End of an Era as Jorg Riommi Departs Publicis Groupe

A champion of creativity in Central and Eastern Europe and a core figure in the iconic Burger King Moldy Whopper campaign, Jorg Riommi has revealed that he is stepping down from Publicis Groupe after twenty years at the holding company.

Starting out as a writer at Saatchi & Saatchi, the past two decades have seen Jorg take up roles across the Groupe in Italy, Puerto Rico, Germany and Romania. In 2014, he was named CCO at Publicis Romania, and in 2018 he was named CCO for Publicis Groupe Central & Eastern Europe. Under his leadership, Publicis Groupe CEE has been widely recognized at leading global, regional, and local creative and effectiveness competitions including Cannes Lions, The Drum Ranking, Golden Drum Festival (Network of the Year 2021 and 2022), and Effies Euro. 

Leaving hasn’t been easy, but after twenty years the time felt right for a new challenge.“I have been in the Groupe for a long time, and even if I was involved with many countries and agencies over time, for me it is the first and only ad holding company I experienced. I feel the need to see something new and now was the right time for a change for several reasons,” says Jorg. “If you look at the last five years in CEE, since I took the lead as Chief Creative Officer of the region supervising 14 markets per 3 creative brands (Publicis, Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi), we have done a lot of amazing things with great creative teams across markets, really strengthening our creative reputation in the region.

“We have done it, and we have done it again and again. Repetita juvant - repetition is good - until a certain point I guess. Then it’s time to take on new challenges within new horizons.”

A year ago, Jorg and his family relocated from Bucharest to Milan for personal reasons, and being in this vibrant, world class city with its reputation for design and creativity has also got Jorg feeling inspired and restless. Having made the decision to take the leap, Jorg says he feels ‘positive and confident.’

“I have the luxury to take my time to look around and find what will really excite me next,” he says. “As in all matters of the heart and guts like creativity, boldness and fearlessness are key factors. And often it's more important to know what you don't want to do anymore and put a clear stop. Then the rest will eventually sort itself out.”

He’s enormously grateful for the experience and insight that he’s gained from his time with the Groupe, which has allowed him to see the world, to learn about different cultures as well as what unites us. 

“Well at one point I used to joke that Saatchi was my travel agency!” he laughs. “It was quite a ride indeed: Rome, San Juan in Puerto Rico, Rome again, a bit of London, Frankfurt, Berlin, many other projects and clients around the world, then Bucharest, and finally all of the CEE markets to work across... It was good and it was fun. I learned a lot. I grew a lot, I matured and this all taught me that the world is big and it's small after all. There are few universal things that always matter most: Will, focus and follow up. Transparency. Fairness. A clear vision. Respect for everyone and anyone. Confidence with humbleness. Leadership. Passion. Drive. Firm belief. Give and take no bullshit. Fear mediocrity.”

And what has really made a lasting impression on Jorg are the people who have helped him on his creativity journey.

“I believe "making a difference" is the key thing to achieve. Not everyone is really able to make a difference, in business, or in relationships. Often people are content to maintain the mediocrity of the status quo, and don’t want to rock things around too much,” he reflects. “I owe the direction of my creative path to John Pallant, my former EMEA Saatchi boss, who first believed in me and was my first mentor, and then to Nick Hine, the ECD who first brought me to Romania in 2007. More recently, I would give a shout out to Misa Lukic and Jarek Ziebinski, the CEE CEOs who respectively first appointed me into the CCO for CEE role, and then formalized it. Two sophisticated gentlemen that truly understood creativity and its structural value for business.”

And when it comes to making a difference, it’s fair to say that Jorg has made a huge difference not just within Publicis Groupe but also across the industry in central and eastern Europe, helping to put it on the map creatively and raise ambitions. It’s been an enormously important journey for Jorg personally.

“It was a great challenge and we believed in it. When I first came to Romania, and after when I extended my reach across CEE, I realised that in many places there was amazing talent that just needed a spark and a bit more confidence to make it big. The ambition was there, the content too -  it just needed to be activated and directed and polished a bit. Will, focus, follow up, as I often say.”

Over the past 15 years, the region has been making incremental progress and, as someone coming to the region as a foreigner, Jorg was moved to share what he’d found with the rest of the world. “Maybe for me, being a foreigner, it was a natural and spontaneous thing to become some sort of an "evangelist" of CEE creativity. I was coming from outside, so it was only natural to want to bring it outside and give it visibility, especially since I knew CEE had the benchmark of creative excellence.”

Jorg knows it was all a matter of teamwork with the local talent he worked with within the agencies, and also acknowledges the value of talented, friendly competition at other agencies and studios, which certainly kept him on his toes.

“It's not by chance then that quite a few of these talents I had the pleasure to work with, like Mihnea Gheorgiu, Romulus Petcan, Gabriel Gherca, Andrey Tyukavkin, Ruxandra Drilea,  Kosta Schneider, Vasilije Corluka for instance, and others I was glad to observe from afar like Adrian Botan, Catalin Dobre, Ioana Filip, Davor Bruketa, Dushan Drakalski, Istvan Bracsok and many more (I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton), went on to conquer the world,” he says. “That’s the great richness of the region, just amazing. And for me, along this path, it was good to have all these "ambition sparring partners", to team up with or compete against. It lifts you up, it takes you further, it pushes your 'Nothing is Impossible'. 

“Up until today there are many campaigns coming out from CEE that are “top in the world”. Fifteen years ago many would have thought that this would not have been possible. But then again, it's only impossible until it's done.”

Looking back on his time, particularly in CEE, there are a number of achievements and successes that Jorg holds dearly and that will stay with him as he takes the next step in his adventure.

“There are a few. Obviously being part of Burger King's Moldy Whopper campaign is one, surely one for the ad history books and a masterpiece of apolitical collaboration and integration mastered by Fernando Machado. Being inducted in the Golden Drum Hall of Fame in 2022 also touched me quite a bit, was a great honour to get this recognition for the work in the region after not too many years of joining it as a foreigner,” he says. There are a number of impressive feats in the advertising rankings -  for example he made it to #7 in The Drum Worldwide Ranking in both 2021 and 2022, helped Publicis become Network of the year several times in a row at Golden Drum, and concluding in 2023 with two networks in top three in the region, both Publicis and Saatchi & Saatchi. But, really, the most touching and important achievement is much more human.

“I think one thing above all will stay with me: it's the relationship we built with the Ukrainian team before and since the war started. We didn't let go, and kept our eyes on the ball even in the toughest times, in order to stay out of dark places in our heads. Creativity is magic, and it's in times like this that it really comes to light.”