Grey beats Saatchi to scoop Sony marketer

David Patton

Top Sony marketer David Patton has been appointed to the Grey London chief executive role, following speculation that he was being wooed not only by the WPP-owned agency but also by Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi.

The European senior vice-president of communications at Sony will fill the gap at Grey left vacant earlier this year when Tamara Ingram took on the leadership of the $1bn global Procter & Gamble account.

The search for the Grey London chief executive was led by Carolyn Carter, the Grey EMEA chief executive and Jim Heekin, the network chief executive.

It is thought that the Bartle Bogle Hegarty president of international operations, Chris Harris, was also in the running for the Grey job. Harris is a former chief executive of BBH, Singapore.

Meanwhile the hunt for a chief executive at Saatchi continues, with a brief to recruit a client for the role. The job came up for grabs earlier this year when chairman and chief executive Lee Daley left to become the global commercial director at Manchester United Football Club.

Patton has lived his entire career in the world of gaming. After graduating with a degree in business and marketing, he joined Nintendo in 1991 as marketing manager and moved quickly up the ranks.

Patton was poached by Sony in 1995 and joined the company as vice-president of marketing for Sony PlayStation at Sony Computer Entertainment.

He has been lauded for the award-winning “Balls” ad for Sony Bravia, created by Fallon, which is thought to have helped his meteoric rise at Sony.

Patton was part of the team at Sony that appointed TBWA to handle the £30m pan-European advertising for PlayStation.

In 2004, Patton was promoted to his latest role, with responsibility for the PlayStation brand across Europe. His remit has since expanded to include all Sony’s products across Europe.