Jerry Hoak of Droga5 Joins The Martin Agency as SVP/Group Creative Director

The Martin Agency hired Jerry Hoak as senior vice president and group creative director, working across multiple accounts and on new business. He started the new job last week.

This news marks a homecoming of sorts for the 2005 VCU Brandcenter graduate, who comes to the IPG agency from Droga5. He originally joined Droga5 as an art director back in July of 2011 and went on to collaborate with copywriter Ray Del Savio on Prudential and other accounts. The two discussed the client’s “Day One” campaign in a 2014 Creative Interviews Q&A, with Hoak calling the work “unscripted,  completely genuine, and as far from an ad as anything I’ve ever worked on.”

“From IBM to Prudential to Android, Jerry’s portfolio really demonstrates how brands need to behave today,” The Martin Agency CCO Joe Alexander said in a statement. “The Prudential ‘Day One’ campaign is personally one of my favorites. Maybe because I’m really getting a lot of gray hair  — well — what’s left of my hair.”

Hoak, who was promoted to associate creative director, CD and GCD during his five-year stint at Droga5, has also spent time as an art director at Ogilvy & Mather New York and TAXI New York.

Why Purpose Branding Needs to Start From the Inside


When most companies rebrand, it’s essentially like adding a new coat of paint to a house. The structure looks better momentarily with a shiny new identity but nothing’s really changed. Avoiding a superficial makeover, especially when touting a purpose, requires rebuilding an organization and the corresponding customer experience from the inside out. This is exactly what is happening at BBVA Compass, a bank whose stated purpose is “to bring the age of opportunity to everyone.”

Leading that charge is Chief Marketing and Digital Sales Officer Jennifer Dominiquini. Jennifer and the other employees at the bank don’t just talk about “Banking on a Brighter Future,” they are living brightly, performing both random and deliberate “acts of brightness” on a regular basis. Jennifer, for example, just completed a 500-mile bike trip for a charity that was also a BBVA customer. It’s that kind of commitment that makes a purpose statement have genuine purpose. In the following Q&A, she talks about how purpose branding needs to start from the inside.

What is BBVA Compass’s purpose?

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Grey New York Goes Through Cross-Department Staff Reduction Following AT&T Review

The New York offices of Grey have parted ways with some employees following AT&T’s decision to consolidate its creative and media accounts with Omnicom’s BBDO and Hearts & Science earlier this month. Grey had been AOR on DirecTV, which is now part of the larger telecomms organization — and according to Kantar Media, the client spent at least $2 billion in measured media last year.

An agency spokesperson writes, “Grey New York has had a staff reduction of a little over 1% primarily due to the AT&T/DirecTV move.  We’ve also had to rebalance our staff due to changes in our clients’ marketing priorities/spending on some accounts across departments.  These are very difficult decisions and we wanted to give people notice, provide severance and begin the process of seeing if there are job opportunities available at other WPP companies.”

The Grey rep declined to elaborate further or name individuals who have left, but our sources claim that much of the DirecTV creative and production teams, along with several account executives, are no longer with the WPP shop. The 1 percent number would put the total affected in the low double digits.

While DirecTV was a significant loss, Grey has also recorded several new business wins and account expansions in recent months including GSK, Marriott, Weber, Kellogg’s, Best Buy and P&G’s shaving brands. Grey London is currently hiring as well after winning retail giant Marks & Spencer. We know because one of our contacts is applying to work there, but don’t ask about starting salaries for junior copywriters.

The U.S. Census Bureau Picks Y&R as Its New Lead Creative Agency

After a review that started almost one year ago, the U.S. Census Bureau has chosen Y&R as lead creative agency to promote the upcoming 2020 population count.

We have yet to receive an official statement or confirmation from the organization itself after waiting on the phone for nearly an hour (they have real customers to attend to), but a source close to the matter told us that the calls went out to competing agencies this morning and that Y&R won the pitch.

This is not Y&R’s first government client; last month, it finally opened an office in Memphis to service the U.S. Navy account after almost a year of court challenges from incumbent Campbell Ewald.

Y&R has not responded to an email regarding the win, and FCB declined to comment on the news. The U.S. Census picked FCB to promote its last such project in 2010; at the time, the account was worth an estimated $300 million according to Kantar Media, which also has yet to get back to us for this post.

We hear that Y&R, FCB and McCann pitched the business. The Census will be working with other agencies beyond Y&R for other portions of the account, but we don’t know who they might be because, again, no one has responded to our queries all day.

At any rate, the 2020 project will be large. Last time, promotional materials were created in 14 different languages, and the RFP noted that the Census “fully intends to harness … emerging technologies and channels as an integral part of its communication program for the 2020 Census.”

How Copywriter David Burd Became Rap Star (and Hilarious Trojan Man) Lil Dicky

Lil Dicky, the chart-topping MC, is back with more comedy gold for Trojan condoms.

David Burd, whose 2015 debut studio album Professional Rapper hit No. 1 on both Billboard’s rap and comedy charts, anchored a clever, nervous, long-form PSA earlier this year, sponsored by the condom brand, about the dangers of unprotected bathroom sex.

Now, he’s starring in two much slicker but plenty ridiculous new TV commercials, created with agency Colangelo, slated to first air this Sunday during the MTV Video Music Awards. (Trojan has a broader partnership with the youth-focused network, funding its how-to guide on sex and relationships.)

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Even Sexy People Get Skid Marks in This Grossly Funny Attack on Fashion's Dirty Secrets

Today in things you shouldn’t watch on a full stomach: In an ad for organic clothing brand PACT, agency Denizen reprises the aesthetics of old Calvin Klein ads, producing something that is sometimes funny, mostly damning and completely uncomfortable. 

“Skidmarks” features people lounging around nearly nude, making passionate love to the camera and touching each other the way beautiful people in fashion industry ads do—possessively, reverentially, like they’re caressing an art form and need you to watch. 

There’s just one problem: The unsightly fruits of what we can only imagine were a stunning amount of sharts (did they have chili before the shoot?), staining the backs of their otherwise pristine white skivvies. 

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This Meta PSA About LGBTQ Suicide Ends Much More Happily Than You Expect

LGBTQ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers, but a creative outlet can help stem the tide while time does its work. This is the insight, brought to life, in a PSA bluntly labeled “Suicide,” from nonprofit Mythic Bridge. 

Directed by Xander of Backyard Productions, it opens with a young man stumbling onto a rooftop, clutching his phone and walking toward the edge as accusing hisses and whispers swirl around him. He approaches the ledge and looks down, and for a minute we can see his phone messages: They’re all from him to his family—an apology for existing that doubles, in this case, as a suicide note.

He climbs the ledge, and the city spreads out below him, dark silhouettes against a gray sky.

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Inside the Agency: Grey London's Ideas Factory

Category: Beyond Madison Avenue
Summary: Leo Rayman’s copy of “Creativity Inc,” the book by Pixar president Ed Catmull, is covered in marginalia.

Like a student jotting down notes around the edges of his text, the newly appointed CEO of Grey London wants to master the formula of good ideas. According to him, they are as much about the process as the end product.

“It’s really important to spend as much time talking about…”

Todo Brillo: A fistful of dishes

Todo Brillo: The outlaw pan

Todo Brillo: For a few forks more

Australian Defence Force: What will you bring

Faber-Castell: To be or not to be

Faber-Castell: Let it be

Faber-Castell: May the force

Entel: Connecting with what you like the most

Whistler Mountain Bike Park: Truly awake

Whistler Mountain Bike Park: Brunch

Chevrolet: Teen driving

Honda: Map mad dash #2