Hasta La Creative!

Porsche added Minneapolis-based agency Solve to its agency roster, where it will join Cramer-Krasselt and OMG in representing the brand, which spent over $40 million in media last year. The agency also works on fellow Volkswagen brand Bentley.

Solve will focus on “revamping the brand experience, working to make it more intimate and engaging,” Solve CEO John Colasanti explained to Adweek. The decision follows a review that included nearly 15 agencies, narrowed down to four for the final.

“What really impressed us about [Solve] is their knowledge of enthusiast brands,” Scott Baker, manager of marketing communications for Porsche, told Adweek. “The fact that we’re both part of VW family is what made it OK and, actually, it played to their strengths.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

McCann, New York has a new campaign for Verizon FiOS, touting the brand’s “Speed Match” — matching download and upload speeds.

To do so, McCann set up an experiment slowing down an up escalator. When riders finally reached the top, a spokeswoman asks, “Shouldn’t up be as fast as down?” and then continues to make the point that the same should true of Internet connection speeds. It’s a pretty obvious visualization of the feature, and may help those who have trouble understanding tech issues appreciate FiOS’ “Speed Match” (even if they still don’t quite understand what they’re talking about). (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Here is what we know about CiCi Bellis, the 15-year-old who on Tuesday became the youngest player to win a U.S. Open match in 18 years: She is from northern California, shops at Urban Outfitters, listens to dance music before matches and used to like Justin Bieber when she was younger, which she defines as “a couple years ago.”

And here is what brands need to know: She is an amateur, which makes it doubtful she will strike big endorsement deals anytime soon.

“I think I’m definitely going to stay an amateur right now to keep my options open for college, in case an injury or something happens. But I’d love to be a pro one day,” she told reporters yesterday as she fielded questions on everything from Mr. Bieber, to the origins of her name (CiCi is short for Catherine Cartan) and what talk show she would like to appear on (“Ellen”).

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Intel is holding a review for its creative business, Ad Age has learned.

The move comes after Intel hired Steven Fund as its new chief marketing officer in May. Prior to his appointment at Intel, he was senior VP-marketing at Staples. The review is being handled internally by Intel, and the marketer reached out to a small number of agencies, according to people familiar with the matter. Venables Bell & Partners has been handling the creative, and it’s believed that the shop is participating in the review. Venables declined to comment. Intel did not respond to a request for comment.

Venables was named lead global agency back in 2009. The marketer switched its agency approach for a couple years after that, moving to a jumpball setup. DDB handled some big campaigns during that time, though the shop does not currently work with Intel. Last summer, however, Venables became lead agency again, starting with the launch of Intel’s “Look Inside” campaign.

Continue reading at AdAge.com