Al-Zaidy begins his new role immediately and will be responsible for McCann London’s entire business. He will also continue to oversee the agency’s strategic direction.
Al-Zaidy will work closely with McCann London’s joint presidents and chief creative officers, Rob Doubal and Laurence Thomson. Al-Zaidy had previously worked with Doubal and Thomson at Mother, where he was a strategy director between 2004 and 2008.
McCann London’s previous chief executive, Chris Macdonald, left to become the president of the New York office in the summer.
Immediately before joining McCann London, Al-Zaidy was the chief strategy officer at TBWA\London, where he worked on accounts including Adidas, GlaxoSmithKline and Nissan. He began his
career at Unilever and spent eight years in the company’s marketing team.
Al-Zaidy told Campaign that his brief was to "help Rob [Doubal] and Lol [Thomson] achieve their creative vision". He added: "It’s about having a strong strategic leader who can partner with genius creatives to unlock their potential. It’s similar to many agencies where you have a suit who manages clients, except our job is to manage brands."
Al-Zaidy’s promotion coincides with McCann London’s capture of the European advertising business for the Mattel brand Fisher-Price.
McCann London declined to comment on Fisher-Price. Mattel said that no official appointments had yet been made.
