VMLY&R has made two key leadership moves, boosting the agency’s creative bench strength across its Intel and Walgreens client teams.
Allison Pierce has been promoted to global chief creative officer across the agency’s Intel team. In this role, Pierce will oversee all creative work for Intel, ensuring global consistency and integration across all markets. The agency has also named Mel Routhier the chief creative officer of WPP Walgreens team. In this role, Routhier will lead creative development for the Walgreens business. The WPP Walgreens team is a cross-agency team that comprises agency partners, including Burson Cohn & Wolfe, Hogarth Worldwide, Mediacom, Ogilvy, and VMLY&R. Both Pierce and Routhier will join VMLY&R’s senior ranks in the global creative council and report to VMLY&R global CCO Debbi Vandeven.
“In Alli and Mel, we have two very strong creatives with proven track records for leading large creative teams and doing top-tier creative work,” Vandeven said.
Since joining the agency in 2010, Pierce has been a major force at VMLY&R, producing some of the agency’s most innovative and awarded work. She played an integral role in helping VMLY&R land the global agency of record for Intel and has led creative duties for the brand since early 2020, launching one of the company’s largest consumer campaigns in the midst of a global pandemic.
Pierce has also overseen creative for the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development for the past seven years, spearheading innovative work like “The Colorblind Viewer,” an experiential campaign that launched a scenic viewer equipped with high-tech lenses that made it possible for colorblind people to see fall colors for the first time. The campaign won multiple Cannes Lions, Effies and a gold cube at the Art Directors Club, among other honors.
She has also led creative for a range of VMLY&R client brands, including Gatorade, Wendy’s, Kashi, Electrolux/Frigidaire, Boehringer Ingelheim Equine and Cobra Puma Golf. Her work has been awarded by Cannes Lions, the One Show, Effies, Clios, New York Festivals, Art Directors Club, LIA, D&AD, Webbys and more.
Meanwhile Routhier will lead a cross-WPP team of 25 creatives and multidisciplinary talent, including content specialists, social, and more. Routhier joins from DDB Chicago where she served as SVP, executive creative director overseeing creative for State Farm, one of the agency’s key blue-chip clients. She played an integral role in developing State Farm’s first tagline in 40 years, “Here to Help Life Go Right,” and the Cannes Lions award-winning “Following” campaign.
Routhier has been a Chicago mainstay during her two decades in the ad industry. Prior to DDB, she worked at Trisect on clients such as YouTheory and Kimberly-Clark, overseeing creative for Kimberly-Clark’s portfolio of paper products. She also worked for over a decade at Leo Burnett Chicago on some of the world’s most recognizable brands, including Kellogg’s, Procter & Gamble, Hallmark, Disney and the U.S. Army.
Over her career, Routhier’s work has received top honors at major industry shows, including Cannes Lions, The London International Awards, Clios, Effies, Luzer’s Archive, Communication Art, ADDys, Reggies and the Chicago advertising federation.
A WPP company, VMLY&R is made up of nearly 7,000 employees worldwide, with principal offices in Kansas City, New York, Detroit, London, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney.
