McCann Worldgroup’s Chief Digital Officer, Mike Parker, visited the MCN Dubai offices to help lead the first MCN Dubai Digital Community sessions held at the MCN Hive on Thursday, September 26, 2013. ‘Digitally forward’ agency representatives from every MCN agency were invited to join the Digital Community – a brainchild of MCN CEO, Ghassan Harfouche. The Digital Community at MCN is similar in structure and purpose to efforts across IPG and McCann Worldgroup around the world.
What it is and does : A digitally-immersed leadership group that aims to improve and invigorate the state of the digital nation at all MCN agencies – across the region. It is led out of Dubai to start with. Meets once every 2-3 months for a 3-hour session at MCN Hive to discuss Culture, Knowledge, Insights, Forward Planning, and Talent. Members of this group are responsible for forwarding the learnings and implementing key decisions and initiatives at their respective agencies. The group aims to meet every two months. Read More below…
Initial discussions and initiatives at the session covered:
• Regional MCN digital scenario recap and discuss issues etc – real strengths / real weaknesses
• What’s happening in our region generally in the market : Resultant Opportunities for MCN and Threats
• Talent overview: identify MCN’s Top 25 Talent across the region : Who’s ready to be more…
• MCN’s best digital ready clients : global brands that are digital aware and forward, the ones that need a push, and the client’s brands where opportunities exist for rapid digital growth.
• Cross pollination, collaboration, feeds : Issues, positives, channels for collaboration
• Resources and Insights MCN Vault, contributions, case studies, tools available
The MCN Digital Community will expand in the near future to be able to invite pan-region participation. The inaugural Community includes:
Martin Yofre, Momentum & FP7 / Alistair Burton, Initiative / Alex Wilkinson, Platform5 / Ali Sherriff , UM / George Giessen, Lowe / Iyad Tibi, Reprise / James Gaubert, MRM / Kiera Doherty, WeberShandwick / Marceau de Boutelleir, Commonwealth / Martin Yofre, Momentum / Matyas Csendes, Cadreon / Mohamad Itani, Platform5 / Seema Shenoy, Magna / Shahbaz Zobari, Promoseven360 group / Tahaab Rais, FP7 Dubai / Tej Desai, Lowe / Ziad Ghorayeb, Initiative / Wassim Amin, Commonwealth / Tom Roy, MCN.
About Mike Parker, who led the strategic discussions and presented global best practices : Mike Parker joined the agency in 2012 as Chief Digital Innovation Officer for McCann Erickson North America. He is responsible for building specialist digital capabilities into the core of McCann’s offerings and additionally, with developing innovative new digital practices and relationships and helping the agency create a deep pipeline of talent and partnerships.
A three-time winner of Digital Agency of the Year honors, once at Tribal DDB and twice at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Mike joined the McCann from Tribal DDB where he had served as Co-President.
A 12-year veteran with DDB, Mike was part of the team that launched the Tribal DDB brand in Canada and globally. More recently, he oversaw all west coast client relationships for the company and is credited with helping to reinvigorate the brand. Earlier, he was a member of the leadership team of a digital start-up, Betawave, and previously was Director of Digital Strategy for GS&P, responsible for the overall evolution and growth of that agency’s digital offering. Mike got his start in the agency business with Tribal DDB in Canada where he rose to National Managing Director and opened offices in Vancouver and Toronto.
