Google aims to support not replace ad agencies with appointment of Patrick Collister in creative director-type role
Google's new appointment Patrick Collister may have been given the title head of design but comments made by him recently suggest his role is closer to creative director, despite denials that Google is becoming competition for ad agencies.
Appointment: Collister's role is more akin to creative director
In an interview with contributing editor of The Drum, Dave Birss, Collister countered reports he had been appointed head of design and said "jingles and slogans" was his background.
"I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding about this," he says, "In America I was reported as being the head of design for Google, and Google did have a head of design but that's somebody who's completely responsible for the way Google pages look online, responsible for the way the software programmes open up - that's definitely not me, that's a very big job and I couldn't design my way out of a paper bag. Jingles and slogans is my background."
Collister began his new role at the company last month, and was understood to be the replacement for Google's head of design Irene Au, who handed in her notice to the company in June last year.
"My role here is really to bring ad thinking to what is essentially a media agency. Google is filled with some incredibly clever people, really clever people, but they look at platforms and they look at the way different media opportunities knit together.
"They're kind of aware that you still need to have ideas to fill these spaces, whatever they may be, and they've got people inside the building who are quite capable of filling it. My role is to come here and actually fill it with stuff that is inspiring and is best in class. Now that's not to say that Google is turning into an ad agency, because it's not."
Chief executive at WPP Martin Sorrell made the news recently when he accused Google, Facebook and Twitter of being "media owners masquerading as tech companies", adding that he predicted WPP would spend more on advertising with Google than with Rupert Murdoch's media empire by 2014. With the hiring of Collister, Google is investing more energy into its ad thinking.
However, Collister insisted Google would not provide direct competition to ad agencies.
"I had a conversation with a client, a very big client, who said they'd much rather not work with their agency on something, they'd much rather we did it," he added. "We said we don't do that. We're not in competition with the ad agencies, what we are is collaborators with them.
"My job is to knit agency creative teams together with clients, getting them to understand that the ability of Google and Google platforms to deliver what they want is much bigger than they ever imagined."
To read the full Patrick Collister interview, don't miss the next issue of The Drum magazine, out on 24 May.