TOKYO, JAPAN — UltraSuperNew, an independent creative agency with offices in Tokyo, Singapore, and Amsterdam, has announced it is offering WPP Chief Executive Cindy Rose a three-month internship at its Tokyo headquarters.
The offer, made in what the agency describes as a spirit of genuine generosity, follows Rose’s recent comments in an interview with Campaign that “we don’t want to be a holding company anymore.”
“We read about Cindy’s new strategy for WPP with great interest and great sympathy,” said Marc Wesseling, co-founder of UltraSuperNew. “Cindy has had a remarkable career in tech, media and telecommunications. She is clearly a brilliant executive. But we noticed that she has never actually worked inside an advertising agency. Not a big one. Not a small one. Not any one. And we think that might be a problem when you’re running one of the biggest collections of advertising agencies in the world.”
“So we’d like to help.”
UltraSuperNew says its internship programme is designed to provide hands-on experience of working inside a creative agency environment. Interns are expected to contribute meaningfully from day one—making coffee, sitting in on client calls, debating ideas, and experiencing both the exhilaration of a strong idea landing in a room and the frustration when a client rejects it. These, the agency says, are experiences that cannot be learned in a quarterly earnings call.
The internship is unpaid.
UltraSuperNew acknowledges that this represents a financial sacrifice for someone earning a FTSE 100 chief executive’s salary but believes the experience will be worth considerably more than any remuneration it could offer.
“Cindy is proposing to reshape an industry she has never worked in,” Wesseling continued. “We have enormous respect for her ambition. We simply think she might find it useful to understand what she is reshaping before the reshaping is complete. A leading independent like UltraSuperNew can help show her what advertising actually looks like when it isn’t being managed, processed, restructured, and optimised into something that resembles a platform business.”
“We can show her what an idea looks like. We can show her what a culture looks like. We can show her what it feels like to win a client because you have a brilliant vision for their business, not a better procurement relationship.”
“We can show her what it feels like to answer to nobody except the work.”
UltraSuperNew adds that it has a long track record of nurturing emerging talent and welcomes applicants from all backgrounds, including those transitioning from the technology sector. The agency asks only that Rose arrives with an open mind, comfortable shoes, and no restructuring plans.
The internship will begin whenever Rose is ready.
Applications, or any questions Rose may have about the programme, should be directed to UltraSuperNew’s Tokyo office. Further information is available at www.ultrasupernew.com.
