Independent creative agency UltraSuperNew offers WPP CEO Cindy Rose an internship
UltraSuperNew, an independent creative agency with offices in Tokyo, Singapore and Amsterdam, are offering WPP Chief Executive Cindy Rose (pictured above) a three-month internship at its Tokyo headquarters.
While tongue may firmly be in cheek on this one the offer, says Marc Wesseling, co-founder of UltraSuperNew, is made in a spirit of genuine generosity, after Rose said in an interview with Campaign that, “we don’t want to be a holding company anymore”.
Said Wesseling (pictured above right): “We read about Cindy’s new strategy for WPP with great interest and great sympathy, Cindy has had a remarkable career in tech, media and telecommunications. She is clearly a brilliant executive. But we noticed that she has never actually worked inside an advertising agency. Not a big one. Not a small one. Not any one. And we think that might be a problem when you’re running one of the biggest collections of advertising agencies in the world.”
“So we’d like to help.”
UltraSuperNew’s internship programme is designed to give participants actual hands-on experience of what it feels like to work inside a proper creative hotshop. Interns at UltraSuperNew are expected to contribute meaningfully from day one. They make the coffee. They sit in on client calls. They argue about ideas. They feel the specific exhilaration of a great thought landing in a room. They feel the specific devastation of a great thought being killed by a client. They understand, viscerally, why the people who work in places like this chose this industry over a more predictable career. These are things you cannot learn in a quarterly earnings call.
The internship is unpaid.
This is, UltraSuperNew acknowledges, a meaningful financial sacrifice for someone on a FTSE 100 chief executive’s salary. But the agency believes the experience will be worth considerably more than any remuneration it could offer.
“Cindy is proposing to reshape an industry she has never worked in,” continued Wesseling. “We have enormous respect for her ambition. We simply think she might find it useful to understand what she is reshaping before the reshaping is complete. A leading independent like UltraSuperNew can help show her what advertising actually looks like when it isn’t being managed, processed, restructured, and optimised into something that resembles a platform business.”
“We can show her what an idea looks like. We can show her what a culture looks like. We can show her what it feels like to win a client because you have a brilliant vision for their business, not a better procurement relationship.”
“We can show her what it feels like to answer to nobody except the work.”
“UltraSuperNew has a proud track record of nurturing emerging talent and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds, including those transitioning from the technology sector. We only ask that Cindy comes with an open mind, comfortable shoes and no restructuring plans. The internship begins whenever Cindy is ready,” said Wesseling.
Applications, or any questions Rose may have about the programme, should be directed to UltraSuperNew’s Tokyo office. Please visit www.ultrasupernew.com