Hasta La Creative!

Emma Cline’s first novel is a seductive and arresting coming-of-age story hinged on Charles Manson.

California agency MeringCarson promoted Kerry Krasts and Scott Conway, formerly associate creative directors, to roles as creative directors.

In their new roles, Krasts and Conway will collaborate on campaigns for the agency’s growing roster. Only Krasts will work out of the agency’s San Diego office, while Conway will be based in Sacramento. MeringCarson’s list of current clients includes Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, Visit California, Pebble Beach Resorts, the Sacramento Kings (NBA), San Diego Tourism Authority and Auto Club Speedway (NASCAR).

Krasts joined MeringCarson eight years ago as a senior writer, following over a year and a half as an integrated copywriter at Greenhaus and four years as a copywriter with Y&R. She was promoted to associate creative director in March of 2012.

Conway joined the agency in November of 2004, following over four and a half years as a copywriter with Jeffrey/Scott advertising. He became a senior copywriter in September of 2009 and was promoted to associate creative director three years later.

As you can see above, an unnamed staffer created a drawing creative duo in the style of a certain Mike Judge cartoon, with shirts reading “NorCal and SoCal” for their respective offices.

This is a pretty good trick to make an otherwise basic press release stand out, by the way.

Huntington Beach agency Innocean has made some key staffing changes in recent weeks following the January arrival of new CCO Eric Springer.

You may remember the epic goodbye email in which copywriter Matt League individually thanked all 343 of the agency’s employees (and one demanded that we remove his/her name). Group creative director Max Godsil also traded coasts for a job at Omnicom’s Merkley+Partners in New York.

Another GCD has been let go, and earlier this month a key planner returned.

Miles Turpin left last week after just over three years as a VP/group creative director. He has spent well over 25 years in the agency world, holding senior creative positions at various shops at which he primarily led automotive accounts including Team One, Saatchi & Saatchi (Toyota), Y&R (Land Rover), San Francisco’s H&L Partners and Energy BBDO.

Eddie Austin also returned to his role as VP/media planning for Kia earlier this month. He left Innocean last summer after more than four years to become SVP and managing partner at WPP’s Garage Team Mazda. He lasted 10 months in that role, and it’s not clear at this time why Austin, who held similar positions at TBWAChiatDay, Grey and The Martin Agency, didn’t stay with Garage Team. We hear that Austin’s return preceded the retirement of Cynthia Jensen, the agency’s SVP of media operations–and that another senior staffer may soon be assuming her role.

In an interview with TheNextGag earlier this month, Springer discussed why he joined Innocean and implied that he plans to both reshape its creative department and expand its client roster beyond Hyundai:

“After meeting with the team, I knew I had found like-minded partners who are ready to take this agency to the next level. We are indeed growing the agency and will be announcing new client partners soon. We’re on the verge of a whole new chapter in the agency’s coffee table book?—?one where creativity reigns supreme.”

The agency currently lists several open positions on LinkedIn, though many are in accounts and production.

VML New York launched a new spot in its ongoing “Built For Kids” Legoland campaign, introducing “Tommy Parker, Kid CEO of Legoland Hotel.”

The spot opens on the character waking up to an alarm and folding open a newspaper before opening the window and declaring “Another awesome day at Legoland Hotel.” Parker attributes his success to “hard work and juice boxes” before realizing he’s “double-booked for snack time.” Later in this spot he sits down for a meeting with his team: all Lego characters, of course.

It’s kind of a fun approach, with the character exemplifying the kind of imagination and enthusiasm of the park. The character’s embodiment of a kid in an adult role should appeal to child audiences for whom he has the ideal job, getting them to dream of family trips to the park in the process. “Introducing Tommy Parker, Kid CEO of Legoland Hotel” is running as a regional, 60-second broadcast ad in Florida (where the park is located), with support from digital and social elements. Later this year, the social campaign will get a further boost when Tommy Parker gets his own LinkedIn account.

“I kind of like to think of him as this child of Ferris Bueller and Wes Anderson [with] an imaginative view on the world and he lives in this amazing park—this would be a dream job for any child anywhere,” VML managing director and executive creative director Mike Wente told Adweek. “There’s something that’s aspirational and beautiful about that but also the way that he thinks and that he borrows some adult language but put through a kid’s lens.”

Jackson added that he has hopes that the Tommy Parker effort will be a long-lived campaign, saying, “I view Tommy Parker as a potential multi-year campaign—my hope is that this not a temporary, one-off campaign.”