Hasta La Creative!

R/GA New York has hired Megan Skelly as its newest creative leader.

Skelly, who started her new job this month, holds the group executive creative director title. She will co-lead one of the office’s largest integrated groups that serves several accounts including, most prominently, Verizon.

The new GECD spent five years with 360i before accepting the R/GA role. A spokesperson for the former agency wrote, “We’ve loved having Megan as part of the 360i family over the past five years, and wish her many more years of success in her next endeavor.”

Skelly served as a GCD at 360i overseeing creative for clients that included Target, Coke, Stella Artois and the city of New Orleans, among others. (She worked on this year’s “New Orleans Is Always Open” campaign for the Big Easy.)

Previous roles include seven years with KBS, where she was VP/CD, and four with McCann where she added a “senior” to that title. She then moved to mcgarrybowen, where she co-led several campaigns for Chase well before that account went to Droga5.

Business Insider picked Skelly, who also served on last year’s Cannes Cyber Jury, as one of its 30 most creative women in advertising for 2016 on the strength of 360i’s #WeighThis rebranding effort for Lean Cuisine. According to a later case study, the work led to a 33% increase in positive brand perception.

Verizon has a longstanding relationship with R/GA, but the agency’s remit has grown over the past couple of years. A 2015 review ended with the telecom giant splitting its digital responsibilities between R/GA and AKQA as the former shop won a share of work previously handled by Moxie, Sapient and others.

Exactly one year ago, the client consolidated more of its digital business with the IPG shop, which currently serves as social and digital agency of record for the main Verizon brand. The partnership is somewhat fluid; a recent digital-first campaign starring Jamie Foxx was so popular with one company executive that it ran on broadcast TV.

In recent months, R/GA has won several pieces of new business including NFL Media, PwC and global social media for Samsung.

Transparent Media Partners has named Brandon Starkoff, a 16-year Publicis veteran, as its CEO and managing partner, effective April 3.

Andrew Swinand founded the independent marketing technology consulting shop last February to help clients “navigate the digital landscape” and “take back control of their data and have full knowledge of the costs,” he previously told Ad Age. Mr. Swinand joined Leo Burnett to serve as North American CEO in January, leaving Transparent Media under Stephanie Ridley, partner in charge of client service at Transparent, and Bryan Simkins, partner in charge of technology.

Ms. Ridley and Mr. Simkins will report to Mr. Starkoff when he assumes his role as chief executive of the agency. Most recently, Mr. Starkoff was serving as the VP and head of industry at xAd.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

A new Swedish campaign raises awareness about the ongoing conflict in Syria by creating “The Syrian Number,” a spinoff of last year’s “The Swedish Number,” a tourism campaign that invited people abroad to call and chat with a random Swede. The new campaign, by Unicef and MDC Partners agency Forsman and Bodenfors, urges citizens of…

Na série “Mad Men“, há um episódio em que o personagem Don Draper mostra uma idéia de anúncio para ninguém menos que a Heinz. Embora a série seja num universo fictício, usava marcas de verdade para se ancorar na realidade. Ao que parece a ideia de Draper foi tão boa que a Heinz vai finalmente […]

> LEIA MAIS: Proposta de Don Draper em “Mad Men” vira propaganda da Heinz no mundo real

72andSunny has won lead global creative agency status on eBay after a competitive review.

The move comes as part of a larger review process that saw the ecommerce giant pick VCCP as its lead agency for Europe earlier this month.

From VP of global brand Karl Isaac:

“Our partnership with 72andSunny is about more than creating a campaign. Together, we’ll bring our core brand belief of helping everyone get their version of perfect, to life in a fresh, modern way that authentically connects with people and culture. We’re thrilled about the great work we’ll create together to evolve the eBay brand.”

It’s the first such review in the U.S. since 2014, when the client picked Goodby Silverstein & Partners and MediaCom to handle creative and media buying/planning. Goodby, which had worked with the company from 2001-2005 and later in 2009, subsequently created eBay’s first-ever global campaign under the tagline “Shop the World.”

GS&P, however, was not officially agency of record. And in subsequent years eBay, which had previously worked with Venables Bell & Partners and other creative shops on its campaigns, switched off and went with Pereira & O’Dell for last year’s holiday campaign.

The client’s quote above indicates that this will be a different sort of relationship, though a spokesperson later wrote, “eBay is always exploring ways to introduce new talent and creative approach into our marketing mix. This includes evaluating and working with different agency partners around the world, including P&O and VCCP, to support our many business priorities.”

72andSunny founder, co-chairman John Boiler said:

“We love to partner with ambitious brands who want to make exciting work that impacts culture. From our first meeting, we knew the team at eBay were people we wanted to work with, and eBay is a brand with values and a vision that’s so in line with ours and will connect with culture today.”

We do not currently know which agencies were involved in the review, when 72’s first work will debut or how it will differ from past campaigns.

According to Kantar Media, the client spent around $89 million on measured media in the U.S. in 2015 and just over $100 million last year. Global numbers are not available at this time, but those totals are significantly higher than the ones given during the last review.

As the latest South by Southwest Confrence winds down, attendees will encounter colleagues and friends asking how the interactive events and exhibitions were. Attendees may say it was great or mediocre, invigorating or exhausting. But if it was worth the time spent there, one way to respond is saying, “It was Topo Chico.”

Literally, “Topo Chico” refers to the brand of Mexican sparkling mineral water which seemed particularly prominent this year in Austin. It was named for the spring by the volcano shaped like a “little mole” (“topo chico”) that cured an Aztec princess in the 15th century. The beverage is a fixture in artisanal cocktails and a mainstay of hangover cures.

Metaphorically, it represents the spirit of SXSW. It’s the potentially lethal volcano, but it’s also the rejuvenating stream. It’s what kills you, and then it’s what makes you stronger.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

The minister of justice said he would introduce a law requiring penalties for tech companies that did not respond quickly enough to delete illegal posts.

Apple launched its “Practically Magic” campaign promoting the iPhone 7 back in September and followed it up with a “Romeo and Juliet” spot showcasing the new iPhone’ video recording capabilities via a very proud father in December.

The latest “Practically Magic” effort stages an epic “Sticker Fight” showcasing the iPhone7’s emoji stickers. It opens with a bit of rejection as a young man pins a heart sticker on his crush, only to receive a thumbs down in return. Ouch.

From there the pace picks up as youngsters race around town pinning stickers everywhere and the sticker battle mimics a classic food fight.

There’s more than a little bit of pop culture excitement here, as many of the stickers reference Apple stickers of beloved icons ranging from Sanrio’s Hello Kitty to South Park‘s Eric Cartman and the eponymous character from Eric Carle‘s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It’s not exactly high-concept, and it lacks the cinematic quality of the campaign’s launch spot, but the ad is fast-paced and fun. Plus the references fly by so quickly, you may actually need to watch it multiple times to catch them all. The spot concludes by telling viewers to “Say it with stickers on iPhone 7,” followed by the “Practically Magic” tagline.

(TrendHunter.com) Those who live in urban areas who want to incorporate a little bit of greenery into their space could make use of the ‘Citysens’ indoor gardening system as a means of doing so.

Designed…