Snap hires retired W+K president as chief creative officer

Wieden+Kennedy vet Colleen DeCourcy is out of retirement. 

Less than six months after announcing that she would step down as Wieden+Kennedy’s president after nearly a decade and retire from the ad industry, DeCourcy has joined Snap as chief creative officer, a new role for the social platform, the company said on Thursday (May 12). 

In the role, DeCourcy will oversee sourcing, development and storytelling for all creative efforts related to the Snap brand’s image and global marketing efforts, according to a press release. She will be based near Snap’s headquarters in Los Angeles, Ca. and report to Snap chief marketing officer Kenny Mitchell. 

“At Snap, I’ve met a thoughtful group of people with values and a mission that can make a difference. That’s 100% why I’m doing this,” said DeCourcy in a statement. “What I didn’t expect is how much fun it would be to take my advertising brain and do something completely different with it. That is an incredible opportunity for a creative thinker.”

Snap has been on a creative tear lately with recent campaigns as well as new products. The platform used AR to reveal Black history in London’s Trafalgar Square, created technology and a new filter to serve the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community and launched a dedicated AR shopping space for users.