Publicis London Names Dave Monk Executive Creative Director

Publicis London, the Gunn Report top five creative agency, has hired Grey’s multi-award winning deputy executive creative director Dave Monk as its new ECD. This continues the agency’s commitment to deliver outstanding creative excellence and to lead the change for its clients.

He will join the agency, bringing a creative force and internationally recognised talent that will play a key role in the agency’s evolution. Dave will partner with Karen Buchanan, CEO of Publicis London, strengthening the Publicis London management Monk’s focus will be on leading and further building the agency’s 50-strong creative department and the quality of its creative output. He will oversee innovation and depth of engagement on a roster of Publicis London clients, which include, P&G, UBS, Nestlé, Renault, Tourism Ireland and Canada Goose.

Dave has been at Grey since 2010 and, as well as being deputy ECD, has led the creative output across the News UK account. He is renowned for creating high-profile campaigns including the Gold Lion and D&AD award winning work for The Sunday Times Rich List, the acclaimed ST Culture ‘Icons’ TV spot, and more recently, The Unquiet Film Series, a year-long branded content project for The Times.

Prior to Grey, Monk was at BBH for 11 years, where he was a creative director and sat on the board. As well as a haul of Cannes Lions, D&AD pencils and Campaign Big Awards, in 2014 his work on News UK led Grey to pick up both the Most Awarded Agency and Client accolades at D&AD. 

Monk will join the new and reinvigorated creative line-up of Publicis UK’s five agencies that Guy Wieynk, CEO of UK and VP of Western Europe at Publicis Worldwide, has been building since he joined at the beginning of the year. He will work closely with POKE ECD, Nik Roope and the agency’s group creative directors Angus Mackinnon; Jason Fletcher and Marcus Iles who are set to join Publicis Chemistry in October from TBWA. This creative leadership aims to create and ensure seamless and effective vision for clients.

Monk will replace Andy Bird who is currently overseeing Publicis London and Publicis New York’s key and global accounts in an interim dual ECD role. Bird will now transition over to take the permanent role of CCO at Publicis New York.

Guy Wieynk, CEO of UK and VP of Western Europe at Publicis Worldwide, commented: “Dave will be a critical part of the group agency creative leadership team within Publicis UK. He also brings a fantastic experience, a reputation for nurturing young talent, an endless energy and a sense of humour, which are pivotal to the culture Publicis UK is building within 82 Baker Street. I’m delighted we’ve attracted such a great talent to Publicis London; it’s testament to the business we are building and our vision for the industry.”