Hasta La Creative!

Regulators rejected four applications filed by ATR, which members of the Tatar minority said reflected a continuing pattern of discrimination.

Troy Kelley, a proponent of all things digital who held top positions at various New York-based agencies, moved West last month to join Deutsch LA as its EVP/group account director.

In the early stages of his new job, Kelley will work on ecommerce projects for clients Volkswagen and Taco Bell, but the agency tells us that his role will soon expand to include other brands on the Deutsch roster.

Kelley started his career on the client side with Merrill Lynch before moving into the dark arts of advertising with an interactive marketing director position at Ogilvy. He then scored the SVP/director of digital marketing gig at Arnold, where he worked on the Hershey, GSK and Clinique accounts. He left Arnold to run the Walmart account at R/GA in 2011 and spent almost three years there before Naked Communications hired him in an attempt to shake things up last year.

The release tells us that Kelley helped transform Naked “from a global leader in strategy to a digital creative shop” in just over a year. That agency hasn’t been on our radar as of late, though it did name Adrien Bindi of Y&R, W+K, GS&P and more as its CCO one year ago. (We assume the relationship between Kelley and Bindi didn’t work out, because the latter does not mention Naked anywhere on his digital resume.)

Here’s Kelley’s quote on joining Deutsch:

“It’s a great homecoming for me, rejoining the IPG family with an agency that has such momentum. In a place like Silicon Beach that’s so rich in digital talent, Deutsch is one of the few agencies whose focus on delivering both digital advertising and eCommerce platforms for clients allows me to bring all of my experience to bear.

As a former agency CEO, I have first-hand experience running a business and I look forward to working with clients on a deeper level, where we’re actually ingrained in their businesses rather than simply creating campaigns.”

Deutsch has been on a hiring spree of sorts in 2015, most recently plucking up three of goodness Mfg.’s co-founding partners. The move to beef up staff in LA follows last year’s Sprint win, and Deutsch debuted its first full campaign for the new client last week.

Cathy Coughlin, the top marketer at AT&T since 2007, has stepped down from daily responsibilities, the company said Wednesday. She will be succeeded by Lori Lee, a senior exec VP who led marketing at the Home Solutions division.

Ms. Coughlin will remain at the company as a consultant to Randall Stephenson, the chairman and CEO, a spokesman said

Ms. Lee is known for finance chops and most recently steered the carrier’s anti-texting-and-driving campaign “It Can Wait” campaign. Home Solutions has become increasingly important for AT&T, housing video entertainment, broadband services and AdWorks, the company’s advertising arm. All those areas are seeing deeper investment from AT&T, as the firm pushes into new markets, like the connected home and broadcast, pending its DirecTV acquisition.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

As a planned major wage protest bears down on McDonald’s this month, the company said Wednesday that it will raise pay at company-owned locations to at least $1 more than the local minimum wage and begin offering vacation benefits.

The move, which takes effect on July 1, will apply to more than 90,000 workers, the company said. It won’t affect the more than 90% of restaurants that are run by franchisees. By the end of 2016, the fast-food chain expects workers at company-owned locations to earn more than $10 an hour on average.

In its pledge to improve pay and benefits, McDonald’s is also joining a growing roster of major U.S. employers. In recent months, Wal-Mart, Target and TJX Cos. have all vowed to boost pay to at least $9 an hour this year. The companies are working to better retain workers and bolster productivity.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Today in Competing Press Releases news, approximately one hour passed between the time we learned that EVP Lance Saunders would be promoted to president of DDB Canada and that his predecessor David Leonard would become CEO of MacLaren McCann.

Here’s Leonard, whose resume includes a stint atop the Canadian offices of Arnold Worldwide:

He will succeed Doug Turney, who earned the standard “leaving to pursue new opportunities within the industry” treatment. Leonard now overseas all of the agency’s North-of-the-border operations and reports to McCann Worldgroup President Luca Lindner.

Leonard started his agency career working in accounts at JWT and DDB (top clients Pepsi and McDonald’s, respectively) before he graduated to running Arnold’s Canadian operations and then went back to DDB as president and COO.

Saunders (above) has a history in planning: he spent more than two decades working in that department for Leo Burnett Canada before running strategy at Campbell Mithun. The release tells us that DDB hired him after “an extensive global search in 2010.”

Saunders reports to Frank Palmer, CEO and Chairman of DDB Canada, who credits his “creative way of looking at business” with “re-energiz[ing] the culture within our Vancouver office” and references DDB’s interest in “promoting from within.”

He’s right that DDB Canada recently recorded some big new business wins and staffing changes; last September the agency swiped Volkswagen from Red Urban, and less than two weeks later it named Cosmo Campbell CCO before hiring Etienne Bastien of TBWA to serve as VP/creative director in its still-new Montreal office.

(TrendHunter.com) When one thinks about boomer marketing, shirtless men, pool parties and seductive poses may not be the first thing that comes to mind. In the case of this Barneys Spring/Summer 2015 ad, the opposite…

Joli poisson d’avril de Sony avec son PlayStation Flow, un concept qui combine jeux de PS4 et nage dans la vie réelle. Lorsque vous arrivez dans une section sous-marine d’un jeu, il vous suffira de faire pause, plonger dans l’eau reprendre la lecture grâce à PlayStation Flow. Le système est muni de quatre capteurs qui s’attachent confortablement sur différentes parties de votre corps et suivent vos mouvements en temps réel.

Today we learned that Executive Editor Matt Quinn, hired by AdAge in 2013 to “build out the coverage of marketing and media,” is no longer with the publication.

Quinn worked as a financial analyst before turning to journalism and helped launch Financial Week in 2006; he reported on “commercial banking, investment banking and corporate cash management” for various publications. He joined AdAge after editing the Wall Street Journal’s CFO Journal in the magazine’s attempt to cement its position as what one of our industry contacts called “the magazine that clients like to read” by fluently speaking the language of CFOs and CMOs.

In January 2014, Quinn took over newsroom operations at AdAge when the pub cut its frequency, increased its per-issue page total, updated its website, began featuring more b-to-b news, and promoted Abbey Klaassen to the newly-created position of associate publisher, editorial & audience.

We have no word on the reason for his departure/future in the trade pub space or the magazine’s plans to replace him; neither Quinn nor AdAge responded to our requests for comment.

There’s going to be some heavyweight marketing around the May 2 welterweight title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. And Butterfinger is jumping early into Pacquiao’s corner.

The Nestlé brand on Wednesday sent out an April Fools’ Day press release saying its Butterfinger Cups brand was betting a million on Pacquiao. Now, AdFreak confirms (as Pacquiao will do in a tweet shortly) that the bet is actually a million Butterfinger Cups. If Pacquiao emerges victorious on May 2, Butterfinger will offer 1 million of its peanut butter cups in a nationwide payout at ButterfingerCups.com.

The announcement kicks off a month-long “Get In Our Corner” campaign.

“We’re such fans of what Manny represents and love that he has such a great sense of humor to join us in our April Fools’ Day fun and launch the ‘Get In Our Corner’ campaign,” says Fabiola del Rio, Butterfinger brand manager. “We want fans to get in our corner with Manny and help us celebrate this different kind of competitor.”