What Patrick Hounsell and Stephen Kiely’s New Appointments Mean for dentsu
Just last week, dentsu made a big splash in North America with the announcement of not one, but two changes within its leadership suite. Specifically, the CEO of Dentsu Canada, Stephen Kiely, would be taking on the role of CEO of Tag Americas, while the president of Dentsu B2B Americas, Patrick Hounsell, would be stepping in to take his place.
So, what exactly does this mean for the agency and the network? An immediately noticeable change for Tag is the benefit of new leadership of a man who has driven great transformational growth in Canada. This will undoubtedly enable a boost to the creative and media agency’s production and technological services across the region. Meanwhile, Dentsu Canada will be gaining a seasoned industry veteran with experience in the US market, who will build on the agency’s recent momentum with an emphasis on innovation in data, technology and media. With great advantages on both sides, the relationship between the two institutions (which has existed since Tag was acquired in 2023) will continue to grow closer, ensuring greater synergy and sustained growth for both parties.
To learn more about what this will look like, and how both parties are feeling ahead of the move – which will officially go into effect on January 1st 2025 – LBB’s Jordan Won Neufeldt sat down with Stephen and Patrick for a chat.
LBB> Patrick, Stephen, congratulations both on your new positions! What do these appointments represent to you, Dentsu Canada and Tag?
Patrick> Canada continues to be a high-priority growth market for the Americas and dentsu globally. To accelerate our growth, the leadership team and I will be reinforcing our commitment to delivering best-in-class brand and performance capabilities to our clients.
Stephen> The market is energised by the combined power of Tag and dentsu. We’ve already seen the success of this winning value proposition (e.g., Adobe). I want to harness this energy and want this to be a force multiplier.
LBB> Although you won’t officially be in the new positions until January 1st, what are your main aims and ambitions, both for your respective roles, but also the network in North America as a whole?
Patrick> In this role, I’ll be looking to build on the momentum Stephen and his leadership team have set in motion – with a focus on helping our clients achieve their most ambitious goals, driving market growth, and enhancing Dentsu Canada’s position as an industry leader. When all of this comes together, it allows us to build on the existing company culture and provide our people with opportunities to further develop skills and propel their career growth at dentsu.
Stephen> In this role, I’ll have the opportunity to lead the vision, value creation, and growth velocity of Tag across the US, Canada, and Latin America to deliver on clients’ growing demand for tech-enabled, AI-integrated creative production. My new appointment also further advances our deeper integration of Tag into our business since its acquisition in 2023.
Overall, we expect the transition to be seamless as both Patrick and I, alongside the respective leadership teams, finalise plans for 2025 and beyond to keep our incredible momentum going across Dentsu Canada and Tag.
LBB> Patrick, you’re returning to Canada after a long stint working in the US. How does it feel to be back? And how have your experiences down south prepared you for this new challenge?
Patrick> I’m excited to be coming home! I’m looking forward to working with this team and for us to set a vision together and to win together. I love how the integrated value proposition of dentsu comes to life in Canada and really want to lean into it. While I haven’t resided in Canada for some time, my previous solutions role within dentsu had a global footprint, and so, naturally, I worked across multiple markets where Canada was featured prominently.
LBB> Building on this, you’ve been in the industry for 25 years. How have things changed since you’ve started, and looking ahead, where do you want to take Dentsu Canada in the coming years?
Patrick> Things have certainly come a long way in 25 years. The amount of cultural change and economic value that has been created by the evolution of marketing technology is amazing and underpins the work we do at dentsu every day.
Looking ahead, there are two things that stand out to me in particular. The first is that creativity is at the centre of our value proposition. I think that is incredible and something we need to continue to lean into to win awards and showcase our creativity across all our capabilities. This is, of course, true for the brand, but also for me, as I’ll be leveraging my expertise to responsibly instil creativity across our use of data and technology to further strengthen Dentsu Canada’s offering in the market and to drive business results for Canada’s top brands.
The second thing is that we are at the right scale to move with speed. Speed wins. I’ll be looking to leverage our ability to be nimble and fast to drive innovation in the network and the market so that we can create tremendous value for our clients.
LBB> Stephen, how is the jump from CEO of Dentsu Canada to Tag Americas feeling? Has it been challenging to take your business approach from Canada only to North America-wide?
Stephen> I’m excited to get to know the Tag team more. In fact, on Friday, I hosted my first town hall!
Logistically, my leadership approach isn’t going to change drastically. No matter what position I’ve held at dentsu, I always take a very servant leadership style – getting to know people and how to bring out the best in them is what I do best. And, similar to Patrick, a lot of our current Canadian clients have regional and global footprints. So as much as it might appear to be a bigger step into the region, my business approach with our clients has always been borderless.
LBB> Specifically, you’ve got a focus on production and technological capabilities at Tag. Why is this so important, and what will you be doing to specifically grow in these realms?
Stephen> This is a great question – we should sit down in Q1 once I’ve had more time with the team! Regardless, at the moment, there are a few capabilities at Tag that I find really exciting and which can help us exponentially grow – the main one not surprisingly is around AI.
However, while AI is very much a part of the Tag conversation, what inspires me every day is our proprietary ‘Digital Interact’ platform, or DI, as we call it. DI is an absolute game changer for brand marketers and is like nothing else in the market. We have 40 of the top 100 global brands using it including Coca-Cola, Heineken, UNIQLO, GSK, and AstraZeneca. That inspires me.
You’re likely wondering, ‘OK, what exactly is DI?’. DI allows users to manage daily workflows across all creative, production, print sourcing and ordering. Clients can manage their entire production workflow through the platform, or just one specific need. One of the more unique modules within the platform is ‘DI Planet’, which enables brands to support their ESG goals through end-to-end sustainability data collection and reporting. Think: carbon footprint life-cycle analysis, supply chain compliance, and on-the-ground product lifecycle tracking with our proprietary ‘Track and Trace’ mobile solution.
LBB> Tell us more about the Tag and dentsu partnership. How will you be embracing innovation and integration to ensure success on both ends?
Stephen> Tag Canada is unique among full-service agencies that specialise in creative production and channel activation. At the core of Tag Canada’s offerings is its unmatched excellence in food and beverage content production. Right now, Tag Canada is where high-impact, unrivalled culinary creativity and marketing expertise converge, ensuring every creation is a masterpiece. As such, its focus has been assisting legacy dentsu and Dentsu Creative brands, including Subway Canada, SPAM, Lexus and Astrazeneca. Fun fact: within Canada, our longest standing client is Italpasta. We’ve been working with the team for 11 years doing recipe development, creative production, social media, and more.
LBB> With all this in mind, where do you think dentsu and Tag’s place is, both in Canada, but also North America as a whole? And what are your opinions about the state of Canadian advertising in general?
Patrick> What impressed me so much about Dentsu Canada is just how integrated all of our agencies are on behalf of our clients. So many say that they are, but at our head office in Toronto, you really see it come to life around the table. Clients have access to so many subject matter experts and they seamlessly work together to build the best-in-class campaigns I’ve seen. Advertisers in Canada need this access – marketing problems are business problems and when you have a diverse slate of people solving and putting forward solutions, you win!
Stephen> Tag is unique among full-service agencies in that it’s so specialised in creative production and channel activation. From a regional perspective, unlocking these unique and unmatched capabilities will be my focus, as will taking those to our existing dentsu clients to help them market in a world where speed and stand out campaigns are required every time.
LBB> Finally, is there anything you’d like to say to your fellow/future employees about what they can expect moving forward?
Patrick> Excited to win together!
Stephen> Let’s have fun and make things!
