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Tony Clewett moves to consultancy role following FCB redundancy

After seeing FCB through almost 12 years, Tony Clewett has announced a move into a consultancy role following a redundancy by the agency.

Moving to CCO of FCB in 2018, Clewett said it came as a surprise when the senior leadership team came to him mid-lock down with an email stating an up coming redundancy.

After almost 12 years with the agency, the CCO role was rethought, leaving Clewett to wonder, ‘what now?’.

“When you’re so used to somewhere it was quite the shock. But I’m taking a real philosophical view about it. I had been there for over a decade, maybe this is a sign to start anew… 2020 has been turned on its head for everyone, so it’s an opportunity to now sit back and see what is out there.”

Clewett says the move was surprising, yet sees why FCB made the decision to lose the CCO role among others. There have been a few movings within FCB in 2020, the beginning of March saw FCB’s David Thomason resign. While Angela Spain also left to started her own communication agency, Archer Comms.

“All agencies have lost momentum recently, and accounts are shifting for everyone.”

Clewett, after the initial stages of enjoying the quiet after a tough couple of years at FCB, announced he was moving into a consulting role, where he brings his expertise to mid-level indie agencies who are seeking top-tier advice.

“It was the last week of lockdown when I started moving into the creative space again, and doing a few projects for more mid-level agencies… It’s been really interesting stepping out and thinking about the industry and where it’s heading. It was a startling, eye-watering moment last week when I went into a small agency that was a team of about 25, I took a project that funnily enough FCB worked on, that was now with this smaller agency. When we were working on it at FCB we had to figure out how to work 200 people into the creative which made the project more cumbersome that anything.

“But the thing was that project was reasonably small for FCB, but for this team it was fantastic. It made me realise how big this growing market is of mid-level agencies picking up these smaller projects who need that bigger agency style advice.”

Clewett says he is looking forward to getting closely involved with the creative and projects that smaller agencies do well to foster. When asked on his thoughts on starting his own creative agency;

“I’ll have to think about it.”

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  1. Tony is one of the smartest people I have ever worked with. Can spot a great idea a million miles away. What he has done at FCB is extraordinary. Picking his brain would be very wise.