Hasta La Creative!

Andrew Kaczynski and his team, which has made headlines unearthing audio and video on the campaign trail, leave BuzzFeed short-handed in the final weeks before the election.

Once they were considered pariahs by the right. Now everyone wants their vote.

Now that Procter & Gamble Co. has divested a big chunk of its beauty business to Coty, the deal appears to leave WPP’s Grey in the middle of a somewhat uncomfortable conflict.

Grey continues to handle P&G’s Pantene hair care, and also handles the CoverGirl, Clairol, Wella retail and some fragrance brands that went to Coty under a spinoff-merger transaction completed today.

While there’s relatively little competitive overlap between the P&G brands Coty has gotten and the Pantene brand P&G is keeping, there is some. P&G’s Pantene and Coty’s Wella and Clairol all sell shampoo and conditioner, the latter technically only through professional and salon channels, though diversion means they sometimes end up on shelves of the same retailers carrying Pantene.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Explaining how programmatic advertising works can be problematic.

The technology has bestowed new powers on buyers and sellers of digital ads, but it has complicated the process to such a degree that even those who understand it best struggle to describe it clearly. It’s need-to-know stuff shrouded in confusion.

The latest essential trend for advertisers and publishers to comprehend is header bidding and header bidding wrappers, technology that’s overturned the status quo. More importantly, the philosophy behind it has already spilled into the open mobile web and video. Eventually, it may also inform ad sales in apps and over-the-top TV.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

While Waze leads us to our destinations via the quickest route, our dependence on this kind of decision-support system may also be the quickest route to a monocultural society.

You’ve said the word “algorithm” a thousand times this year, and you may have even written out your algorithmic goals in English, but have you ever coded an algorithm? Do you really know how any AI model is performing? What tiny mistakes (or purposeful small changes) are being made to subtly guide our decision-making?

Humans Are Incredibly Bad Decision-Makers

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Commonwealth//McCann named Greg Braun as deputy global chief creative officer. In the position, Braun will be responsible for leading the agency’s global Chevrolet account, working out of its Detroit headquarters. 

Braun’s arrival follows the departure of global executive creative director Tim Teergarden in May and Rick Dennis, who served in the same role, the previous August. It also follows the agency picking up more GM work in February.

“Adding Greg to our team will strengthen our worldwide creative capabilities,” Commonwealth//McCann creative chairman Linus Karlsson said in a statement. “His body of work speaks for itself, and as we continue to work on Chevrolet’s dynamic global business, his vision will no doubt help our teams to invent and create great ideas for Chevy around the world.”

Braun joins the agency from Innocean in California, where he worked on the national Hyundai brand as executive creative director for the past four years. Before joining Innocean he spent two years as president, executive creative director at Team Detroit, working with clients including Sports Authority, Shell, NASCAR, Carhartt and The Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Earlier in his career, he spent two years as EVP/ECD at Y&R Detroit (where he worked on Lincoln and helped launch the MKS and MKT models), a year as SVP/GCD at what was then BBDO Chicago and six years in Los Angeles with Saatchi & Saatchi, where he worked on Toyota.

He left Innocean just over one year ago following the departure of the unit’s CEO; Deutsch veteran Eric Springer became the agency’s first U.S. chief creative officer in January.

“It is vital that we have the absolute top talent in place as we continue our important work of helping Chevrolet share its global brand story,” said Bill Kolb, global president, diversified agencies, McCann Worldgroup. “I’m confident Greg’s unique creative vision will not only help us to further elevate our creative product, but his clear passion for the craft will ensure we are aggressively pursuing diversified creative solutions that will achieve our client’s brand goals.”

Bob Evans Farms’ grocery products division, BEF Foods, appointed McCann Detroit as its creative and shopper marketing agency, following a review, effective immediately.

The news follow the arrival of Chicago ad veteran Bill Cimino as CCO in August.

“McCann Detroit has a genuine enthusiasm for our brand, and it’s clear that they understand and love our products,” BEF Foods president Mike Townsley said in a statement. “The Bob Evans name is already synonymous with wholesome, homestyle foods. Now, working together with McCann Detroit, we’re eager to bring our delicious offerings to even more dinner tables across the country.”

“We’re thrilled to team up with BEF Foods and spread the word about their incredible products filled with Farm-Fresh Goodness,” added McCann Detroit executive vice president, general manager Mel Smart. “The combination of our agency’s creative capabilities and their delectable foods is a perfect match. We look forward to bringing a new energy and a fresh intensity to the BEF Foods brand nationwide while strengthening their position as the category leader in refrigerated side dishes.”

BEF Foods also named IPG Mediabrands’ UM as its media buying agency of record. UM will be tasked with search and paid social, as well as traditional and digital media, and will work with McCann Detroit on brand strategy. Bob Evans Farms appointed customer engagement agency Meredith Xcelerated Marketing as its digital and social agency of record back in March of 2015.

Ogilvy New York chief creative officer Corinna Falusi announced last week that she would be leaving the organization after more than 4 1/2 years to lead creative at Mother New York.

She will become chief creative officer at the latter agency as of December 1.

In a statement, Mother founding partner and creative chairman Paul Malmstrom said:

“We feel Corinna belongs here at Mother. She has a magical mix of talent, ambition, and soulfulness With her, we’ll continue to bring even greater expressions of creativity to our clients.”

CEO Peter Ravailhe added:

“With her relentless pursuit of excellence, in craft and creativity, Corinna will add incredible value to the brands we love to work with, and to Mother as a whole.”

An Ogilvy representative declined to comment on Falusi’s departure, but a source close to the agency told us it has begun seeking her successor and that it will search both internally and externally for its next creative leader. Prior to today’s announcement, Mother New York hired three new creatives to work across its client roster with a focus on the Target and Stella Artois accounts.

Falusi started her agency career at her native Germany’s Jung Von Matt before moving to StrawberryFrog, where she spent nearly a decade in Amsterdam and New York and worked on accounts ranging from P&G to Frito Lay. She joined Ogilvy in 2012, and last January the WPP shop promoted her to replace former CCO Calle Sjoenell, who left two summers ago to run Lowe Brindfors in Sweden. While serving as chief creative officer over the past year-plus, Falusi continued to run the Coca-Cola and IKEA accounts while also “driv[ing] the creative vision of the New York agency.”

The release does not elaborate on specific reasons for her departure, but we did acquire the internal email announcement that went out to all New York Ogilvy staff on Friday via North American CCO Steve Simpson and New York CEO Lou Aversano. It reads:

CORINNA FALUSI

Four years ago, Corinna Falusi joined Ogilvy. From her very first day, Corinna began to pour all of her passion and energy into the work and into her relationships with all of us. And she continued to do this every day, without fail.

Today, one thousand six hundred and fourteen days later, we regret to announce that Corinna has decided to leave us to take on new and different challenges.

We can feel sad about this—nobody who worked with her can help it—but the most important thing to do is thank her: for her work, her mentorship and her partnership, which she gave to us fully for over four years, every single day.

We will miss Corinna’s special spirit and point of view, but we are lucky to have incredible and passionate creative leaders. Kristy, Alfonso, and Teddy will be gathering the creative department together to discuss our path forward.

Steve Simpson

Lou Aversano

Independent global agency network Project (formerly Project Worldwide) acquired New York-based agency, Wondersauce, which also has offices in Detroit, bringing the network’s total number of agencies to 14. Other agencies in the network include Argonaut, Partners + Napier and Pitch.

“We launched the company with the vision that we could create an awesome services company that was all about great customer service for our clients and making partnerships feel special,” John Sampogna, founder and managing director for Wondersauce, told Adweek.

Wondersauce currently has nearly 100 employees and works with clients including Google, A-B InBev, Nike, HBO and The Gap. Going forward, it looks to expand as part of Project, while bringing its digital and ecommerce capabilities to the network.

“We can’t wait to introduce these guys to many of our existing clients because our clients have been hungry for the things they’ve been doing for so long,” Project senior vice president, marketing and communications Brian Martin said. “They have a great client roster that some of our agencies can add value to as well.”