5 Minutes with… Cécile Bitoun
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The transformation that’s played out across the dentsu network of agencies over the past year has been about as radical as agency rebrands get. And in some markets, the bringing together of various brands under Dentsu Creative has required a shift that’s impossible to ignore.
The ambition behind the reorganisation in Paris is seismic. Officially launched in January 2023 in France, Dentsu Creative France brought together Gyro, Isobar and Dentsu MB France under one roof, just a stone’s throw from the Arc de Triomphe, CEO Cécile Bitoun (previously managing director of Isobar France) and managing director Nathaël Duboc (previously managing director of Dentsu MB) met with each employee, one-by-one, to understand what people wanted from the new agency.
Since then, the job has been to build that agency into one that can take on the legacy French advertising giants, at the same time apply its values to work for international and French brands alike, including Durex, Flying Blue and HP.
LBB’s Alex Reeves caught up with Cécile, in association with Adobe, to speak about that transformation, that work, and what Dentsu Creative France might look like in the future.
LBB> How did you get into advertising? And what did you find out about it that's kept you in the industry for 20 years?
Cécile> I entered the world of agencies totally by chance. Meeting the right person at the right moment; actually, my life is full of important people that made me move forward and changed my journey in an unexpected way.
I started by studying law at la Sorbonne Paris (I still always read contracts very carefully ). I was doing an internship at Renault Group and it was the marketing director, a very clever man, that came to me one day and asked me just like that: ‘would you like to work in an agency because on the other side of the business, we need people like you, full of energy, full of creative ideas with no boundaries?’. It came from nowhere. I said ‘why not?’, and that was the starting point.
I was super happy to find out that you can make a living being creative, having ideas and an unlimited amount of energy.
I first joined a small agency, Renault’s direct marketing agency, and then went to DDB. I can say without being too naïve that I immediately loved it. I still can say it today. I love this job. It has everything I appreciate in life – meeting amazing people from different backgrounds who are energetic as hell, being able to create ideas that resonate in culture, and never repeating the same stuff. I still do not even believe I am a CEO, making a living out of creativity. Lucky me!
In my current role, I stay really close to the trainees because I know that the time they spend with us can really be life-changing for the trainees and make a difference in their careers.
LBB> What is a lesson you learned early in your career that has stuck with you to this day?
Cécile> In three words: NEVER GIVE UP!
Sometimes our job is complex. With a lot of people to convince and motivate through difficulties to execute, the time to craft - to get people at the same level of energy all along - is a lengthy process. So many external factors can stop a project at any time. But, it is so worth it at the end of the day, to work with passionate people that make it possible; the believers and magicians.
LBB> What have been the brands or projects that have been most formative in your career?
Cécile> The travel business; I have been running Air France’s Flying Blue loyalty program for the last five years, and we have been through the most incredible crisis for this industry seeing all those aeroplanes stuck in the ground. It is a subject that is so emotional, and a subject full of contradiction with the issue in the centre of it. We learnt so much during the last five years: the magic of a long journey that nothing can replace, telling stories of people whose lives were shaped by travel, following people coming back home after living so far from it, finding innovative solutions to relieve jet lag, feeling the amazing emotions of a person travelling for the first time, being so touched by people sending musical instruments to children so far from them thanks to donations, and so on and so on.
Everything about travelling is so sensitive and emotional, and challenges our agency daily, but it’s for an amazing client that always wants to push the boundaries. From the corner of the street to the end of the world, there is so much inspiration and so many ways to travel.
Also, luxury brands have been formative in my career, I have worked for many of them - St Laurent, Dries van Noten, Marithé François Girbaud, Gucci, Estee Lauder… and I love the obsession of craft and perfection.
You learn how magnetic a brand can be, and how the authority of a brand and its vision can inspire so many people through the beauty and brutality of it. It is not only creativity, but also creation!
LBB> What has been most exciting about the Dentsu Creative rebrand and organisation for you in the Paris office?
Cécile> The brand name itself. The Dentsu name is so powerful - from the Japanese roots where we find the notion of integration to the total support of our clients. This is also seen in everything from our passion for applying the power of technology in creativity, to radical collaboration across the network. Dentsu Creative is a new network built for the future, and is reinventing the way we communicate.
We can afford this attitude because we are not stuck in our own way, and it is an interesting proposition in the French market. France is a busy market in terms of holding companies with big names, and strong creative potential as key creative verticals. But, the work can be inconsistent if not supported by an A-team, and carrying the burden of heritage - weighed down by a traditional approach to creativity that does not deliver the integration they promise - does not help with matters of being too big, too siloed, and too complex.
On the other side, newcomer independent agencies, often founded by former network talent, are chosen by brands and matchmakers for their agility, small teams, and human touch. But, with a narrow approach to the creative product, they can be too small and too specialised.
Both lack something clients need – integration. Helping clients navigate increasingly intertwined business problems to grab new business opportunities.
In France, when we united two strong agencies, Isobar and Dentsu MB, we enlarged our capabilities to answer almost any client business issues through the power of creativity.
Dentsu Creative was born from the desire to reinvent creativity to address the challenges of modern times to make our creative product a multiplier of business and impact.
We help brands to create culture.
We help brands to change societies.
We help brands to invent the future.
For our clients, this is a meaningful proposition. By uniting all our talent, we are a one stop shop for radical collaboration with media.
The ambition, suddenly, for over 100 of us in Paris is to develop a unique agency as the fifth communication group in France. What an amazing journey and ambitious project. For all of us, it’s really momentum - an adventure!
LBB> I read that you and Nathaël [Duboc, managing director] met all of your employees one by one when Dentsu Creative was born! How did those conversations shape the way you built the new agency?
Cécile> First, it was, for both of us, an amazing human experience to talk with all those amazing people in different formats (lunch, drinks, speed dating in a very concentrated time). There were a lot of ideas, emotions, and inspirational questions. It is always extremely exciting to enter other people’s shoes, it is part of our job.
However, this is especially true when it is about people you are going to work with. A merger is also an opportunity, but many questions can come with it.
This moment was full of insight; what we both found when we shared our experiences was the desire of our collaborators to be part of something new.
Our industry has been very established for generations, and without going back to ‘Mad Men’, all the agencies continue to work more or less in the same way, and in meeting all these people, it is not fear that we have found, but the desire to shake up the status quo to change things and invent a new way of doing things. The people we work with understood that they were the ones who were going to create this project, and that with a hundred people ,everyone was going to find a role and be part of an adventure.
In agencies, the human is at the heart. There’s nothing in the cupboards, nothing in the drawer - our value is those who create it everyday.
There’s also the matter of common culture, and the common understanding of the project. To this end, we are very careful to maintain this mindset - this entrepreneurial culture and this desire for everyone to have an impact on this new agency and this project.
It was also important to take this step to facilitate and prepare for the change. Nathaël and I, each of us, had very special relationships with the people we work with in our respective agencies. The importance of opening the doors very quickly also allowed us to also show the strength of the duo and the very complementary aspects of our very different personalities. Today, we are very happy to have taken this initiative - it has been an integration accelerator, that's for sure, but also so rich in ideas that we have been able to put in place.
LBB> Your recent 'Your Sex Your Way' campaign for Durex was a brilliant way to promote more open exchanges about sexuality. What do you find most interesting about that work?
Cécile> Work, education, health, leisure; the blocks to performance have invaded our daily lives. Between our desires and these new social norms supposed to make us a better version of ourselves, what do you choose? We obey without listening to the speeches and representations promising an optimised version of ourselves. These promises of a better us, accessible by applying simple rules of appearances, interfere even in our most intimate spheres. Even in our sexuality.
Even in the privacy of our bedroom or other rooms in the home, we seek to perform by following a guide to the perfect sexual partner. It is difficult to imagine finding pleasure in it if we live out our sexuality by playing a role, as an actor would do with a script for a performance. The art of the act loses its essence - that moment conducive to the discovery of oneself and of the other. The aesthetics promoted by social networks and porn, the rules of a ‘good relationship’ instituted in the media, and the obligation of sexual prowess have taken precedence over fulfilment and true pleasure.
This culture of ‘performance’ also contributes to the detachment of young French people from sexual practice. This moment of discovery of oneself and of the other becomes a moment conducive to stress and self-assessment. In 2021, 43% of young French people aged 15 to 24 said they never had sex. This is 18 points less than in 2014. We bet that this figure has not decreased when one in three teenagers declares at the end of 2022 that they have no one around them to find advice on intimate subjects without judgement and mockery.
In a society where mental fatigue is one of the evils of our time, freeing yourself from the performative tropes is a first step to put self-discovery, pleasure and openness to others at the heart of the public debate.
At Dentsu Creative, we are convinced that by encouraging exploration, we will break the performative expectations of society and create campaigns for social and environmental harmony. On a subject as sensitive as that of sexuality. It was essential for us not to enrich the standard approach with a top-down message. The brand as the sole issuer made no sense because, until proven otherwise, no brand has a sex life.
Both campaigns, ‘Sex Your Way’ and ‘Rewrite Pleasure’ were built to give everyone the opportunity to deconstruct the clichés and injunctions governing our sexual lives. This is because we are convinced that it is by giving everyone a voice that we will allow everyone to fully explore their sexuality.
LBB> Dentsu Creative has its three pillars – create culture, change society and invent the future – what are some other ways in which Dentsu Creative France has been working recently to do this with clients?
Cécile> Those pillars resonate strongly at Dentsu France.
You probably know that the Dentsu Group in France has become a company with a mission this year of choosing to design communication as a promoter of social and environmental harmony.
Two years ago, we also launched the club dentsu SW!TCH, which I have the honour of being co-president of with Pierre Calmard, president of Dentsu France. This club is a ‘do tank’ of which our customers are members, and together, we are launching concrete actions of drops with the themes of decarbonisation of advertising and inclusion - the idea being to multiply real actions.
We also have a very strong initiative at Dentsu called Origami which helps young people living in disadvantaged areas and from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to join our profession. Our employees are happy to give their time to welcome these young people into our agencies for internships, which can often result in junior roles.
These three pillars also help structure and support the strategies for our clients.
When I think of Durex, it embodies the change society pillar, but also invents the future as we use innovation to provide consumers with new experiences. We also partnered with Google for that campaign.
What we did for AFPA, the government's adult training organisation, is we worked on a subject that is still very complicated, and which revealed the difficulty of changing societies. We were tasked with supporting school dropouts to help find a way in which they can flourish, despite their rejection of traditional education in society.
For the Ecosystem brand, we have begun working on behavioural changes, particularly in recycling.
For the Pilot brand, it is the subject of education and empowerment that we address with ‘Write your World’ to encourage young people to believe in themselves and take their destiny into their own hands.
With Mentos, it is the cultural aspect we are dealing with, working on pop culture with artist
These challenges are the centre of the complexity of marketing today.
LBB> You've expressed that it's important for Dentsu Creative France to be an international agency based in France, rather than just a French agency with French clients. What structures or processes ensure you get that right?
Cécile> Today, international clients represent 40% of the business of Dentsu Creative France. We think it is a great chance to be able to work at the EMEA and even global level.
The group is very well organised at the EMEA level, under the direction of James Morris, to be able to win and manage accounts between several offices. It is a true strength, and our resources are sometimes very complementary, and, on several occasions, this has allowed us to win accounts and manage them together.
The ease with which we work remotely today has very significantly accelerated this movement and we can easily set up ways of working together. For example under the direction of Dentsu Creative president Sven Hubert, we have a very strong expertise in digital experience and innovation collaborating with many different Dentsu Creative offices.
The luxury offer that we have set up with the Italian office, Amsterdam, London and Paris allows us to have a unique positioning, and insight to offer to the market.
At the agency, we have people from very different backgrounds and with six different nationalities and languages. This is, again, a true richness, and also rare in French agencies, so helps get us noticed.
LBB> What's inspiring you most, in work or in life, right now?
Cécile> The rise of generative AI is undoubtedly the most interesting and disturbing phenomenon that we are experiencing now. Legal issues, opportunities, questions from our clients and our employees, unexpected solutions to problems - everything is exciting. A totally new world to explore!
Here again, the integrated and horizontal positioning of Dentsu Creative allows us to organise ourselves very quickly to train our employees to test new processes, and new ways of working.
Absolutely everything in our agency is impacted by AI, from reading client briefs to building our offers and working collaboratively. Everything is affected, and most of the time in a good way.
It is terribly exciting and as we often say totally unavoidable. We do not know if we will be replaced by generative AI, but we know that some people will - by those who use it better than them. This puts into perspective the very humanity of our work in creation that can benefit from generative AI, and not be replaced.
So, let's stand at the forefront to make our job and our ideas even brighter.
