A year into its launch, Publicis Groupe’s Le Truc – the New York based collective of 600 creatives, strategists and producers – is staffing up with three new senior hires who will be part of the permanent line-up, including Marcos Kotlhar, who joins as partner and CCO from Ogilvy New York, where he was CCO.
Le Truc has already been a key part of Publicis Groupe pitches, including Samsung, TikTok and Planet Fitness, and has produced some strong campaigns for the brands, including a Super Bowl spot for Planet Fitness featuring Lindsay Lohan and William Shatner.
Chong, Kolthar, Bundy
Kitlhar joins two other recent hires. Megan Bundy, previously group account director at FCB New York is now Le Truc’s EVP managing director; and Ryan Chong, who left his role as group production director at 72andSunny New York, is now EVP head of production at Le Truc.
Chong and Kotlhar are both BBH alumni returning to the Publicis Groupe, although Kolthar spent most of his career at BBDO, while Bundy did a stint at Publicis Media earlier in her career.
Le Truc’s top team alongside Kitlhar is made up of Bastien Baumann (who previously worked with Kitlhar at Ogilvy) and Andy Bird – both full timers – and Carla Serrano, who also serves as Publicis Groupe chief strategy officer. Liz Taylor, who was one of the original line up, is now global CCO at Ogilvy.
Serrano said: “After chasing Marcos for months, we are elated he is finally joining us. He is a natural partner for Le Truc, with his passion for fresh cultural ideas, collaborative process and obsession with craft. Together with Megan and Ryan, we approach our first year anniversary of Le Truc with expanded expertise and even greater ambition for the year to come.”
It will be interesting to see how far Le Truc can go. It could be a case of “Publicis will eat itself” if it gets too successful.
