VML has hired Lauren Lafranz as managing director, global creative operations, a newly created position.
In the role, Lafranz will work out of VML’s New York office and report to global chief creative officer Debbi Vandeven. She will serve as director of VML’s global creative council and be responsible for implementing Vandeven’s creative vision, managing creative offices globally, expanding creative standards and managing global awards planning.
Lafranz arrives at VML following after more than a dozen years at JWT New York, where she spent the past four and a half years as global chief creative content officer.
As Director of Creative Program and Initiatives, Lauren was directly responsible for running JWT’s Global Insomnia Briefs and Pioneering Plan. Lauren’s historical creative knowledge and opinions were invaluable in her role as new business and global business/ brand creative content consultant. The genuine and special relationships she fostered with our creative talent made her a crucial member of our creative resource and retention advocate team. • Insomnia Briefs: A proactive effort designed to inspire the creative department to solve the problems that keep our clients up at night• Pioneering Plans: An internal award program that guides and tracks our global award show efforts, celebrates current highlights, inspires future creative output, and encourages global collaborationUsing her knowledge base for all previous J Walter Thompson campaigns, Lauren advised tailored showcases as prospecting tool that show off our best recent work in a consistent and easy to navigate manner. She connected talent with relevant experience to opportunities around network, consulted for upcoming new business pitches, and recommended creative resources for new business projects. Lauren supervised the New Business Monthly Report with product and service reels and the showcase work, controlled the new business bespoke reels and the Global Business historical assets. Quarterly, Lauren evaluated, filtered, and advised the eligible content for award show opportunities, recommended pertinent talent for specific global assignments, endorsed jury nominations for international award shows, proposed pertinent talent for speaking engagements, and supervised the Global Creative Talent database platform.
Lauren is the Director of Global Creative Challenge, which is J. Walter Thompson’s quarterly internal creative sessions to judge and enhance creative product, to set and launch creative initiatives, to resolve creative issues, and to analyze the creative performance for each office in the global company. As creative opinion leader, Lauren is the eyes and ears of our CEO and CCO ensuring the highest quality level of current creative work in the pipeline. Lauren is our unbiased and fair judge and guide for implementation of global work. After more than a decade in her various roles at JWT, Lauren is the definitive answer to our current and historical creative content inquiries. She is the master knowledge base of all global work with a comprehensive point of view on content to guide reel recommendations of global work for new business opportunities and executive presentations. In her role as Director of Global Creative Challenge and Global Award Shows, Lauren leads J. Walter Thompson’s Cannes Festival of Creativity and Global Awards Plan through external promotion of our content and our creative talent with jury assignments.As the head of the creative content department, Lauren supervises and trains 200+ global, regional, and local Content Managers on internal and external content and award related programs.