The creative leaders of Marcel in Paris, famous for their epic "L'Odyssée" campaign for Cartier last year, are venturing into the U.S.. market.
In August, Emmanuel Lalleve and Florent Imbert will join the New York office of JWT as executive creative directors. The longtime creative partners will become part of a select group of seven at that level that typically work on multiple accounts. JWT declined to say what brands Lalleve and Imbert will handle, but given their experience, one of them will likely be Rolex, a key global account at the WPP Group shop.
At JWT, Lalleve and Imbert will work closely with North American chief creative officer Jeff Benjamin and New York CCO Matt MacDonald and report to MacDonald.
Benjamin described the partners as "modern storytellers who have passion, creative range and ambition to make disruptive work that transcends geographies and mediums." MacDonald added that they have the "rare ability to make smart, beautiful and inventive work for every brand they touch--from Cartier to Kraft to Google. Our clients are increasingly asking for innovative ideas that work globally and that's exactly what Manu and Florent have delivered time and again."
Lalleve, 33, and Imbert, 32, also have telecommunications, soft drink and car experience, having worked on Orange, Oasis and Opel in Europe. But it's their work for Cartier that put them on JWT's radar screen and earned Marcel agency of the year honors at Adweek's CLIO Awards this year. At the center of the Cartier campaign was a fantastical 3 1/2-minute ad that celebrated the brand's 165th anniversary.
Directed by Bruno Villain, the ad remained Cartier's history through the eyes of a panther. And as if to underscore its uniqueness, the spot premiered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Well, now New York has the creative leaders who crafted it.
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