Agencies vie for Patton

by Noel Bussey, Campaign 04-May-07

Saatchis and Grey do battle for Sony marketing chief to fill vacant CEO posts.

Grey and Saatchi & Saatchi are fighting it out to hire David Patton,
Sony's senior vice-president of communications for Europe, to fill their
vacant chief executive roles.

Grey has already offered the role to the high-profile Sony marketer, but

he is also one of three candidates that has been shortlisted for the CEO

job at Saatchi & Saatchi.

Kevin Roberts, Saatchis' worldwide chief executive, is due to fly in and
vet the final candidates this week.

Grace Blue, the headhunting company set up by Gay Haines, is thought to
have put Patton forward for both roles.

The role at Grey became available in January this year, when the former
chief executive, Tamara Ingram, left the post to take on the leadership
of the $1 billion global Procter & Gamble account.

The Saatchis job came up for grabs a month later when Lee Daley, the
chairman and chief executive, departed the agency to become the global
commercial director at Manchester United Football Club.

Patton is famed for being particularly sensitive to the creative process
and was the client behind the lauded "balls" ad for Sony Bravia. He also
sanctioned "mountain", the Sony PlayStation ad created by TBWA\London
that picked up the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2003.

Patton joined Sony in 1995 as the vice-president of marketing for Sony
Computer Entertainment.

In March 2004, Patton was promoted to his current role, which saw him
become solely responsible for the PlayStation brand across Europe. Since
then, Patton's remit has steadily expanded to include all of Sony's
products across Europe.

The promotion also saw Patton working closely with Chris Deering, the
chief executive of Sony Europe, to spearhead the revival of the
electronics brand, which had seen its sales slump prior to Deering's
appointment.

Both Saatchis and Grey refused to comment. Patton was unreachable as
Campaign went to press.