Hasta La Creative!

In past, the ArnoldNYC team has captured Instagrams while bouncing on pogo sticks (#pogogram). Now, creative director Nate Guillard has painted a cartoonish mural on the wall of the agency’s office. Both projects were documented and set to French pop music, making Arnold the coolest, chicest agency on the block. Guillard sketches his bright characters (is that a happy Meatwad?) backed by buzzy band The Blister Boyz, shouting “Be Sexy C’est Francais.”

The inspiration for Guillard’s mural is, “working together is fun,” and considering that an ice cream cone is involved, we don’t doubt it. The end of the making-of vid shows Arnold employees playing ping pong and riding a scooter, further confirming that ArnoldNYC is chill and cool.

It seems only fitting that a creative director should alter his office’s aesthetic, and Guillard has made a cute contribution. Arnold should have a new creative take on the wall every few months, and next time make the soundtrack Yelle. Check out the full-size mural after the jump.

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Bi-coastal, MDC Partners-owned agency Vitro, which of course has been behind many an ASICS campaign among other things in recent years, has added a handful of new staffers in its San Diego HQ in order bolster its digital, strategic and design departments. Among those joining the fold in Ron Burgundy’s hometown are Peter “PJ” Yesawich, who joins Vitro as digital creative director (with a focus on “all things integrated”) after spending barely six months at Modus Operandi as a CD. During his career, though, Yesawich also held lead digital strategy/creative roles at the likes of EVB, Venables Bell & Partners and Exopolis.

Along with its new digital CD, Vitro has also brought on Deep Focus/72andSunny alum Danielle Waldron as executive director/integrated strategy, Eugene Kim, a former Arnold digital/social strategist who now assumes the role of director of social media and Bill Sager as design director. Along with the new hires, we’ve been told that Vitro, which won the Petco biz earlier this summer, will soon be announcing that it’s nabbed AOR duties for a yet-to-be-named “iconic spirits brand,” which the agency has been working with for the past six months. We’ll keep you posted if and when we find out which brand this exactly is.

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A changing of the guards–well, at least positions–has taken place at Minneapolis-based digital agency space150 as CEO/chief creative officer Billy Jurewicz has now shifted into a founder/CEO role in order to, among other things, focus on the expansion of the agency’s offices in New York and Los Angeles. Jurewicz’s move is just one of a handful of title changes at space150 as 10-year vet Marc Jensen is moving from president/CTO to managing partner/CTO at the agency.

In addition, David Denham, who’s been with the agency since January and serves as chief strategy officer, will now president to his title. Finally, group creative director Brian Ritchie, who joined space150 18 months from fellow Twin Cities shop Colle+McVoy, will now step up to ECD. Regarding his own move, Jurewicz says in a statement, “As we look ahead ? at the marketplace we serve, the future needs of our clients’ business, and the talent we have under roof ? now was the right time to shift our leadership structure to ready us for future growth.”

The 100-strong space150 currently counts clients including AmEx, Target, American Eagle Outfitters and Buffalo Wild Wings.

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We first inquired about this two weeks ago when the tips came in and have yet to hear back, but there seem to have been some notable defections in recent times from West Studios. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, West is the San Francisco-based shop that was launched two years ago by former Apple global marketing communications head, Allison Johnson, and was initially co-funded by Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey (we’re being told that Dorsey has since distanced himself from the company). During its initial launch, West was headed up by Johnson, former Martin Agency GCD Keith Cartwright and Katalyst digital head, Sarah Ross.

Well, as tipsters have pointed out, the latter two are no longer at West and in fact Cartwright doesn’t even acknowledge his time at the operation on their LinkedIn profiles. Of course, these aren’t the only notable departures from the SF shop in recent months. Travis Britton, former Cutwater principal/ECD who joined West as chief experience officer last year, has parted ways as has COO, Amanda Kelso (former W+K ECD Todd Waterbury was also in the mix but is now of course serving in the same role at Target). And today, we’re hearing that a major client is on the outs with the shop. We’re putting in more inquiries to the rather secretive West Studios, and will try to clarify what the state of the union is as soon as we hear more.

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It looks like our tipsters from up north were on to something as sources familiar with the matter confirm that the relationship between Union and Tourism Toronto “has come to a close.” Union of course is the Toronto-based, MDC-backed agency that was formerly known as CP+B Toronto. The now-defunct latter agency’s relationship with Tourism Toronto dates back to 2010 and subsequently resulted in campaigns such as the holiday-themed “Torontoland.”

Those on the Spy line tell us that Tourism Toronto remained one of Union’s biggest accounts, though, as perhaps the tell-tale sign, the brand no longer appears on the agency’s client list, which currently includes notable names such as Best Buy, Kraft and Pfizer. From what sources tell us, Tourism Toronto isn’t going to replace Union as of now, but we’ll let you know if we hear more.

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It’s gonna be a day. After the usual “competitive pitch process,” wine staple Kendall-Jackson has awarded agency of record duties to Heat, the San Francisco-based shop perhaps best known for their various EA Sports efforts (or, yeah, this). Regarding the appointment of Heat, Caroline Shaw, chief communications & marketing officer for K-J, offers the textbook explanation, saying, “We’re so pleased to engage Heat for Kendall-Jackson. Their strong mix of strategy, creative thinking and clever writing demonstrated they would bring big ideas and solid execution to our business.” Heat will handle all new ad initiatives for the including digital, experiential installations. print and POP for the wine brand, which the parties involved say is trying to reach a younger audience.

Kendall-Jackson’s previous AOR was GlobalWorks Group, which handled the account for approximately a year.

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I’m the Rooster guy apparently and I’m back to cover some more irreverent Rooster shenanigans. The above video, “How to Take a Punch,” epitomizes what a side project should be: easily digestible, fun to watch, and humorous. A slow-mo gif of James Franco taking a punch to the face has been making the blogging rounds before his Comedy Central roast airs on Labor Day. Vice co-founder/Rooster boss Gavin McInnes decided to join in on the slow-mo fun and take a harder punch to the face. The result is a side-by-side 13-second video comparison of the punches that is probably too stupid for its own good. Something makes me think Rooster likes that. These guys seem to have fun in the office.

After the jump, you can watch a longer video of people getting punched in the face slowed down to 1000 frames per second. It’s violently elegant and directed by Cody Kern, a man who has no relation to Rooster. As you watch, feel free to let the catharsis of watching others get walloped improve your day. Jiggling jowls have the affect on people.

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Well, guess this isn’t totally breaking news at this point but Gary Koepke, who co-founded (along with now-Hill Holliday EVP/CCO Lance Jensen) Boston’s now-defunct Modernista!, is moving up the charts at SapientNitro. Just over a year after joining the latter agency as VP/global executive creative director, Koepke is being bumped up to the big chair as he’s been appointed as chief creative officer, North America for SapientNitro. He fills a role that’s been open since Kathy Delaney left in June 2011.

Regarding taking the helm at the agency of “idea engineers,” Koepke says in a statement, “Joining SapientNitro a year ago started as an experiment and turned into a renaissance. I found in SapientNitro the disruptive spirit and focus on the future needed to truly innovate in the agency space that I thought I’d only be able to find by pursuing another start up.” Along with his new CCO role, Koepke, who has led creative on Chrysler, Fiat and Florida tourism efforts during his time at SapientNitro and remains based out of Boston, will also join the agency’s Global Creative Council. Along with his ad career, which also included helping up open W+K New York, Koepke also worked outside the industry as founding creative director for Vice and directing music videos for David Bowie and U2.

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Alas, our usual Extractable contributor Simon Mathews is sitting this month out, but we gladly welcome this rather epic debut from Dana Larson, VP/user experience at the aforementioned San Francisco agency. Larson has spent 20+ years in the biz, holding a wide range of positions including copywriter, CMO, content strategy director and ECD. Seeing as she has some experience in the content strategy field as noted, Larson offers a comprehensive look into what this job exactly entails. Read on.

Recently I was reading a discussion on LinkedIn Groups about whether or not it was a promotion to go from copywriter to content strategist. I asked one of my old colleagues what he thought, and his response was, “I don’t know…what is content strategy, really?” Actually, that’s a good question as I think a lot of people don’t really know what content strategy is. Erin Kissane explains this phenomena in her book, The Elements of Content Strategy, by saying, “In an industry in which the efforts of visual designers, information architects, front-end developers, and content creators can be seen center-stage when a new website launches, content strategy is a fundamentally backstage discipline.” And because content strategists typically work with all of these more visible roles, it can make their role seem even less clear-cut.

I’ll get to just what a content strategist does in a bit, but first let’s set the stage by taking a look at a website that was clearly designed without the aid of a content strategist. I’m kind of at a loss for words at how a renowned organization like Massachusetts Institute of Technology could produce something like the Center for Advanced Visual Studies website. Its haphazard placement of text islands obscured by clouds of floating type combined with random web 2.0 animations is a recipe for digital indigestion. Wow. Go there. Now. Resize the window. Experience the wonder. It’s the site that keeps on giving.

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Instead of comparing fuel band scores or enjoying an office taco Tuesday, Venice, CA-based agency Ted Perez + Associates banded together to create something that would push their boundaries as storytellers and technologists. Their idea was an arcade game, made from scratch. Their designers created the characters, their copywriters (presumably) wrote the words, and their programmers built the code. Altogether, they made Gnarnia, a Wii-enabled arcade game that tells the story of an idyllic camp invaded by pesky woodland creatures. Players have to shoot the animals to stay safe and win points.

The idea is fun, and I appreciate the mashup of a title. But in reviewing this project, I wonder a few things: first, could Ted Perez and his associates have used those 26 days it took to bring this project to life for something a bit more…productive? Maybe I’m a total grinch, but because this isn’t particularly funny or nuanced, it seems like a waste of time. And second (in an admittedly off-topic issue), the tiny text on their website makes me feel like I’m about to turn 40. If an ad agency is about storytelling and technology, they should manage to put their website’s font in black, size 12. And get someone with a non-monotonous voice to narrate future promotional videos.

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