Hasta La Creative!

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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And now for something completely different:

A tipster points us to a quaint little discussion in Reddit’s Advertising sub-reddit that asks: “Do agencies drug test? Or is it something that’s on an agency by agency basis? I’m more of a creative and about to start entering the field, just wondering what to look out for.” We figure it’s our duty to distract you from this whole Publicis/Omnicom thing with a few of our favorite responses.

User auto-didact imagined an employee having to break the drug test results with the boss:

“Well, the designers all showed up positive for marijuana. So we fired them. Most of the creative directors too. All the account honchos came up positive for opiates. Most likely coke. They’re gone. All our PLD’s and software engineers tripped up for speed. Not surprising. We’ll have to offshore that work now. Oh, and almost all the senior leadership was clean, but bloodwork showed liver failure in progress. We caught our IT guy huffing cans of spray paint.”

User panthur offers a different experience:

They did at my agency. It was a local agency but now we are owned by a giganto agency conglomerate. A lot of them are owned by big companies and testing unfortunately tends to come with that.

Finally, user pugofwar responded simply with:

Never. (I’m at W+K.)

You can read the whole thread here, and we invite you to share your own experience in the comments.

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As one might imagine, the announcement (and Vine video) of the biggest merger in advertising history is causing quite a reaction from those in the industry. Above, Keith Hunt, managing partner of M&A consulting firm Results International, hypothesizes about the implications the newly formed Publicis Omnicom Group will have.

As Hunt notes, the merger means the company will be able to buy media very cheaply, leapfrogging WPP in the process. But, Hunt wonders, how far can you push down prices? At one point do vendors draw the line?

Also, Hunt says, there’s the issue of who’s in charge. Co-chief execs, John Wren (Omnicom) and Maurice Levy (Publicis)  are elder statesmen. Levy, the older of the two at 71, is now on the hot seat in terms of naming a successor, that is, if the balance of power between Publicis and Omnicom remains a priority. As WPP’s Martin Sorrell said in an interview today, “It’s a nil-premium merger — effectively a takeover of Publicis by Omnicom [without exchange of money].”

Finally, says Hunt, there’s the matter of positioning. It benefits the new company to frame the merger as one that hinges around new technologies and emerging markets, allowing Publicis Omnicom Group to compete against tech companies outside advertising agencies like Adobe. “Exciting times,” he adds before staring into the camera wistfully. It’s only the beginning.

Check out Wren and Levy bonding after the jump.

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Having worked in several advertising agencies over the course of many years, I can attest to the fact that new business is both the lifeblood of an agency and its biggest nightmare. It’s very difficult for an agency to say no to new business. Why would they? New business means more revenue and more revenue means more success.

New business can breathe new life into an agency that, perhaps, has become stagnant with current clients. On the other hand, new business, poorly chosen, can wreak havoc on an agency’s inner workings, its culture and its people. We thought it might be interesting to ask a few agency executives how they approach new business and how they decide it might be best to just say no.

Crafting an article I wrote for Central Desktop, I spoke with several ad industry executives to get their take on how they view and approach new business, why they pitch, why they don’t and how a piece of new business can affect an agency both positively and negatively.

More…

Since our original post about the apparent demise of Minneapolis-based agency Atomic (formerly Atomic Playpen), we’ve received a handful of tips regarding what transpired on that fateful Friday of July 12. We’ve emailed and calls to the office have the phone ringing, but here’s one account: “I am a former Atomic Playpen employee (I left the agency in 2012) and was told first -hand from several former colleagues who were still at AP that on Friday they were all called into a conference room at noon and told the agency was closing down. [JWT Minneapolis alum/Atomic president] Lydell [Capritta] delivered the news to employees.

As the phone still rings, we’re hearing that co-founder Troy Venjohn didn’t even show up to the meeting announcing the shuttering and that he is already getting another startup off the ground. From what we’ve been told, “a lot of talented people lost their jobs.” No word on numbers, but we’ll keep digging.

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Well, the three-year relationship between Denny’s and IPG-owned, New York-based agency Gotham has come to an end. In a pretty self-explanatory statement, Frances Allen, chief brand officer for the 60-year-old diner/casual restaurant chain, says:

“We are very grateful to Gotham. ‘America’s Diner is Always Open’ has reconnected with consumers across America, earning us both an Effie and a Cannes Lion award in the process. We are enormously proud of that work and are thankful to Gotham for their dedication and partnership over the last 3 years.

All businesses evolve, and Denny’s is no different. Over the last four years we have developed a strong relationship with Erwin Penland through their work on various aspects of our business, and we believe that their ever expanding expertise and unique understanding of the Denny’s brand makes them the right fit as our agency of record going forward. With Erwin Penland we see the opportunity to both consolidate our business for efficiency and enhance our united national and local marketing and advertising efforts, while upholding the high creative standards that have been set by Gotham.”

Gotham initially beat out Erwin Penland (as well as BBDO and KBS+) back in August 2010 for the Denny’s duties, though EP continued partnering with the brand for menus, merchandising and local support. Erwin Penland will now handle both creative and media. As for Gotham, perhaps the agency’s most notable work for Denny’s, from our perspective at least, was the “Always Open” series hosted by David Koechner and featuring a host of famous folks including Jessica Biel, Jason Bateman, Sarah Silverman, Amy Poehler and Will Arnett. You can check out the Poehler clip after the jump if you’d like.

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A trio of McCann ex-pats including Jacob Ford, David Swope and Rob Bagot, who worked at said agency during the mid-aughts, have once again joined forces at H&L Partners, the San Francisco-based shop formerly known as Hoffman/Lewis. Ford (pictured), who has spent the last four years as digital creative director at ATTIK (working of course on Scion), has joined in the same role at H&L while Swope, who’s served as ECD at TiVo for the last three years, has assumed the role of ACD. Bagot, meanwhile, leads the creative charge at H&L, where he’s already spent the last three months as partner/chief creative officer. Along with McCann, the creative head also served as group creative director at Eleven and had a senior creative role at BBDO.

Regarding H&L, which of course saw its co-founder Bob Hoffman leave earlier this year, Ford says in a statement, “I enjoy traditional agencies with digital sensibilities, like H&L Partners. They recognize that the most important thing is the idea, which can extend into any medium. Also, they are more of a tight knit group with everyone keen to learn new things.”  Along with the San Francisco office, H&L also has a space in St. Louis and counts clients including McDonald’s, Toyota, Slingbox and USC.

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It’s been a couple of years since we heard the name Walt Connelly, but the creative exec has now returned to his old stomping grounds at Havas New York, where he worked early on in his career when it was still known as Euro RSCG. Last we remember, Connelly and Ogilvy New York parted ways in summer 2011 after he spent just five months at the agency as executive creative director on the IBM account. Since that time, the creative exec has served as CMO at startup denim jeans brand I Am Not a Virgin and founded his own collective called Creative Apostles.

Now back at Havas, Connelly will assume the role of global ECD on the agency’s Merck Consumer Care business that includes the Claritin and Afrin accounts. Along with his Havas and Ogilvy stints, Connelly spent six years as ECD at JWT on Microsoft, Kimberly-Clark, HSBC, Ford and Bloomberg, and also served in a similar role for several years at McCann Worldgroup San Francisco

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Well, we’ve received tips about this since the spring actually and all the way up to yesterday, so let’s just put this to bed once and for all and say that Richie Glickman‘s time at Translation has come to an end. It didn’t take much to uncover that tidbit, but we can’t say for sure if Glickman was part of the cuts made by Steve Stoute & Co. a month ago. Whatever the case, Glickman, who’s now owner/curator of something called “Camp Glickman,” officially joined Translation last August as group creative director and led efforts for Bud Light and Bud Platinum including this year’s Super Bowl spot starring Stevie Wonder.

Prior to his most recent agency gig, the creative vet spent nearly a decade at JWT, where he last served as ECD and led global work for Royal Caribbean. During his time at said agency, Glickman also worked on Kimberly-Clark brands including Kleenex and Huggies. We’ll try to find out what Camp Glickman is exactly (most likely a fancy freelancer moniker), and will keep you posted if and when we do.

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Jeez, what started out as a slow morning turned into quite a busy afternoon. A friend tipped us on this a couple of days ago and after a few inquiries, we’ve now received clarification/confirmation on the matter from Droga5 itself. No, David Droga did not sell his whole operation to talent agency William Morris Endeavor for something well into the nine figures (some are reporting less than half of what we heard), but the latter has indeed acquired a minority stake in Droga5. In a statement, Droga himself says, “Droga5 has always endeavored to be the most influential creative agency in the business, with ideas that move our clients and our industry forward. This partnership will exponentially accelerate our ability to realize that ambition.”

Despite the minority stake acquisition, the management of Droga5’s agency operations will not change according to the parties involved. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Adding to the mix, might as well throw in the statements from WME’s head honchos Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, who say, “Droga5 is best-in-class across the board—from its management to its creative output. Through this investment, we will be able to join the best artists and storytellers from all verticals, and we look forward to creating new opportunities for our collective clients.”

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