Call it the end of an Internet era. Three years after trumpeting the hiring of new chief digital officers, TBWA, Ogilvy & Mather and Young & Rubicam aren't filling the role in the wake of each executive's recent exit.

CEOs at the agencies acknowledge the accomplishments of the three chiefs -- Colleen DeCourcy at TBWA, Jean-Philippe Maheu at Ogilvy and Tarik Sedky at Young & Rubicam -- who won new online assignments, attracted talent and helped craft buzzworthy campaigns. While the shops aren't considered leading edge in digital marketing, each has advanced its online capabilities and agency leaders credit the execs.

Nevertheless, TBWA worldwide CEO Tom Carroll, Ogilvy N.A. CEO John Seifert and Y&R worldwide CEO Hamish McLennan have shifted away from digital generals. Carroll and Seifert are putting the onus on local offices to develop their capabilities and consider digital skills in every hire they make, and McLennan now relies on sister shop VML, with which Y&R forged an alliance last year, to lead its digital charge.

Digital is "not all or nothing," Carroll said. "Our guys get closer and closer to doing what Barbarian [Group] does, what AKQA does, what R/GA does. We get closer every day-and that's enough."

The digital chiefs left for different reasons. Sedky, who had a North American role at Y&R, had the opportunity to launch an agency (Mother Nature & Partners). Maheu, whose Ogilvy role also was North American in scope, wanted to run a business again (he's now CEO of Publicis Modem). DeCourcy hasn't explained her exit, but sources expect her to pursue opportunities at technology companies.

Carroll, Seifert and McLennan said that their agencies had advanced to the point where they no longer needed chief digital officers, even though other global networks like Saatchi & Saatchi and Euro RSCG continue to employ digital creative chiefs. Maheu and Sedky say they agree with their former shops' decisions. Sources, however, believe that the agencies have a long way to go to become leaders in online marketing.
 
"Digital needs to be so integral to the organization that it's not distinguished by a group or individual leaders," said Sedky. Added Maheu: "Ultimately, the transformation agenda should be owned by the agency [office] leaders, by the business operation chiefs."

Notwithstanding the accomplishments of the digital chiefs -- who also succeeded in attracting new talent -- the role of chief digital officer showed its limitations over time. The New York-based chiefs sometimes faced resistance from local offices that were wary of losing client revenue to headquarters, said sources. Often, the execs also found themselves pulled different ways.

"They're just stretched in a million directions," Seifert said. "They're being told, 'Go win a pitch. Go be a guru on a panel.' They've just got a thousand demands on their time."


Seifert (pictured) and Carroll also said it was unrealistic to expect a single exec-albeit one with a big title and the support of upper management -- to own responsibility for an agency's success or failure in digital.

"It's just one person," Seifert said. "What I think the flaw has been is that too much has been assumed or made of a single person in that role."

But without digital generals, some wonder if agencies like Ogilvy will see their troops slack off in their development of digital capabilities-a potential problem that Seifert acknowledged. "That is a risk," he said. "[But] I would have replaced this role in a nanosecond if I felt there was a danger of slipping back."

What's more, the rank and file "have to be part of this digital revolution," Seifert said. "Now, there are some leadership roles that have to happen in areas of technology, in areas of production, in some of the infrastructure plays when it comes to developing digital solutions. But my view was you could find those leaders and embed them lower down in the organization."

Such shops are now relying on a bottom-up approach to digital transformation. As an example, Sedky pointed to Y&R's March hire of Jane Barratt to run its New York operation as president. Before Y&R, Barratt was managing director of SapientNitro in New York and md of Euro RSCG's digital and direct arm, Euro RSCG 4D. This month, Ogilvy also named Lars Bastholm, its North American chief digital creative officer, to the additional role of CCO for New York.

While general-market agencies and their clients continue to push for greater digital know-how, shops still tout their breadth of services and, in that context, digital primacy may not be their ultimate goal, said sources.

"The reality is there is a degree to which these agencies feel the need to get digital," said one source who asked not to be named. "And if we remember at their heart that they're advertising agencies, then there's probably only a certain degree [of digital expertise] that they need to have as creative services companies. As businesses, there might be a different degree and maybe that's more of a network discussion anyway."