Hasta La Creative!

Yes, kids, it’s time to get those portfolios in shape as the annual Portfolio Night event is just a month away. The 11th annual installment of the recruiting/review event will take place simultaneously on May 22 in 24 participating cities around the world including Athens, New York and Tokyo. For the first time, Portfolio Night, which was founded by IHaveAnIdea, will be presented by the Art Directors Club, with this year’s theme being the “3-Hour Job Hunt” (promo video produced with 360i and starring IHAVEANIDEA founder/current ADC executive director Ignacio Oreamuno above).

Anyhow, tickets for the event are now on sale. Over the weekend, Tokyo celebrated its first time participating in Portfolio Night by launching the horror-themed promo below. Being fans of the genre, we just couldn’t resist.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Well, here we go again. Despite assembling its self-proclaimed leadership “dream team” a month ago, a ph0ne call has confirmed that Atlanta-based Moxie Interactive has in the process parted ways with a couple of VP’s over the past week or so including Jennifer Jones, VP of social media strategy, and prior to that, VP/group program director, Rebecca Page.

There’s no word on other cuts at the moment, but Page spent the last two years at Moxie’s ATL hub, initially joining as program director on the agency’s Verizon business after spending time at the likes of IQ Interactive and what eventually became LBi Atlanta. Jones, meanwhile joined Moxie barely seven months ago after serving as an SVP at Publicis Groupe’s flagship strategic comms/engagement, MSL Group.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Agency staff are no longer content with making ads. And the lack of contentment does not stop there.

Agency staff are no longer content with making brand-sponsored content or content for the social stream. To fully activate the creative mindset and employ all the great tools available today, agency staff of the world must make products!

According to USA TODAY, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky introduced the Papa’s Pilar-branded line of superpremium rum. In February, Bartle Bogle Hegarty launched its piano-playing tutorial, Playground Sessions. Additionally, executives at MMB created a line of charity-focused, environmentally friendly kids’ clothes, backpacks and books.

Chris Vance, head of BBH’s innovation division, ZAG, says the thought was “Could we do a Rosetta Stone for musical instruments?” he says, comparing his product to the language-learning software. After they came up with the concept, they brought on others, including digital software firm Rain and composer Quincy Jones.

Deutsch LA is also committed to innovation and product development. Winston Binch, chief digital officer, thinks agencies are better poised than others to create products that consumers will actually use.

“I think marketers make really great inventors because we understand culture, we understand people.”

The post Your Ads Are Lovely, But Please Make Me A Product That Sings appeared first on AdPulp.

As the opening moments states, viewer discretion is advised with this lengthy promo from RPA and Tool, who for the fourth year in a row are teaming up to hype the Newport Beach Film Festival. If you haven’t seen Corbin’s Bernsen‘s epic, award-winning (ok, not really) The Dentist saga or better yet The Marathon Man, consider this clip called “Mandible” the Cliff’s Notes version.

Again, this is not for the squeamish (though as a horror fan it’s not all that shocking; as a guy who’s got a dentist appointment next week, that’s another story), but in a statement regarding “Mandible,” RPA creative director Scott McDonald says, “We wanted to demonstrate the power of film by taking audiences to a heightened state of emotion and then pulling them back to reality, reminding them that they’re watching particles of light on a screen.” Perhaps what we’re seeing is how RPA felt during the recent Honda review, but who knows, they came out of it pretty OK and so will you. The Newport Beach Film Festival begins April 25 and runs through May 2. Enjoy the show, kids. Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

For anyone who’s ever tried to write with chalk, you know how challenging it can be to neatly scratch out a few words on a chalkboard. Drawing a huge mural with chalk seems exponentially daunting, which makes the projects recently completed by 15 artists in Sid Lee’s Montreal office (specifically its workshop, or “atelier” as they call it) all the more impressive.

The mural tradition–called Blackboard Day–has been going on at Sid Lee for the past decade. The artists, who are represented by MASSIVart, created the murals during a workday, as 350 Sid Lee employees went about their business. The event probably killed office productivity for a short time, but now the staff gets to look at artwork while most of us get to stare at plain walls in our cubicles and uninspiring workspaces. The murals will stay in the office for a few months before being rotated out for newer art created by different artists. Now, I wish I tried harder when writing on the board in elementary school. One more of several pieces after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

After handling advertising and digital work in-house in recent years, TiVo is thinking outside the box, so to speak, and has named Minneapolis-based Olson as its new agency of record for advertising, web, consumer PR (previously handled by Allison + Partners) and social projects. There was a review for the TiVo biz, though no word yet on who else participated.

In a statement, Doug Bieter, TiVo’s VP of consumer sales and marketing says, “We were impressed by the depth and breadth of Olson’s ideas and their ability to seamlessly integrate the multiple aspects of our market differentiation and bold plans for the future. By retaining an agency of Olson’s stature, we are consolidating best-in-class advertising, digital and PR strategies that will be a tremendous asset as we build our brand and spread the word about the distinct value of the TiVo experience.”

According to those in the know, after a bit of a rough patch, TiVo has been on an upswing since last year (check out the brand’s Q4 report for context). Wit the win, Olson, which also picked up AOR duties for Saucony in recent months, is now in the process of developing “a multi-channel brand enhancement effort” for its newest client.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We’ve received confirmation that Alison Grippo has taken over as managing director of Huge’s San Francisco office, which she helped get up and running over the last year and now boasts a headcount of 30 staffers along with clients like Twitter and HomeAdvisor. Grippo, who has been with Huge since 2010 and also helped set up the IPG-owned digital agency’s London office, succeeds Wing Pepper in San Francisco.

From what we’ve been told, Pepper is taking a break from the agency world after twenty years and is planning on starting up his own operation. For the time being, though, he’s still consulting at Huge, where he’s spent the last two-and-a-half years, and helping out with Grippo’s transition. Prior to Huge, Pepper spent several years as an EVP on the account/digital side at MRM. As for Grippo, the new San Francisco MD most recently served as global director of program management and delivery. During her career, the exec has also worked at the likes of iCrossing and Razorfish.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

What is it with Minneapolis-based agencies and their intern-wrangling? We’ve covered the tactics of Campbell Mithun in the past and now, it’s Colle+McVoy’s turn with its own recruitment efforts to find interns who, yes, have a sense of humor (seriously, we think you have to in this type of gig).

As for the internship itself, it involves client engagement across account management, strategy and media, so let the fun begin. Here are two of the positions the Twin Cities agency is looking to fill along with a digital studio artist, graphic designer and interactive designer. See the requirements and other pieces of pertinent info here. And no, there are no Twinkies concepts required from this particular MN shop.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In the first episode of “Portlandia,” Fred and Carrie order meals in a restaurant, then decide to visit a farm to find out how the animals they’re eating were raised.

Absurd? Maybe. But I’ve noticed that when I visit local farmers’ markets, I appreciate the growers and farmers, and their food, more.

I think that more clients and agencies — all members of the team — should visit each other and meet regularly. We’d get better work that way. So why doesn’t it happen?

Many agencies don’t trust a lot of their people to interact with clients. Conversely, many agency folks, particularly creatives, hate the idea of interacting with clients. But just like clients are often not trained to evaluate creative concepts, creative people are often not trained to talk business. The problems persist on both sides of the conference table.

It also comes down to money and profitability for many agencies. Time spent in meetings = time not spent making ads. While daily communication is the work of good account people, even major strategy sessions or important meetings aren’t attended by most of the people actually making the work every day. Still, building trust is key for all members of the team.

It’s the subject of my new column on Talent Zoo.

The post Advertising Could Use Some Farm-to-Table Thinking appeared first on AdPulp.

Sources familiar with the matter confirm that Hearst-owned digital agency iCrossing has cut some staff in its New York headquarters. From what we’ve been told, six people across departments were let go last week as part of “a realignment of skills based on client needs.” This in turn accounts for less than one percent of the agency’s 900+ staffers across 18 global offices (the Salt Lake City branch, if you recall, closed earlier this year).

Among those cut were Tarah Feinberg, who’s still listed in the “People” section of the iCrossing site and has served as head of its Live Media Studio unit, as well as Rachel Pasqua, who’s had two stints at the agency, spending six years in all serving as VP, mobile. As for Feinberg (pictured), the now-former senior director at iCrossing spent a couple of years serving as VP/executive director at Big Fuel prior to joining the former agency.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.