Ansible global boss Travis Johnson out of Mediabrands as fallout from Tajer departure spreads
Ansible global president Travis Johnson has become the latest IPG Mediabrands executive to have been culled from the group following the sensational departure of Mediabrands’ global CEO Henry Tajer in May.
Travis Johnson the latest Australian to leave Mediabrands in massive shakeup
In what appears to be an ongoing assault on executives with Australian connections, Johnson joins a number of other senior Australian IPG staffers airlifted into New York by Tajer as part of his transformation of the business who have now been removed from their roles.
IPG announced in May that Tajer was leaving the global leadership role he had been promoted only to two years previously. His departure triggered a series of other senior executive moves including former Starcom Australian boss John Sintras, who was brought to New York as Tajer’s right-hand man, and Asia Pacific CFO Reg Davidson, whose departure was announced in July.
Multiple typos
Hi Icanhazajtocorecwt?
I’m not yet awake enough to fully decode your screen name, but I have corrected the mistakes I could see in the story.
Thanks for flagging (and feel free to corecwt me if I’ve missed any),
Vivienne – Mumbrella
When your mates go the test is whether you can hold your own, if you can’t then hopefully you made the most of the coat tail ride – cause you are out.
We’ve all got mates who got places because of mates, problem is the domino effect. Look at the recent changes in COO at iFlix
I agree what you are saying is true in some cases.
However in this instance the fact is that Travis is a successful and dynamic executive who has performed and delivered. Unfortunately few management folks, to satisfy their ego, took an irrational decision.
Time will tell how wise or foolish this decision was.
. Travis has been a pioneer in the mobile space for a bloody long time , created a great business with Mnet and then Ansible here and has done some incredible things with the business on a global scale. The industry of mobile marketing and advertising has benefited from Travis’s passion for the space and his thought leadership over a long time now and has paved the way for a lot of us to be able to have more meaningful conversation’s in the industry around ” that thing in your customer’s hand ” . Look forward to hearing about his next chapter in due course
@Mark
Ansible (formally m.Net) was founded in 2001 and acquired in 2013 by IPG. They had been building Telstra, Yahoo!7 amongst others mobile websites for a decade prior to the IPG management takeover which looks like a cheap/smart deal when it was closed at $5.5MM.
Not to diminish the great campaign work, awards and “feeding-in” of IPG group client business overseen by Travis since he went into the role.. but some clarification is warranted seeing m.Net was already a seasoned mobile development agency with great chops, built by some original digital pioneers who weren’t very good at self-promotion.
and also deeply in trouble when the app store launched and people stopped buying ringtones on the back page of magazines and the Australian Idol votes @ 55c a pop dried up. they overpaid
Sorry, which part of Cadreon is independent?
This whole episode is a really sad story and a black eye for our industry. Good, talented people have been displaced without much reason given from Mediabrands. Would be great to read a good old Mumbrella investigative journalist piece of what went wrong with the Tajer era…
It’s a shame to hear of this departure. I have known and worked with Trav in number of roles in the past 15 years – he’s one of the smartest and driven execs in this industry, and has done amazing things at Mediabrands in the past 12 years. He’s been a pioneer of innovation, given loads of his time to this industry via MFA and other industry bodies, mentored many, provided thought leadership and educated many at industry events… In the past two years has built an increasingly profitable, global network in Ansible. Whatever the reasons, good luck whatever comes next Trav – won’t take long to land a bloody awesome gig.
Incredibly smart, decent and passionate guy. Worked with Trav at a couple of different businesses. Wherever he goes next he will do great things.
Well said Scott Player and I completely agree. One of the smartest and most talented people I’ve worked with. Travis will bring great value to which ever venture he takes on next.
Media brands is a small agency group so no sure why it’s getting so much attention. The Australian team were not a good fit, let’s all move on to more positive news
Travis is a great guy indeed. He should have just stayed away from the politics like Baxter. Totally agree with Deckchairs on getting more information.