changing up everything, would have been terribly disruptive. Andrés has been very passionate about the language, the DNA of FCB. I don't think somebody gets lifted up internally very often, it's really nice when you don't have to bring someone in from the outside. The other thing is that we didn't need to fix anything, so we did not have to look outside. Andrés is very much into innovation, tech, thinking about new ways to go into the market with creativity, while I'm much more of a foundational thinker. We've got the foundational basics under control. And now he can add to that. I'm a little bit of an introvert and he's much more of an extrovert, wanting to talk to people all the time. We're different, which is right. You don't want him to be a mini-me. You want what is good for the next phase.

It’s interesting that you brought someone from inside to lead on a global level. In India, however, you took a different road and onboarded Dheeraj as the CEO who came from a different agency. How has bringing Dheeraj into the mix shaken things up?

It's interesting because Rohit, Dheeraj's predecessor, wanted to do something different and he brought about the change we saw at FCB in the past few years. With Dheeraj, I found it exceptional what he did at Leo Burnett, and when we chatted, he had that energy and space to go to the next level. When we looked at India, it looked like there was space for somebody to bring a point of view in. The key thing here was to get him acquainted with our fundamentals at FCB. The network works together. We know each other and care about each other. So, we needed to make sure that he felt that way. He has a great competitive spirit which is what India needs right now, to go to the next level.

By the same logic, you gave earlier if you had to really pinpoint and talk about India, what is that one thing that needs fixing or the improvement which Dheeraj can bring about?

The work that we were doing was getting honoured and it was beautiful work. But we have a saying at FCB, ‘Do your best work on your biggest brands’. What I liked about Dheeraj was that he was doing recognisable, respected work on big brands. That's where I'm hoping that we'll see some real energy, which is that the clients keep the lights on and also keep the creative awards coming. You don't want those two things separated. You don't want the award-winning work that is reputational and then the work that drives the agency profits. They should work together.

FCB has been doing very well at Cannes Lions this year, with ‘The Last Barf Bag' and 'Spotify Spreadbeats’ winning Grand Prix but on an India level, you have only converted one shortlist into a Silver at FCB. What do you think about the Gold winning streak coming to a halt in India after 4-5 years?

I'm really patient. I'd rather get there a little slower and make sure it is real than get there faster and be a little fake. Mainly, what we said to Dheeraj when he joined was that we're here to support him. We're not in a judgy 'let's fire' situation. What matters is that you have an ambition, are building towards it and making the right decisions. I always go back to agriculture; the dirt has to look pretty plain and ugly before the crops look beautiful and grow.

Dheeraj has hired many new leaders at FCB who will write the growth story with him and he will definitely have that pressure of making sure that the soil bears fruit by next year.

We were talking last week and he said, ‘I'm bringing all my creative leads to Cannes. I know it sounds counterintuitive because you think you should only come when you're going on stage’. I think it’s a little because the people who should come to Cannes are the people that want to get on stage. How will you learn if you don’t see? They're working really hard and he's meeting with them every day. They talk about work, their ambitions, and clients. If he wasn’t doing this, I would have been worried. But the fact is that I see him actively making decisions to get ready to have a creative crop.

Last time when I spoke to you, you mentioned how Cannes has become a hub for sob stories and how we need to add some fun through the campaigns. So, do you think that fun has returned to Cannes Lions this year?

A little bit. We just won a Grand Prix for Dramamine’s ‘The Last Barf Bag’. I would say that we're trying to add a little levity to this industry. Maybe it’s a good thing that we get seduced by nice and helpful people. But personally, a lot of the time, I don't think that's our job. I get worried sometimes when we get into– ‘We figured out how to solve climate change’ thing. When in actuality, there are brilliant people who haven’t figured this out yet.

It's not that we shouldn't be doing that kind of work, but I don't think that's what our real job is. Our job is to move the economy, grow businesses and bring innovations. We sell products and services and we build brands, we should continue doing that. I agree that when you are making a decision, you make a decision with your heart and if you believe a company is doing good things in the world, there's a good chance that it moves your heart a little bit more, but we have to be balanced about it. And don't forget that, we also have fun.

What are the big campaigns that you're really betting on?

We've got ‘The Last Barf Bag’ campaign, which I mentioned earlier. Then we have ‘Spreadbeats’ for Spotify, which is really cool. It’s low-tech and low-fi. We also have Michelob Ultra’s ‘Lap of Legends’, which makes me proud of the team because they could have stopped five years ago with this crazy, 'what do you think we can do next’ sort of creative. And yet they just keep coming up with really imaginative ways to deliver on. One of the pieces that I'm really proud of is Brazil's ‘The Shameless Pad’, which showcases women pro sports players wearing the brand on their shorts. It’s interesting that if every agency in FCB had one beautiful piece, it would be a spectacular camp. All it takes is one or two beautiful things. It is difficult to bag 17 lions for multiple campaigns, but it’s easy to work on one great thing. We don't work for the awards. We work for the work and we hope that when we do the work right, people recognise what we've done.