Alex Hesz on Bringing a Fresh Perspective to IPG

As Alex Hesz steps into his role as chief strategy officer at Interpublic Group (IPG), he brings a fresh perspective shaped by his recent experiences outside the advertising industry. Between leaving his role as global chief strategy officer at Omnicom and taking up this new challenge with IPG, Alex has spent time on a number of projects, some of which have taken him in to the world of political parties, NGOs and lobby groups – specifically the UK’s Labour Party at the time of the British election.

Reflecting on his time away from advertising, Alex emphasises the lessons learned about effective communication and message discipline. “The core truth at the heart of it is that the people we're talking to fundamentally don't give a shit about the thing we're saying, and it's our job to make them do so. It's our job to help our clients overcome what is effectively the principal barrier of marketing communications, which is that people don’t care – and it’s the same in politics.”

There’s much that the worlds of advertising and politics can learn from each other, particularly when it comes to where they look for insight. Alex reflects that the worlds of politics and the public sector have a less sophisticated grasp of data than the business world, preferring to rely on anecdote (“there's still too many people who listen out for the voice that agrees with them as opposed to the dissenting numbers”). The business world is largely more objective thanks to its increasingly advanced data practices – but adland has much to learn too. “Equally, I think there's a lesson to be learned the other way, which is that nuance often hides from numbers. There’s a need to really understand emotion, really understand that human insight can sometimes not be generated through quantitative data alone. Sometimes you still need to sit in someone's kitchen and really speak to them about their relationship with a category, a brand, an individual, to understand that there would be a human opportunity.”

However, Alex won’t be drawn on ‘big P’ Politics and isn’t looking to bring that to his new role at IPG, particularly in the context of the unfolding US election. “My experience is that you never know what people think about politics, and to assume anything is probably a bit dangerous,” he says. “So I try not to, not to kind of lead the witness too much. I'm profoundly aware of the stuff I don't know.”

Intriguingly, given the global, holding company-level of his new role, the other major thing that he’s keen to take from his time beyond the industry is the importance of getting out of the sometimes closed-off world of advertising.

“This is hard to put into words without sounding critical of our industry (which is not supposed to, it’s supposed to sound critical of me prior to this): we all live in such a bubble, geographically in terms of focus. Just to get out of that bubble and meet some real people and understand the real challenges that people face around the world, that people face around The UK, in places I've never been in and lives I’ve never had the privilege to see really reshaped what is important to me.”

Stepping outside of the industry’s confines (his ‘little sojourn elsewhere’) also gave Alex a fresh perspective on the sort of challenge he was looking for. He knew he wanted a fresh start and he knew he wanted to spend time working with people who shared his values. At Interpublic, he says, he found “a sense of huge heart”.

“I feel like every other opportunity and every other challenge is surmountable if you're doing it alongside people with whom you share values, with whom you share a sense of what the right thing to do is,” says Alex, who is keen to impress that in his two decades at Omnicom, particularly DDB, he also worked with plenty of ‘astonishingly wonderful people’.

In his new role, Hesz is committed to fostering collaboration among IPG’s diverse agencies and respecting the craft across various disciplines – whether in media planning, design, or strategy. And that means getting out, meeting people and getting his hands dirty.

“Fundamentally, I think there are too many non practitioners at holding company level,” he says. “I think there are too many people who, if you drop a brief in front of them, and wouldn't know what to do, they're effectively just managers of a P&L. My job here is to be a practitioner. My job here is to be a practising planner who rolls his sleeves up and gets in the room and works with people to nail the strategy.”

Indeed, Alex’s new role follows the news earlier in the year that Susan Credle, the former global CCO at Interpublic agency FCB, is now a ‘creative advisor’ for the IPG holding company. Alex sees these holding company roles as a sign of “respect for the craft across Interpublic”, whether that’s strategy and creative or CX, media and tech.

As we speak, Alex is whizzing round North America, with a stacked schedule, getting to know teams and clients he will be working with. He reflects that the first 100 days in the post will primarily involve a lot of listening. 

“I think my role is going to be split a bunch of different ways. And there's some very significant global clients that I will be the practising lead strategist on. There are large relationships via Interpublic, but also via some of our larger agencies where I will be the practising lead strategist on that. There are some significant internal projects too and some significant consultancy projects,” he explains. “I’m lucky that my buffet is well stocked!”