Google
has hired Lucas Watson, former digital marketing director at Proctor
and Gamble Co., to be its new VP of sales and marketing for YouTube and
video, reports AdAge.
At
P&G, Watson was instrumental in Old Spice's popular "The Man Your
Man Could Smell Like" campaign. Google's hiring of Watson is the
company's latest attempt to make YouTube more brand friendly, and to
attract big marketers such as P&G, who spend most of their dollars
on TV (roughly 60% of their ad spending was in television last year).
Watson
increased P&G's budget for digital spending each year for the past
three years. P&G is not pleased with the move, as Watson becomes the
second staffer to switch over this year, leading P&G to accuse
Google of "sampling their talent," the article said.
In March, Google hired P&G's global laundry brand manager Aaron Lichtig as sales development manager.
Watson was ready to begin a new job next month as P&G's marketing director in Latin America, based out of Panama.
