Alex Leikikh, President, Mullen Boston

Setting the stage for the next decade of growth at Mullen, the agency announced today that Alex Leikikh has been promoted to President of the Boston headquarters office. Leikikh, who joined Mullen in June of 2009 as Managing Partner, Director of Account Service, has been a key figure in the recent success of the agency that has won it recognition among the elite marketing organizations in the world. Leikikh takes over the President title at the direction of Joe Grimaldi, who had been President/CEO and will now become Chairman/CEO.

“Alex is a winner who’s proven himself to be a talented, courageous and effective leader,” said Grimaldi. “He commands the respect of his partners in Boston and of the entire company. I have total confidence that Alex and his partners will continue to build on the agency’s legacy of exceeding expectations and on our momentum of the last several years.”

Grimaldi has been with the agency for 28 years and has been President for 14 years and CEO since the agency became part of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG) in 1999. He assumed leadership of the agency from its founder, Jim Mullen. In his Chairman/CEO role he will establish future goals and strategies for Mullen and will continue as the key agency liaison with IPG, ensuring profitability and charting investments and resource utilization.

In his new role, Leikikh will lead the day-to-day operations of Mullen’s Boston headquarters in pursuit of the agency’s mission and values. Under his account service leadership, the agency has experienced consecutive years of +20% growth, including winning the highly coveted Zappos business, the equally desirable JetBlue account, the Barnes & Noble brand and innovative NOOK line of e-readers, the fast-growing FAGE Greek yogurt brand, and multiple assignments from Google, among others. Leikikh and his partners on the Mullen management team have also led a talent boom that has attracted top strategic, creative and technology professionals from leading agencies nationwide. The agency’s business growth, elevated creative profile and commitment to innovation won it recognition this year as a Fast Company Most Innovative Company in Advertising & Marketing and as a member of the prestigious Advertising Age Agency A-List. 

“Together with my partners here, we are maniacally focused on developing and growing the country’s most creative and innovative advertising agency,” said Leikikh. “We have enormous talent across so many disciplines – social, digital, analytics, PR, media and, of course, creative – and we’ve proven that our most successful ideas for clients are born from the smashing together, or hyperbundling, of our best cross-discipline brains. We hire the best people in the country and we let them do their jobs in a carefully crafted environment – one which forces collisions, expects strong opinions, lacks hierarchy and puts a premium on street smarts. This place is special, and it’s not by accident.”

Leikikh came to Mullen from Fallon in Minneapolis, where his key account responsibilities included United Airlines, National/Alamo Rental Cars, Garmin and BMW. He was also previously with Leo Burnett in Chicago. On a personal note, Leikikh’s family came to the United States from the former Soviet Union when he was five years old.  During his junior year in high school, Leikikh enlisted in the United States Army National Guard and completed his service upon graduation from Carleton College.

During the pitch, Mullen's Liz Osaki, Kit Krugman and Jess Pearson played role of JetBlue crew-members as we turned our reception area into an airport gate.

Great news to share this morning. JetBlue Airways has selected Mullen as its creative and media agency-of-record following a review. Advertising Age has a complete story on the review. Adweek and BBJ have also covered.

In a press release that was issued this morning, JetBlue’s senior vice president of marketing and commercial strategy Marty St. George said,  “After a rigorous search process we are excited to appoint Mullen as our agency of record. Not only does Mullen have a strong record of success supporting brands such as Zappos and Panera Bread, they are an outstanding cultural fit for JetBlue. We are particularly impressed by their retail focus and their strong track record at creating truly integrated marketing platforms. We believe they will deliver a unique and fresh perspective that will enhance the vitality of our brand.”

Mullen managing partner and director of account service Alex Leikikh, who led the agency pitch team, commented, “As an agency we always want to work with brands that are true innovators and JetBlue is just that sort of company.  Over the course of ten years, JetBlue has re-defined flying by keenly focusing on the customer experience. We’re genuinely proud to be partnering with JetBlue to advance this outstanding brand.”

JetBlue is a brand with great momentum as you can see in this Q&A the Boston Globe published with their CEO on Sunday. Mullen is excited to help JetBlue with its continued growth here in our hometown and nationwide.

Mark Wenneker, executive creative director at Mullen, added, “There’s already a tremendous amount of goodwill out there for the JetBlue brand. They’re a special company with a real sense of purpose and we look forward to building upon that equity.”

Winsor and Boches @ AdClub crowdsourcing event

There was a heady and at times esoteric forum on “crowdsourcing” yesterday put on by the AdClub. John Winsor from Crispin Porter Bogusky was the featured guest interviewed by Edward Boches from Mullen. The event drew a sizable and diverse crowd from the client, consultant and agency world, everyone looking to understand and harness this tidal wave of social media that is re-defining communication and creativity. Personally, what struck me is that the two guys on stage came from writing and journalism backgrounds and have migrated into and through the ad agency world to their new focus on social media. Winsor has been quite savvy in recognizing on-coming change in the publishing world and managed to capitalize rather than being destroyed. He’s a true chameleon.

In the spirit of the event I crowdsourced the attendees, asking several of my colleagues to weigh-in with observations on the dialogue:

Alex Leikikh – managing partner, mullen
“I found it ironic that the two oldest guys in the place were on stage. Also, we need more practical application thinking it seems around crowdsourcing…where should clients with significant budgets start?”

Kalley Thomas – pr/social influence acct. director, mullen
“The discussion regarding the level of feedback companies should feel obligated to provide to contributors was interesting.  I understand that people are looking to participate and whether their idea triumphs or not, it’s always good to know how you did. However, from an agency and client time perspective, it’s not always possible to provide in-depth feedback to everyone (imagine reviewing 1500 logos and critiquing each). It’s important to clearly set expectations with contributors about what they can anticipate out of the exercise – and then stick to it.”

Michael Bourne – vp, pr/social influence, mullen
“The creative ability of crowds is both a threat and an opportunity for people in creative fields, who must up their game to remain competitive with outliers. The ability to uncover talent that is otherwise hidden outside a company’s walls is unprecedented. Only those who can tap this creativity for the greater good will be the true ‘Crowd Sorcerers.’”

Nicole Berard – associate creative director, mullen
“I was most interested in the discussion about what crowdsourcing means for creatives, and a bit surprised by the level of apprehension. There is definitely a generational divide—most younger folks have been naturally crowdsourcing for most of their lives, thanks to the Internet (even if the “crowd” is only a network of close personal friends). I suppose to feel threatened you need to believe in the notion of “job security” to begin with, and that seems pretty antiquated. If someone can do my job better and cheaper do I really have any right to it? That’s capitalism, baby.”

Brenna Hanly – emerging media specialist – mediahub
“I struggle with the type of crowdsourcing that involves allowing the masses to vote on the best idea. In my opinion, we are losing out on great ideas/achievements in that way. The idea that rises to the top according to a popular vote is going to be something that appeals to a lowest common denominator and therefore can never be really great in any one way, rather it will be good in many ways. But then again maybe that is what advertising is supposed to do – appeal to the masses?”

Joe Grimaldi – president/ceo, mullen
“It’s real and here to stay and grow, but there’s a lot of thinking to be done about how a company organizes and manages to max effectiveness.”

Expect more about this event on mullen.com, including a piece on “10 things to help you get started in crowdsourcing.” It will have ideas, tips, explanations, many that came from people at the AdClub event. Plus, the AdClub is going to post a pre-recorded video version of the discussion.