After months of speculation, WPP has announced the appointment of Torrence Boone as the Chief Executive Officer of Project Da Vinci, the new global agency being built to meet the marketing needs of its first client, Dell. Previous to this, Boone was president, Digitas Boston. The as yet unnamed agency currently titled Project Da Vinci would look at consolidating Dell’s worldwide marketing services. The account was previously handled by more than 800 firms. As the new agency's first chief executive officer, Boone will oversee the agency’s mandate to provide creative, results-orientated marketing that engages customers, enhances brand equity and creates value for its clients.
“Project Da Vinci is bold and innovative. The opportunity to play a leadership role in the creation of a new agency, built-to-spec, with an ambition to redefine the client-agency relationship, comes along perhaps once in a lifetime,” said Boone in an official press statement and added, “I’m thoroughly excited about Project Da Vinci’s prospects and look forward to working with an exceptionally talented team to tackle the marketing challenges of Dell and other clients in today’s dramatically changed media, marketing and customer landscape.”
To date, Project Da Vinci has hired more than 500 employees. Domestic office locations include New York, Austin, Miami and San Francisco, and a presence in established and emerging markets including London, Sao Paulo, Singapore and Beijing. Boone will be operating from the agency’s New York headquarters and will report directly to Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer of WPP.
In a statement released on Boone's appointment, Sir Martin Sorrell said, “The goal from the start was to design and build a new kind of marketing organization, that not only provides unique solutions for Dell, but meets other clients’ marketing needs and does so using developments in technology to guide and measure its marketing decisions. Torrence is ideally suited to this critically important leadership role. His deep experience across multiple marketing disciplines and his reputation as a developer of innovative marketing programs make him uniquely qualified to lead Project Da Vinci as we focus on reinventing the approach for integrated marketing services. We believe that Project Da Vinci will provide a template for other clients with similar desires."
