Hasta La Creative!

Today MDC Partners’ KBS confirmed that its New York office went through a round of layoffs earlier this week.

While not providing specifics on the number of employees impacted, a KBS representative cited the need to “restructure our offering and resources based on the needs of our clients,” adding, “With 21 new business wins since January 1, we’re growing and hiring too, but we’re also taking steps to ensure that the kinds of talent we have are the kinds of talent our clients’ businesses require. It’s difficult, but it’s important for the health of the agency.”

The spokesperson told us that the changes weren’t related to any specific piece of business, but rather reflected a general restructuring across several accounts and departments. Sources claim that the total number of staffers affected was in the low two digits.

As noted in the above statement, the latest news follows a string of wins for the agency, which scored AOR duties for Red Robin at the start of July following a review launched in April. Back in June, Stanley Black & Decker consolidated its digital account with the agency, which also welcomed new global CCO Patrick Scissons that month.

Beyond the new CCO, KBS also promoted Katie Klumper to president of its New York offices, Jonah Bloom to global chief strategy officer and Matt Powell to global chief technology officer. Last week, KBS hired Michele Prota (formerly with Barbarian Group) as its global chief talent officer.

(TrendHunter.com) One of the lingering images in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 was the sight of the enormous mass of rubble left behind following the collapse of the Twin Towers; this memory has now lent…

(TrendHunter.com) Nike is bringing a three-day immersive experience to East London that will provide fitness junkies with their dream environment.

The workout club will function as a “high-intensity training…

(TrendHunter.com) Most people design their family dwellings to accommodate themselves and their children, but a large family home in Singapore is taking a different approach, and is being designed to have enough room…

McDonald’s is recalling millions of activity wristbands that were given out in Happy Meals after getting reports from customers of skin irritations and burns from wearing the colorful bands.

The Step-It Activity Bands were given out in Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals, or Happy Meals for kids with heartier appetites, earlier this month. The world’s largest restaurant company stopped handing them out on Aug. 17, after reports of skin irritation surfaced. Now it is recalling any that were already handed out to customers.

“Nothing is more important to us than the safety and well-being of our customers which is why upon learning about concerns with these bands we acted swiftly to stop distribution of these products,” McDonald’s spokeswoman Terri Hickey said in a statement. “We are now asking customers who have the activity bands to stop wearing them and return to any McDonald’s for a free replacement toy and a choice of a yogurt or apple slices. We apologize to our customers who were impacted and for the inconvenience this recall has caused.”

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Chobani has named Horizon as its media agency of record, effective immediately, after working with OMD since 2011.

The Greek yogurt maker has also named Danielle Cherry as senior director-media investment and connections planning, a new position at the company.

Horizon will provide strategic planning and investment across all channels for Chobani’s full portfolio.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Today the Detroit offices of McCann Worldgroup announced the hiring of Bill Cimino as chief creative officer.

Moving forward, Cimino will head up the McCann Motor City team along with Jeff Cruz, who became creative lead at MRM//McCann early this year after serving as ECD and associate partner at VSA. While there, he helped open the Detroit office and led creative on Harley Davidson. The release positions the hires as a rejuvenation of McCann’s operations in Detroit.

McCann global creative chairman Rob Reilly said, “Bill has done really great work on big brands his entire career,” adding, “More importantly, he is an outstanding person. I couldn’t think of a better individual to lead and mentor the creative teams in a part of the country that is becoming more and more vital to our overall plan.”

Former Commonwealth CEO/chairman Bill Kolb, who was promoted to president of diversified agencies at McCann Worldgroup in January, said, “Adding Bill to our Detroit team puts another key creative leader in place as we continue to elevate the level of our creative product across all of McCann Worldgroup Detroit. This is the next important step in moving our business forward and working to attain our ambitious growth and creative objectives.”

Cimino brings a long history of leading midwestern creative departments to the new job. He has spent more than a quarter century in the agency world including nearly two decades at DDB Chicago, where he spent two stints leading the Anheuser Busch and McDonald’s accounts, respectively. The release notes that DDB won 13 Cannes Lions over 5 years under his leadership and that the Chicago Advertising Federation named Y&R its 2014 Creative Agency of the Year while he was chief creative officer there.

Cimino worked at Y&R Chicago from 2012 to 2015, departing in January of that year as the shop promoted ECDs Pam Mufson and Jeremy Smallwood to take his place.

Since then he has been freelancing after spending some time as a creative consultant with Pizza Hut; recent projects including working with OKRP on its Groupon account. When flying to Chicago over the weekend, Cimino called McCann “the new chapter” in an already extensive career.

(TrendHunter.com) The Ocean Eye House is a truly innovatively designed ocean villa, designed by Costa Rica-based architect Benjamin Garcia Saxe and situated on the Nicoya peninsula, that is designed to make it easier…

(TrendHunter.com) The Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 elegantly combines luxury and electric power.

The Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 is an electric concept coupe. The concept car is sleek in its design, with an incredibly…