Joe Maglio, CEO of the Cheil Agency Network (CAN)
Source ADWEEK by Audrey Kemp Photo Credit: ADWEEK
Joe Maglio to lead Cheil Agency Network, bringing five agencies together under single leadership team
Cheil North America is bringing five of its agencies—McKinney, Barbarian, Iris, Attention Arc, and CYLNDR Studios—together under a new umbrella called the Cheil Agency Network (CAN).
The move, shared with ADWEEK, more closely aligns the shops, which previously operated separately under Cheil Worldwide, in a bid to offer mid-market brands an alternative to both large holding companies and small independents.
Joe Maglio, who will continue as CEO of McKinney and Barbarian, now also leads CAN, which has a dedicated leadership team and provides finance, HR, operations, and growth support to its agencies. The team includes Tim Jones as chief financial officer, Sue Roche as chief people officer, Bill Mattis as managing director and head of network growth, and Lisa Hughes as head of network operations.
All agency leaders now report directly to Maglio, including Gretchen Walsh, president at McKinney; Jill Smith, CEO of Iris Americas; Jeff Blackman and Gourang Mehta, managing directors at Barbarian; Swapnil Patel and Asieya Pine, co-presidents at Attention Arc; and Sylvain Tron, managing director at CYLNDR Studios.
Maglio said more closely aligning these agencies was “about the opportunity in front of us” to target mid-market brands with a full suite of solutions across creative, media, digital transformation, tech, and production.
“We have scale if we pull all the agencies together,” he said. “But we also have nimbleness, because each of the agencies in their own right is a mid-sized agency that can move pretty quickly.”
CAN agencies will pitch together, share resources, and jointly invest in areas like AI development, integrated creative and media solutions, and brand research. Maglio said the network will now be able to create “custom, bespoke” teams to solve specific client problems.
The launch of CAN follows Cheil’s July debut of Attention Arc, a media agency formed by merging McKinney Media with Lockard & Wechsler Direct. Attention Arc will handle all media buying across CAN.
CAN has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Durham, N.C., Irvington, N.Y., Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix/Scottsdale and Toronto. In New York, all five agencies share a floor at Penn One, with similar office consolidations underway in Toronto and planned in other markets.
Working out of the same office “just makes for more efficient collaboration,” Maglio said. “People get to know each other better.”
Not Your Typical Hold Co
Maglio said CAN is built to operate differently than traditional holding companies. He described it as an “operating company” that serves to facilitate collaboration on behalf of clients.
“We’re not going to create this massive body that then has to be funded by each of the agencies,” he said. “We’re going to keep it as lean as possible.”
Though CAN is targeting the underserved mid-market, the network also believes it can address gaps on both ends of the client spectrum. For large clients looking for an alternative to the big networks, “you’re going to get a network of agencies that can move a lot faster, with far less bureaucracy, and you have access to all the senior executives,” Maglio said.
As for those working with smaller independents: “They just don’t have the diversity of talent or access to certain tools and capabilities that we have,” he added.
The launch of CAN comes as the traditional holding companies undergo consolidation, notably as Omnicom prepares to swallow IPG. “The scale of that is crazy,” Maglio said of the deal, adding it will leave “a lot of great talent out there that midsized networks” can hire.
Maglio said CAN will consider adding more agencies and capabilities to its network, as well as expanding geographically, based on client demand.
“At the end of the day, none of this matters if it’s not better for the clients,” Maglio said.
