An American Confidence in FCB London

Katy Wright is trying to be less British. “British people tend to list all the reasons why something can’t be done,” she says. “One thing I’ve learned from our American cousins: they’re not shy about talking about what they’ve done well.” As chief executive officer of FCB London, she’s had to counteract that British tendency to play down what she – and by extension the creative agency that she runs – is capable of.

Only an American-born company like Chicago-founded FCB could take the story of Albert Lasker popularising orange juice as a drink and turn it into a foundational myth. A more cynical British mind (admittedly, like mine) would look for ways to scoff at the idea – how revolutionary was the idea of squeezing a fruit to get juice out of it 1916? People have been making wine from grapes since at least 4,000 BC.

It’s that kind of cynicism that Katy has learned to challenge from her colleagues on the other side of the Atlantic. “There’s so much positivity,” she says, impersonating an American business caricature: "We’re number one! We’re number one!"

The London CEO isn’t quite comfortable with that level of sports-fan bravado, even when her agency wins pitches and delivers historic growth for clients, but she’s keen on “taking time to congratulate yourself. Celebrate the work with your team. Celebrate your people. Yes, there are awards – which bring creative fame – But there’s also culture, which matters just as much[...] Even in your own career, you have to stop and enjoy the view sometimes.”

Luckily Katy reports into a global leadership team led by a CEO who’s Canadian, not American. Tyler Turnbull helps her to curb her British self-doubt in a balanced, slightly less brash way. “I love working for FCB. I love working for a boss who lets me be the strangest person in the room, sometimes the most entertaining, sometimes completely unpredictable – but he’s good with that. And that’s so important. Because we have to keep learning as leaders.”

Going into last year, Katy and her fellow leaders across the network realised they have strengths that other agencies don’t. “We know each other. We’re aligned. And we’re behind the single most important thing – the work. Because the work is the product,” she says. “That focus comes from Tyler and how the business has been positioned. It was there before Tyler, but we’ve really doubled down on it. And that’s what excites me.”

It’s brought success. “Let’s talk about 2023,” says Katy. “It was probably the most successful year the agency has ever had in London. That’s not very British of me to say – but I’m learning. Then we hit 2024… which turned out to be an even more successful year.” The agency “pretty much doubled” its revenue in the space of two years. She continues, defying her Britishness. “Yeah, it’s quite impressive, actually.”

Naturally, she wants that trend to continue, but not at the expense of the work. “Financial success has to come with creative success,” she underlines, highlighting how proud she is of FCB London’s 2024 creative for toilet roll brand Andrex. It illustrates what she wants the agency to be known for. “I’m so excited for what’s coming. Because fame has to deliver growth for our clients,” she says, referencing one of the network’s mantras. “‘Creativity as an economic multiplier’ isn’t just a glib statement. We’re in the business to grow our clients’ businesses.”

She attributes part of the agency’s success to a less hierarchical structure. “That slow, bureaucratic process, where everything has to go up the chain, where someone says, "Let me write an email," but then they have to delegate it to someone else – that’s not how we work.”

Instead, FCB had a system it calls ‘The Fix’. “It’s about getting the right people together from the start, making decisions early, and only bringing in leadership when we’re actually needed. You have to trust people and give them autonomy. And that comes from the top down – from our global leadership team.”

To run a highly successful business, Katy believes you need a clear vision and focus. And that comes from the top. “Part of our success has been learning from others,” she says, rattling off a list of other FCB leaders she admires and loves to bounce ideas off. People like Emma Armstrong, CEO of FCB New York, Kelly Graves, CEO at FCB Chicago, Bryan Kane, CEO at FCB Canada, Thabang Skwambane, CEO at Nahana Communications Group in South Africa, Paul Wilson, CEO at FCB New Zealand. And she’s always phoning up Dheeraj Sinha, who leads the FCB Group in India, who recently popped in to see Katy while he was on holiday in London.

“I just don’t think other people have that,” she says. “And ultimately, I love hanging out with these people.

Then you take that dynamic, and you show up at a global pitch. Instead of sitting there introducing ourselves, we’re already laughing and making jokes – we’re comfortable, we’re happy. That’s where success comes from – being super focused on people.”

Partners to brands, not just servicing clients

That human closeness extends to how Katy likes to partner with brands. Marketers don’t just want agencies to provide a service for them anymore. The good ones are looking for agencies they can truly partner with. “Agencies that can advise, support, direct, and prove the value of their marketing,” she says. “Because marketing is an investment, not a spend. That’s been said since the beginning of time, but partnership is what makes that true.”

That’s easily said, but getting there takes effort. “Partnerships are built on trusting relationships.

And you don’t build that overnight,” says the CEO. “You certainly don’t get it in a pitch. But what you do get is a sense of:
‘Would I want to be on the bus with these people?'
‘Would they be working on December 26th, calling me to check if we got something through?’
‘Would they care enough to check in on my team when someone is sick?’
“That’s the real stuff, and we don’t talk about it enough,” she says.

What trusting partnerships are built on is clear to Katy: “You don’t rest on your laurels, and it doesn’t feel transactional. Agencies fail when relationships become purely transactional. So maybe we just do things differently. Maybe we hold ourselves accountable to a different level. Maybe we actually feel responsible for delivering what we promise. Because trust isn’t something you can just say – you have to build it. That’s what sets us apart.”

And sometimes, sacrifices are necessary to protect those relationships. Katy says one her highlights of 2024 was deciding not to pitch on a particular account, after realising that the creative ambition and budget weren’t the right fit for FCB London. “I said no, but it wasn’t glib. I knew I wanted it for what it was.

And I have a personal drive for certain verticals.” Recognising that she couldn’t let personal desires affect the whole agency, she resisted the draw.

“If you chase revenue, you lose sight of what your product actually is,” she continues. “When you forget your product, you stop understanding your own value.

And of course growth doesn’t just come from winning new business – it comes from adding value to the business you already have. “If you’re always in a ‘sinking boat’ mindset, you never take time to steady the ship. But if you run things smartly, focus on delivering on your clients’ goals, it opens up opportunities naturally.”

Never finished with building people up

Aside from ‘creativity as an economic multiplier’, an older mantra of FCB is ‘Never Finished’ – a mindset that Katy most readily applies to the talent in her agency. “You can’t do it alone. It has to disseminate through the team, so they feel empowered to walk into a room and say: ‘Why don’t we do this?’” There’s that American self-confidence again.

Culture has been crucial to FCB London’s recent success. “Are we creating an environment where people can show up as themselves,” Katy wonders often

The FCB London CEO only just got round to watching ‘Ted Lasso’ and it says a lot about her views on what culture really means. She came into the office raving about it to CCO Owen Lee. “He just started laughing,” she says.
“I said, ‘He has this sign that says, "Believe"!’
“And he said ‘I know what you’re about to say – you’re about to say, you’re Ted Lasso. You’re not just Ted Lasso – you’re Ted Lasso and Rebecca Welton rolled into one.’”

Katy’s leadership style was already delivering the success that fictional football team AFC Richmond finds in the show. “One of the biggest things that struck me was this idea: if you can create an environment where people feel safe, have autonomy, and believe in themselves, they will care – and that’s what creates a great culture.”

She actually wrote a little manifesto for herself about this. “It’s really embarrassing, but I’ll read it to you,” she cringes, continuing:
“We should talk more about culture – about the power of culture.
“We should talk more about how walking into this building doesn’t feel like ‘American Psycho’
“We should talk more about how clients would rather work from our office, because it feels like double art and not triple maths.
“We should talk more about how clients feel comfortable enough to tell us what they worry about and what they don’t.
“And we should celebrate it.”

Katy’s not going to look back when she retires and think about the awards on her shelf. “It will be seeing others become far better than I ever was, watching them grow and ascend – that’s what success means to me.”

That’s why she and her team have been focused on building their creative department the right way. “We’ve been very conscious about the people we’re bringing in,” she says. “I’ve interviewed brilliant people and thought, ‘They’re amazing – but they’re not the right fit for us.’ And that’s so hard.”

Understanding tech, but loving creativity

Holding companies and agency networks all have tech stacks and data that now power their creative solutions for brands. And understanding the power of that is key to drive value. “We’re already ahead of that curve,” says Katy, before taking things in a metaphorical direction. “We’re in the Chinese Year of the Snake. The snake represents change. And change is inevitable. But one absolute truth remains – great creativity delivers results.

“We don’t need to be a martech company, but we do need to understand the tools we have and apply them smartly to our clients’ businesses. That said, our role isn’t just to flood the market with noise. If you understand contextualisation and personalisation in e-commerce, you can help clients use those tools effectively.”

She recently heard someone from a platform advising a brand to create 4,000 versions of the same ad. “No. Hyper-contextualisation is one thing, but it has to be meaningful. Otherwise, it’s just pollution. And that’s where brands end up showing up next to dodgy content – and we all know how that plays out.”

It’s the core of creativity that continues to give Katy drive. “I still love what we do. I still get excited about it. Someone sends me a picture of something we’ve made, or I see it out in the world, standing in front of our own work. I still get that hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck feeling.

Katy wants that passion to translate into a tide that lifts all boats, driving her competitors to create better work as well as her own agency. “This new era has to be about the work, not just the talk. I always say when hiring, ‘Don’t tell me you’re funny. Be funny.’ When it comes to creative leadership, the question is always: ‘What is the work?’ Because at the end of the day, we want the creative superstars – the people who make the work happen.”

To get the right talent to power that era, UK advertising has a job to do to show people what a great industry this is to work in. “This is our responsibility,” says Katy. “Fundamentally, you understand the career path of a doctor, the career path of a lawyer, because there are books about it in nurseries. But there’s no book that says ‘Advertising Copywriter’.

“This year, I want to do something that brings clarity to career paths in this industry – so people can see where a career in advertising can take them. I also want to champion creativity as the driving force across our global network – because it’s the red thread that connects everything we do.”

And she wants everyone to have fun doing it. “We are in an entertainment business. We work in a creative industry that is hugely important to the UK economy. And honestly, it’s a really fucking fun thing to do. In how many jobs could a woman my age wear jeans and a T-shirt to work as a CEO, instead of having to be in some Chanel number all day? This job is special.”

2025 brings more change for all agencies (not to mention the looming potential of the Omnicom-IPG merger). But there are fundamentals that Katy is confident will remain. “In my mind, 2025 is about creativity, creativity, creativity,” she says. “I know there’s that thing where if you say something three times, it sticks…

“You’ve got to focus on what you do best. That’s the work. And that can mean so many things – it’s not just about making a great TV ad. But I really want us to get to the end of the year and look back and say: ‘God, there were some absolute bangers.’”

An era of bangers? Sign us up.