Hasta La Creative!

When you think of Kansas City, you don't think death-defying, super-fast waterslides. Actually, I'm not sure what you think when you think of Kansas City. But pretty soon you'll think Verrückt, a gigantic waterslide opening soon at the Schlitterbahn water park.

The Herculean teaser below for the larger-than-life, 17-story coming attraction has the works—the dirt battle field in which the slide was constructed, arial camera shots, dramatic title cards. But what really drives this virtual tour is the sensational score. It almost makes you feel like you're nervously peering over the edge and your best friend sneaks up behind you and gives you a good scare.

Verrückt—translated from the German, meaning "insane"—opens Memorial Day weekend and is billed as the world's tallest waterslide. It's taller than the Niagara Falls! And indeed, its 17 stories make a mockery of the previous record holder, the Brazilian waterslide Insano—see a naming pattern here?—and its measly 14 stories. (Insano definitely has the better email marketing, however.)

Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeff Henry says Verrückt riders will reach speeds faster than 65 mph. So, you and three friends—it's a four-person ride—can finally embark on the journey of a lifetime. Which will probably last 30 seconds. But hey, if you count the waiting in line and the terrifying climb up all those stairs. You might actually consider it a journey.

Also check out a parody movie poster for the ride, posted below.

Last summer, we brought you news of Lowe Campbell Ewald‘s impending move to Detroit.

Now, Lowe Campbell Ewald has officially opened its new downtown Detroit headquarters, after 36 years in Warren, Michigan. The relocation is something of a homecoming for the agency, which spent 67 years in the city following its formation in 1911. The new office is located in the original J.J. Hudson Co. warehouse at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions. Lowe Campbell Ewald’s new 122,000 square foot space retains the classic “industrial look of the 1920s-era warehouse, leaving duct work and concrete columns exposed.” The space features 100 meeting pods and collaboration spaces, as well as “a three-story LED video wall (the first of its kind in Detroit) and sustainable solutions throughout.”

Over 500 employees will be relocating to the new headquarters, which marks the latest in a series of shakeups for the agency. The past six months have seen the announcement of new leadership, an alignment with Lowe and Partners, and the addition of a New York office, along with considerable new business with clients such as Atkins, LifeLock, Western Governors University, the Detroit Lions and University of Michigan.

“This is a transformative moment for Lowe Campbell Ewald,” said recently-appointed Lowe Campbell Ewald CEO Jim Palmer (not to be confused with Orioles Hall of Fame pitcher/The Money Store spokesperson Jim Palmer). “Detroit is attracting creative and entrepreneurial talent from all corners of the globe, and we want to be part of that movement…Lowe Campbell Ewald was founded in Detroit nearly 103 years ago – it’s great to be back home and contribute to the city’s revitalization.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Newsweek has delayed the rollout of its new print edition until early March, with a cover date of March 7, according to Jim Impoco, Newsweek’s editor since September. The brand, which went all-digital at the end of 2012, had said last month that it planned to roll out a print revival in January or February.

“It was a pretty aggressive deadline,” Mr. Impoco told Ad Age on Tuesday. “Editorial is ready, but we’re waiting on production.”

The company is also still looking to secure advertising for the print return and to hire a global publisher. The search for a publisher has been narrowed to one person, Mr. Impoco said, declining to name the candidate. Currently, Scott Miller, senior VP-global sales and marketing at Newsweek owner IBT Media, is captaining ad sales for the brand.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

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In case you haven’t heard, IPG-owned Lowe & Partners has acquired global digital agency Profero, which will now be known as Lowe Profero and led by global CEO, Wayne Arnold. One of the advisors on the deal is Results International, whose senior partner Andy Collins offers this comment below. Terms of the deal were no disclosed, but Arnold offers this statement: “This is an important and exciting next step for both of our teams.  We have invested a lot of time and thought into bringing this new network to fruition. We know each other well, we work together seamlessly and we both believe in and understand the benefits of a complementary and integrated advertising and digital offering.   Digital sits at the core of all future advertising. That’s what Lowe Profero will deliver globally for our clients, giving us a highly relevant and distinctive position in the agency network market.”

“As one of the few remaining major independent international digital agencies, Profero is an obvious target for any buyer looking to build its global digital capabilities.

It has extensive multi-region capabilities, including key markets such as the US and Asia. It was one of the first western digital players to enter the Chinese market and the agency’s senior management has demonstrated huge commitment to growing its business in Asia. It is highly respected for its growth – particularly impressive when you consider most of it is organic – and for the quality of its management team and the ‘Profero way’ of thinking.

If you look at some of the recent big deals in the sector, they’ve been driven by client synergy as well as capability. BlueFocus cited this when it acquired We Are Social at the end of 2013 and this Profero-Lowe deal is no exception, with both parties sharing the Unilever account.

But what really makes the deal attractive for Lowe is Profero’s joined-up approach and global scale. With so many M&A deals in marcoms these days being about a larger buyer acquiring a niche business, it’s still vital for the networks to be able to seize whole new markets and technologies with a single, large-scale acquisition.

So, what does this mean for the mainly smaller digital agencies with much less scale that remain? Without global capabilities we will see them working to forge partnerships and alliances, both formal and informal of a kind that will allow them to compete for the big international briefs that would otherwise remain out of their reach.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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This is rather amusing. The .GIFYS, the first annual awards show celebrating the animated file format has opened online voting today as they work towards determining the all-time best GIFs. The nominees are the selections of a panel made up of people from Buzzfeed, Gawker, Tumblr, Mashable, Joystiq, The Daily Dot, Engadget and others who have pulled from their own archives, reached out to their hundreds of thousands of twitter followers and scoured the Internet to curate the best of the best animated GIFs.

The mission of The .GIFYS, which was created by a team of creatives and developers at CP+B LA, is to immortalize the best GIFs, a medium that otherwise is generally viewed only once before it’s lost in the abyss that is the internet. At www.thegifys.com, everyone can vote on their favorite in each category, ranging from Cats to Art + Design, to WTF?!

Of the show, .GIFY Co-Founder William Sawyer said, “The GIF is now 26 years old, and there are millions of them online. It’s time they received their due respect with a proper awards show. We recruited some of the top names in internet culture to curate the best, and we’re looking to the whole internet to decide the winners.”

The .GIFYS panelists include:

– Chelsea Marshall – Editor, Buzzfeed Animals
– Fernando Alfonso – Writer, Lead Illustrator And Comics Editor, The Daily Dot
– Paul Budnitz – Kidrobot Founder, Artist, Filmmaker & Serial Entrepreneur
– Christine Erickson – List Editor, Mashable
– Ann Friedman – Columnist For New York Magazine And Gif Enthusiast
– Cord Jefferson – West Coast Editor, Gawker
– Amber Gordon – Creative Strategist, Tumblr
– Dianna Mcdougall – Live Giffer, Shorty Awards Finalist, Community Manager, Dots
– Lil Bubs + Mike Bridavsky – Internet Cat And Her Human
– Rachel Binx + Sha Hwang – Founders, Gifpop
– Ivan Perez-Armendariz – Chief Digital Officer, CP+B
– Dan Milano – Gif Maker, Partnership Manager, Dailymotion USA
– Jess Conditt – Senior Editor, Joystiq
– Ryan Block – Head of Product, Engadget / Co-Founder, gdgt
– Brian Morrissey – Editor-in-Chief, Digiday

And we are told because of the complicated nature of who “owns” a particular GIF, the award show will not be awarding the content creator, but rather the GIF itself. Voting lasts a week, with winners announced online later in the month. For updates on The .GIFYS, follow their twitter @thegifys or visit thegifys.com.