McCann NY Recruits Lynn Teo

 

 

McCann NY has added Lynn Teo, formerly the Head of User Experience at digital shop AKQA, to its leadership team to serve in the new post of Chief Experience Officer (CXO).

 

Teo will build and lead the agency’s first Experience Design department, whose core focus is to shape products, services, systems, and communications that create positive, rewarding, and integrated customer experiences. She will oversee McCann’s client portfolio to ensure that an understanding of human needs and interactions sits at the core of all brand innovations. Her thought leadership and expertise in multi-platform interactive design will complement McCann’s leadership in integrated marketing communications and generate new perspectives in how brands engage with consumers.

 

Teo will be responsible for developing and communicating McCann’s point of view on the current and future state of experience design. She will report to Hank Summy, President of McCann Erickson North America.

 

“We’re thrilled to add Lynn to our leadership team,” said Summy. “Her job is one of the most important, dynamic, and fast-changing roles in our industry. Lynn will work across a wide array of disciplines and teams, providing hands-on digital insights and managing change across the highest levels of the organization. The consumer’s journey has become increasingly complex and multi-faceted. Lynn will ensure that each of our brands is meeting their customers’ expectations and needs, and delivering integrated value-add at all touch points.”

 

Teo brings a deep and diverse understanding of experience design to McCann NY. She has 15 years of product design and interactive agency experience, including multiple years leading cross-disciplinary global teams. In the past year, Teo advised startup companies in New York City on product development and digital marketing strategies. She was also an external graduate thesis advisor for an MFA design program in Detroit. Most recently, she became a founding member of the first US-incorporated chapter of the Service Design Network (SDN), based in NYC. Service Design is a rapidly growing sister discipline of Experience Design that represents the next frontier of brand innovation.

 

Previously, Teo served as Creative Director and Head of User Experience at AKQA, New York. She held  dual roles at SapientNitro, directing teams in New York and London. Earlier in her career, she held user experience design posts on the client side and the consulting side, including five years as senior usability specialist and user interface designer at Bell Communications Research.

 

“I’m incredibly honored to be part of this exciting transformation at one of the world’s most celebrated advertising agencies,” Teo said. “McCann’s history, global reach, and impressive client roster are truly unparalleled. Experience design will bring a consumer-first perspective realized through ethnography and journey-based product/service innovations. My team will be tapped into the consumers’ motivations, context, influences, and emotions at all points of their brand interactions. Their insights will drive experience design on all platforms – in-store, retail, B2B, web, smartphone, tablet, touch, and voice- or motion-activated experiences. Human empathy, innovation, design, and a desire to bring lasting positive impact to consumers’ lives are the foundation of my passion for experience design. McCann is pushing on every front to redefine modern marketing.”