World’s Fastest Agency to deliver 140-Character Concepts in 24 Hours

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Ad man Floyd Hayes, formerly creative director at Cunning, has launched the World’s Fastest Agency. Hayes has a long history of interesting stunts including most recently sending a 3D replica of his head to prospective employers.

This week, Hayes has launched a new agency that promises to be really fast in three easy steps. Here’s how it works. First, send $999 to Hayes via PayPal. Second, DM Hayes your 140 character brief to @FastestAgency. And three, receive a 140 character response from Hayes.

As proof of concept, Hayes points to similar work he did while at Cunning where a brief, “Gain media and buzz for our park-anywhere small car,” resulted in the concept, “Attach replica cars to landmark city buildings.”

Would you send Hayes $999?

Sources: ConEd Biz Transfers from Shuttering Arnell to The Gate

Yesterday came reports that Sara Arnell, CEO of Omnicom’s once-heralded Arnell Group, which was founded by her ex-husband Peter Arnell (read interesting post-Tropicana logo fiasco piece here), made the decision to close the agency’s doors for good. One of the items of note from the Crain’s report about the shuttering yesterday was that the business for Arnell’s last remaining AOR client, utility/power brand ConEdison (sometimes the bane of many a New Yorker’s existence), was being shifted elsewhere.

Well, sources familiar with the matter tell us that following a review, The Gate Worldwide, which has office space from New York to London to Singapore will taking over on what we’ve been told is the $15-20 million ConEd account. From what we’re hearing, The Gate beat out the likes of SS+K and Cramer-Krasselt in the review, which was launched in December and actually wrapped up last month.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

How One Agency Increased Revenue 3,597 Percent

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So you want to win a Lion at Cannes this year? Good luck with that. And to what end anyway? So you can put it on a shelf, let it collect dust and hope it leads to new business? How about a more proven method?

How about a method that can increase your revenue 3,597 percent? Oh, you think this is yet another cheesy white paper offer? Well it is a whitepaper offer but it’s not cheesy in the least.

Smart agency owners know that survival requires an imminent shift toward digital marketing services like blogging, content creation, search engine optimization and social media. But that transition is easier said than done.

That’s why HubSpot (yes, I’ve consumed the Kool-Aid and yes, I write for their blog and no, I’m not actually making any money on this offer) interviewed the leaders of six agencies, all with a variety of backgrounds, all who came to the same realization that change was imperative. They acquired digital talent, changed their services and pricing models, and began selling integrated inbound marketing services to grow their businesses.

In this report, you’ll hear stories and advice from:

Greg Linnemanstons, President of Weidert Group
Aaron Aders, Co-Founder and Marketing Research Director of Digital Relevance (formerly Slingshot SEO)
Paul Roetzer, Founder and CEO of PR 20/20
Bob Ruffalo, Founder and CEO of Impact Branding
Tiffany Sauder, President of Element Three
John McTigue, Executive Vice President and Co-Owner of Kuno Creative

Let that Lion collect dust. Download this whitepaper now and start doing something that will actually make you some coin.

Moxie Has Now Apparently Assembled its ‘Dream Team’

From what we’ve gathered over the last, oh, 15 months or so, it hasn’t been the smoothest ride for Atlanta’s Moxie Interactive. But rather than dwell on the seemingly constant supply of negative news about the agency (defections, cuts, etc.) dating back to late 2011 (you have our search engine for that), let’s try to just focus on the now for at least a minute. Moxie has announced that it’s rounded out what it’s dubbed its “dream team”–aka senior leadership team–with the hiring of 22squared alum Jane Matthews as SVP, new business, which we’ve been told is a new position at the agency.

In a statement, Moxie president Suzy Deering says, “Jane is the final piece of the puzzle for the senior team at Moxie. With the leadership team now in place, she will be instrumental in catapulting the Moxie brand in the marketplace sharing our data and insight driven approach and securing new brands and partners to collaborate with in the digital space.”

As for the rest of the pieces of the puzzle, they include the likes of CTO Matthew Fleischman and EVP, creative Anthony Reeves, who joined last fall, Sharon Boddie, SVP of strategy and media and John Rich, VP of digital strategy. As for Moxie’s latest hire, Matthews (pictured) joins after spending the last seven years at fellow Atlanta-based agency, 22squared, where she founded the agency’s new business practice.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Huge Analytics Director Calls it Quits, Citing ‘Moral Objections’

Well, this is one of the more interesting items to start of the work week. Over the weekend, we received a letter that Huge analytics director Yosaif Cohain sent to his colleagues at the agency in which he announced his resignation. Why, well, read on verbatim and we’ll continue after.

“Friends –

Because of moral objections that I have with Huge working with Al Jazeera, I have resigned from my position at Huge, effective immediately. I simply cannot work for a company that works with them. Today is my last day.

I know some might think my decision is rash or extreme. You should know that I have thought about this at length for the past two weeks and am very confident in my decision. I won’t attempt to convince anyone about my opinions or beliefs – I will just hope that even if you disagree with them, you can respect my decision and my need to stay true to who I am and what I believe in. I’m leaving with a lot of sadness and disappointment in Huge, but also with my head held high.

I’m not sure what my next steps will be – I’m going to take a step back to evaluate a few things and will be updating my resume. If you have leads for me, I’d appreciate them.

Thank you all for your ongoing friendship and support – I will miss you guys. To those of you that have offered words of support and encouragement about my decision, I thank you in particular – this has not been easy for me.

All my best –

Yosaif”

Yes, Cohain has indeed resigned, but interestingly enough, sources tell us that at the time he quit, Huge was not actually working with the aforementioned broadcaster. We’re hearing that the agency’s D.C. office specifically was just one of  several digital shops that Al Jazeera has recently been talking to as it transitions following its acquisition of Al Gore‘s Current TV, which perhaps was divisive enough to begin with. So, maybe there were other reasons at play for Cohain’s departure from Huge NY, who knows, but we’re staying neutral on his decision.

When pressed, Huge had “no comment” on the matter.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Self-Proclaimed ‘Ideas Man’ Back with Self-Proclaimed ‘World’s Fastest Agency’

Floyd Hayes, former ECD at guerrilla-marketing agency Cunning is back with yet another attention-grabbing stunt that will (perhaps) net him upward of $1000 per day.

Hayes latest project, World’s Fastest Agency, serves as a pleasant reminder to all marketers that, yes, you can make any unsubstantiated claim you want, so long as no one else has made the claim before you. Hayes’ business model works thusly:

  1. Send him $999 via PayPal.
  2. Direct message your short creative brief to @fastestagency on Twitter
  3. Receive a creative pitch within 24 hours via Twitter direct message
  4. Consider whether or not steps 1-3 were a wise use of your time and money

On the website for his new agency, which he also proclaims to be “the world’s first 100% Twitter based ad agency,”  Hayes has already a glowing review from Neil Davies (pitch judge and former partner at Naked Communications) who says, “Very fast, very good.” I mean, what else do you need to know?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Yes, O’Keefe and Paul’s Agency is Now Open for Business

Last week, a bevy of banana-filled images had us wondering whether this was an odd preview of the new agency formed by Tom O’Keefe and Nick Paul, who previously served as North American CD and chief global growth officer, respectively, at Draftfcb.

Well, thankfully their new, Chicago-based shop is not called “Whiskey Bananas,” but in fact the more pro-sounding O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul (though the imagery of both spirit and fruit adorns the walls as you can see here). The Reinhard in the mix is Amazon alum Matt Reinhard, who takes on the role of founder/CCO at the new shop while O’Keefe serves as founder/CEO and Paul, founder/president. Today marks day one at OKRP, which you can find out more about here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Martin Agency Joins Wieden+Kennedy In The Agency Incubator Game

Agencies don’t just churn out ad campaigns these days, they incubate startups. And why not? When you have the resources you can afford put them to good use. In fact, it is your responsibility to do so.

You may have heard, Wieden+Kennedy got into the baby-company warming game a few years back with the launch of PIE, now run by Man about Tech Town and friend of AdPulp, Rick Turoczy. Some notable success stories have already emerged from PIE, namely Urban Airship and Simple.

Note: PIE is taking new applications from budding startups until April 15th.

Now we have word from Richmond — home of VCU Adcenter, Cabell Harris and The Martin Agency — that 80amps, a local incubator, is being backed by Martin.

Neil Patel, The Martin Agency’s Senior Vice President of Content Strategy and Development, says:

We’ve chosen to work with 80amps for two main reasons: first, it provides a path to innovation that allows us to continue to focus on our core business of creating world-class advertising; second, 80amps’ focus on consumer products and services is in perfect alignment with our core competency.”

A path to innovation that fuels world-class advertising. I think this addresses the “Why?” question some may have.

Media is a shifty business, and marketing with it. Martin and W+K already have deep expertise in print and broadcast, now they need to add digital to their core competencies, and the people who make digital are different beasts. Interestingly, Richmond and Portland are not cities loaded with VCs, so Martin and W+K are stepping up to fill a need.

Iain Tait, who works at Google Labs now, following the shortest stint ever as a W+K partner, highlighted the differences quite nicely a few years ago.

We need to borrow from the places where real innovation is occurring: the world of hack-days, collaboration, open-sourcing, ring-fenced R&D time and incubators. Clinging to outdated idea-farming methods just because they’re reliable and predictable is a surefire route to extinction.

For sure, Tait’s world of propeller heads on speed is not the agency world of old, where creative teams holed up for days on end scribbling ideas on a notepad. Marketing complexity is increasing rapidly and it is a struggle to keep up with the curve, much less ahead of it. Not only do agencies need to produce a ton of content today, they need the data-crunching capabilities to track what happens once it is released. This data, in ideal circumstances, is then used to help inform next steps.

Can you see why agencies want to cozy up to people practiced in lean and agile development?

Previously on AdPulp: Be Fast And Fascinating (Or Be Gone) | The Google To Adlandia: Be Lean And Agile Like Us, And You’ll Be Rich Like Us

The post The Martin Agency Joins Wieden+Kennedy In The Agency Incubator Game appeared first on AdPulp.

Huge Drops One of its VPs of Tech

Though he’s listed as VP, director of technology at Brooklyn-based, IPG-owned Huge, we have received word that Chris Magdelinskas was just one a of a few heads of technology at the agency, which we’ve learned has let him go. According to those in the know, Huge did make the decision to let the exec go as part of of a reorganization of the technology discipline at Huge into engineering and technology strategy teams.

Prior to joining Huge, where he spent a year, the New York-based Magdelinskas worked with the likes of CBS and UGO. We’re hearing that ex-Hugers have started a Facebook page, but feel free to leave a link.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Clemmons Out at Critical Mass

You may recall that nearly six weeks ago, we reported on more Critical Mass cuts, which also saw higher-ups in the Omnicom-owned digital agency’s Chicago office calling it quits including GM, Joe Scartz. Well, we also mentioned a president and now phone calls and the fact that his name has been taken off the leadership site have confirmed that CM Chicago prez Neil Clemmons is no longer with the agency.

Clemmons has departed from CM after nearly 14 years and last served as president/chief strategist. During his career, Clemmons spent well over a decade at Apple and a few years at 3Com before joining Critical Mass.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A Portrait Done Completely in Felix Ketchup? Sure, Why Not

Being a cold-blooded American (by acquisition, not by birth), I choose to deny the existence of ketchup brands outside of Heinz and Hunt’s. So when I hear that an international brand exists by the name of “Felix,” ostensibly named after the animated cat with a magic bag of tricks (or so I like to think), I pretend it only exists in the minds of silly foreigners who dream that they can compete with U.S. dominance over sweetened tomato flavorings.

For a moment, I will play along and buy into the fact that Felix is celebrating its 50th anniversary. To celebrate, Helsinki-based agency Hasan & Partners have (allegedly) commissioned pop artist Nathan Wyburn to create portraits of ketchup consumers using Felix in place of paint. As you can see in the above clip, Wyburn deftly exhibits his ability for turning a young woman’s photo into an accurate ketchup-y facsimile. (Minus the nose. Don’t know what happened to Wyburn there, but I guess once it got a little smudged, there was no turning back.)

For one week starting today, fans are asked to submit their photo on Felix Finland’s Facebook page with the opportunity for Wyburn to give them the ketchup treatment. Facebook fans can also watch Wyburn create do his thing in real time, praying that he doesn’t do to their nose what he did to the girl’s in the video.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

SS+K Creates ‘SX6S’ Highlight Reel

In cased you missed the unveiling of SS+K’s Vine SXSWi search tool dubbed “SX6S,” the agency has rolled out the highlight reel above to give you a feel of the goings-on in Austin this past week. Thankfully, our sort-of ADD makes clips like this quite palatable. Here’s some context from SS+K head of production, John Swartz:

 ”We brought these vines together and edited as you might any montage, or even a music video. But as we did, we realized that the range of vines gave us incredible flexibility in telling the story of the festival. And rather than just play back the videos in sequence, we thought presenting them in a more visually engaging, even frenetic way, gave a better sense of the mania of the festival.
We thought each video was special in its own way, depicting something fun, funny, ugly, embarrassing, interesting, etc. We each had a favorite, and no one vine stood out as the best. Although I’m partial to the monkey.”
We didn’t make the cut in the vid, but Mr. Adrants himself, Steve Hall, did. If you have 100 seconds to kill, view above.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Score That Job: Lippe Taylor

Looking for a new job but getting frustrated? Are you trying to figure out who you need to talk to? What does a company really mean when they say they “work hard and play hard?”

In this episode of “Score That Job,” career expert, author and mediabistro editor Vicki Salemi sat down with Lori Rubinson of Lippe Taylor, a New York agency with clients like IKEA and Elizabeth Arden that focuses on women through public relations, advertising and social marketing.

>You may remember Lippe Taylor from an episode of “Cubes”: Cubes: Office Tour of PR Agency Lippe Taylor

Find out why they’re looking for someone who is creative, not “boring” nice and how you can “Score That Job.”

You can view our other MediabistroTV productions on our YouTube Channel.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

So, Is This O’Keefe and Paul’s New Shop?

Well, this is news to us. It looks like these photos have been making the rounds on Instagram and Twitter the past few weeks, but tipsters say these images signify that Tom O’Keefe and Nick Paul have “open[ed] doors to WHISKEY BANANAS their new ad agency” based in Chicago. If you recall, O’Keefe, a 20-plus-year ad vet, left Draftfcb two months ago and it was rumored at the time that he was lured by fellow former DFCB exec Nick Paul to help start up and lead a new shop. O’Keefe had been with Draftfcb since 1990 during the FCB era and last served as executive creative director, North America. Paul, meanwhile, spent five years at said agency and last worked as EVP/global chief growth officer before leaving last spring.

O’Keefe has actually been tweeting out somewhat silly pics such as the ones below with #whiskeybananas for some time now, but we’ll see what’s up and fill in the blanks when we can.

 

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Momentum NY Undergoes MD Shift

We’ve received confirmation that Richard Black, who’s spent the last six-and-a-half years at the IPG-owned Momentum as an SVP and director of client services, has been bumped up to general manager of the agency’s New York office. From what we’ve been told, Black (pictured) replaces Laura Loughlin, who has transitioned to a similar role at Momentum Entertainment Group, which was launched back in June 2011. During his career, Black has worked on the account side at the likes of TracyLocke and Saatchi & Saatchi prior to joining Momentum, while Loughlin has spent well over a dozen years at the last agency.

In addition to the Black/Loughlin move, Momentum has promoted Tom Boccuzzi, who has spent the last five-plus years at said agency and has worked at the likes of Y&R and G2 in the past, has been promoted to the role of SVP, operations director NY working on the American Express business.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Toys ‘R’ Us Canada Shifts Biz to Open

Two months after parting ways with Toronto-based Union, aka the agency formerly known as CP+B Toronto, Toys “R” Us Canada has found a new local agency to handle its creative AOR duties in Open. Founded by Zig alums Martin Beauvais and Christian Mathieu back in fall 2010, the Toronto-based Open will now handle creative campaigns across Canada in both English and French for both Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us beginning with a national radio effort.

From what we’ve been told by sources familiar with the matter, the agency was awarded the Toys/Babies “R” Us biz without a bidding process. In a statement, Liz MacDonald, VP, marketing and store planning, Toys“R”Us Canada,  says, “We were impressed by the creativity that Martin and Christian had infused into their previous work with our two brands. Their retail experience and passion produce true-to-life campaigns that resonate well with our customers, so we’re excited to get started.”

Along with said new client, Open works with others including Old Milwaukee and Canadian real estate network, ComFree.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

72andSunny Creative Heads to EVB

More dispatches from the ether as we wind down our quick trip to Austin. After spending just 10 months in L.A. at 72andSunny, where he served as ACD/copywriter on efforts for Samsung including last year’s LeBron Jamesheads-to-get-his-ring spot and the “Unicorn Apocalypse” saga, Patrick Maravilla has headed up north to join up with San Francisco-based Evolution Bureau as creative director. Regarding the new hire, EVB ECD Steve Babcock, who himself has recently joined the shop from CP+B, says, “Patrick is one of those naturally talented guys. From stand-up comedy to screenplays to solving brands’ complex marketing problems, his skill set across all mediums, combined with his big heart and personality, make us extremely fortunate to have him.”

Maravilla is no stranger to to CP+B either as he spent four years at the agency serving as an ACD, working with clients including Coke Zero and Burger King. During his career, the self-proclaimed “stand-up comedy instructor” has held a similar position at AKQA SF, where he helped lead creative on Xbox and “Your Interview with the President” YouTube effort.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

SS+K Bows ‘SX6S’ at SXSWi

In case you missed it here in Austin this weekend, you may have caught SS+K’s unveiling of its new Vine search tool, dubbed “SX6S,” which lets you plug into all #sxsw tagged Vines from Twitter during the festivities and for specific #sxsw related vines via hashtag. Yes, barbecque lovers need not waste time with other silly apps when this one will fill you in. If you have a minute, watch the teaser above and look for the New York-based SS+K’s full highlight reel after the event closes.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Chicken Festival

Advertising Agency: Rasas UAE Executive Creative Director: Rani El Khatib Creative Director: S.M. Ziyad Art Directors: S.M. Ziyad, Jade David Copywriters: Kitch Velasco, Abdulrahman Khalil Account Director: Shereen Fotouh Typographer: Shajeel Rehman Account manager: Karim Ghoneim Via [AdBlogArabia]

High Shoulder Jackets

Advertising Agency: Livingroom UAE Creative Director: Mansoor Bhatti Senior Copywriter: Umer Razzak Senior Art Director: Nisreen Shahin Illustrator: Jana Jelovac Via [AdsOfTheWorld]