Rapp appoints Jeannine Falcone as global CEO

Omnicom agency Rapp has appointed Jeannine Falcone as global CEO, it shared exclusively with Campaign US. Her first day was Monday, September 30.

Falcone is tasked with overseeing all aspects of Rapp’s business and operations, reporting to Omnicom Precision Marketing Group’s CEO Luke Taylor. She replaces Marco Scognamiglio, who will retire after working with Rapp for 25 years and serving as global CEO for eight years.

"[Falcone’s] track record of building world-class teams and driving business transformation makes her the perfect fit to lead Rapp into its next phase of growth,” said Taylor. “Her background in precision marketing and deep experience in the automotive, healthcare and financial services industries aligns beautifully with the work Rapp is doing for its clients.”

Falcone joins Rapp from Accenture Song, where she worked since 2015. Most recently she served as marketing services and global integration lead, tasked with growing the agency’s capabilities and strategically evolving its go-to-market offering.

Prior to Accenture Song, she spent 21 years at consumer experience agency Harte Hanks, first as SVP of client services before her promotion to EVP of customer strategy and engagement.

Falcone sees her return to run an agency specializing in direct marketing as a “full circle” moment.

“At the beginning of my career at Harte Hanks — starting in direct marketing, database marketing, digital marketing — you didn't know it at the time, but that was the place to be because that was what everything was evolving into,” she said.

While at Harte Hanks, Falcone worked with Rapp through shared assignments with Mercedes-Benz. “I’ve known of Rapp probably my whole career, and have always admired [the agency] from afar,” she added.

As the industry grapples with fast-evolving technologies including AI, Falcone noted that marketers have always faced changes as tech advancements haven’t slowed, “from the days of print and email to where we are now.”

“Clients still struggle with the same things, just in a magnified way,” she said. “You still have to drive demand, you still have to manage customer relationships — and you have to do that with data and intelligence.”

She sees businesses struggling under the weight of too much data, which “requires different operating models and ways of working” to unpack.

“Rapp has all the right pieces to do everything our clients are asking us to do — or has access to those pieces, being part of this [Omnicom] network,” she added. “To be able to lead that, with all I’ve done and learned, will be great.”