Public Lecture: 40+ Years in Global Advertising

A presentation by

GREGORY P. BIRBIL

Former Executive Creative Director, General Manager, Chairman and President

of McCann-Erickson Agencies in several countries.

40+ Years in Global Advertising

Spanning the USA, England, Spain, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Mexico, Columbia and Greece.

Following the presentation, there will be a Question & Answer Session.

Sunday, April 27, 2014, 5:30pm

AUA Alex Manoogian Auditorium, 40 Marshal Bagramyan Avenue, Yerevan, Armenia

GREGORY P. BIRBIL

Gregory P. Birbil was born in 1937 in New York City. He is of Greek descent. He received his University degree in Fine Arts from the noted Pratt Institute, majoring in Advertising Design and was awarded the top departmental prize for creativity in advertising. McCann Erickson, the world’s largest advertising agency hired him in the NY office. He worked on some of its prestigious accounts, including Coca-Cola, and Nabisco. Three years later, he was transferred to the Chicago office as a senior art director and group head. He then was transferred to the London office in 1965, which was the beginning of his international career of over 40 years.

London was an incredible opportunity for Greg to help transform an office that was stuck in the 40’s. He was appointed deputy creative director in an office of over 100 people in the creative department. Greg personally won a number of creative awards, in addition to the awards won by the creative department that he led. He created local and International campaigns for major McCann accounts at the time, including General Motors and many local accounts such as Quality Street Chocolates, the Egg Board and many others. He was also head of a special creative team called Force-12, which went to various McCann offices in Europe to troubleshoot and develop campaigns for major international clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Nestle, Goodyear, Gillette, Opel and others.

His next assignment was to go to the Tokyo office in 1970 to reorganize the creative department. The agency in Japan was called McCann-Hokahodo, one of the largest in Japan. In 1971 he was sent to McCann Spain as General Manager and Executive Creative Director, with offices in both Madrid and Barcelona. Greg made that operation rise from below the top ten to number three in the market in less than 5 years. Milan and Rome were next in 1976, where he also served as General Manager and Executive Creative Director, working on Coca-Cola, Nestle, Opel, Martini and other major accounts. In the early 80’s he was sent to the European headquarters in London were he was appointed Executive Creative Director for the region as well as Vice Chairman of the London operation. He then went to McCann South African as Chairman for 2 years, where he put a local management team in place providing them with mentorship.

In 1986 he was sent to Mexico, where he had the responsibility of the Coca-Cola account for all of Central and South America. He was also was CEO of the Mexican operation. Under his direction, McCann Mexico created the Coca-Cola Wave Campaign for the World Cup, which is still called the Mexican Wave in the world of soccer. In Mexico City, he became the President of the Mexican Advertising Agencies Association, known as El Circulo Creativo, and introduced the Effie Awards, an annual event celebrating the best of effective local advertising. The final assignment during his brilliant international career in advertising was to take over McCann Greece as its President in 1994, after a short assignment in Columbia. By the year 2000, McCann Greece had become the largest agency in the country. Greg retired in 2003 and he spends his time now between Porto Heli in Greece and NYC.

Gregory P. Birbil had a productive and celebrated career in advertising, knowing what it takes to make a difference in this industry. He was particularly noted for his ability to recognize talent in all the different areas that make up an advertising agency. He worked with the best people that McCann Erickson had throughout the world. He mentored many of them and they have gone on to successful careers in many countries of the world. Greg is married to Jeannine, a fine artist herself, and is the proud father of a son, Paul, a talented painter, and two beautiful daughters, Justine and Christine.

Check out Gregory Birbil’s blog at:  www.anadmaningreece.blogspot.com