Hear Ye, Hear Ye. 21% of Americans ages 12 and up have listened to a podcast in the past month. That is up from 17% in 2015. With one in five Americans tuning in, advertising pros are taking notice and grabbing the mic. According to Digiday, “Ad agencies have caught podcast fever.” Digiday highlights and […]
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Publicis Groupe has issued a statement adamantly denying allegations of inappropriate accounting brought against it by French advisory group Gouvernance en Action, Gouvernance en Action director Fabrice Remon and French magazine L’Obs.
The contention is related to the treatment of €130m in cash and €20m in software credits from German software publisher SAP which accrued from a delay in installing SAP’s software.
“Publicis had to treat these 130 million as an exceptional product because it is non-recurring, and does not come from contracts won in the course of its operations,” Remon told More About Advertising. He contends that Publicis, with agreement form its auditors, instead treated the compensation as write-downs and operating income in an effort to improve its organic growth numbers.
Publicis contends it did not handle the accounting of the transaction inappropriately and claims it “provided all required clarifications to the charge in a letter addressed to Mr Fabrice Ramon, director of Governance en Action, on 31 March.”
“Publicis Groupe had a dispute with a software and IT services supplier,’ Publicis wrote in a statement. “This dispute was arbitrated and resulted in a settled resolution, covered by a confidentiality agreement, whereby Publicis Groupe would be compensated for the costs of the delays and difficulties it sustained.”
In the statement Publicis claims that the “accounting treatment has been validated by Group’s auditors, who confirmed that it was not necessary to mention this information in the notes to the financial statements relating to 2014 accounts nor in the annual report” and that “The Group communicated all this information to Mr. Fabrice Rémon as well as the journalist of L’Obs who questioned us in this respect.”
It concludes with Publicis stating it will reserve “all our rights for any damages that such publications may have on our stock price, the company or our shareholders.”
This all makes sense, because it’s not like Publicis has been accused of financial improprieties in the very recent past or anything like that.
Here is the statement in full:
Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris: FR0000130577, CAC 40] would like to provide some clarifications regarding claims made by Gouvernance en Action publicized on 17 May 2017.
On 31 March 2017, the Group replied to a letter sent by Mr. Fabrice Rémon, Director of Gouvernance en Action, and provided him all required clarifications.
Publicis Groupe had a dispute with a software and IT services supplier. This dispute was arbitrated and resulted in a settled resolution, covered by a confidentiality agreement, whereby Publicis Groupe would be compensated for the costs of the delays and difficulties it sustained.
The compensation received by Publicis Groupe was allocated in Publicis Groupe’s accounts in part to the reduction of the book value of the balance sheet assets corresponding to the project, in part to the neutralization in the 2014 income statement of the extra costs incurred as a result of the delays, and in part to cover forecasted extra costs in the coming years as a result of the delays known by the Group.
This accounting treatment has been validated by Group’s auditors, who confirmed that it was not necessary to mention this information in the notes to the financial statements relating to 2014 accounts nor in the annual report.
The Group communicated all this information to Mr. Fabrice Rémon as well as the journalist of L’Obs who questioned us in this respect. We reserve all our rights for any damages that such publications may have on our stock price, the company or our shareholders.
I love this long copy ad from the Ogilvy & Mather archive. It’s endowed with more attitude per paragraph than I’ve seen in years. Clearly, this ad is from another time. #OgilvyArchive #TBT David Ogilvy and the Ogilvy culture View full print ad: https://t.co/qnCUgJwYbP pic.twitter.com/3YxJTpDRo0 — Ogilvy & Mather (@Ogilvy) May 18, 2017 While dated, […]
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In case you missed it (you almost certainly didn’t), last night AdAge broke the news that CP+B global CEO Lori Senecal would be leaving the agency—and the ad industry itself—when her contract expires at the end of this year. The story implies that she will be retiring.
This morning we also learned of another big change at the MDC Partners network. As reported in Adweek, Danielle Aldrich, former managing director of CP+B’s Boulder headquarters, has been promoted to president of both that office and the L.A. location that became the global headquarters for the Infiniti account just over a year ago.
Aldrich will be the first person to hold that title. Steve Erich served as president of the entire agency before leaving abruptly in the summer of 2015 after spending 11 years with CP+B. He went on to found Erich + Kallman in San Francisco.
Here is the statement on Senecal’s upcoming departure (which is still more than 7 months away) from Chuck Porter:
Nobody knows exactly what the future of advertising will look like, but it won’t be like today. It’s going to require new kinds of people and processes. Lori has been the perfect person to help CP+B become something new—a global agency with the flexibility and nimbleness of an entrepreneurial start up.
Now that the structure is in place, Lori and I are developing the next generation leadership team. We are taking the time to make really careful and thoughtful decisions about the leadership of CP+B going forward, and we’ll be prepared for a smooth transition when Lori retires at the end of the year. She’s a truly fantastic partner and friend, and the agency is smarter and more effective thanks to her leadership.
Senecal has spent more than seven years with the larger MDC Partners organization, serving as president, chairman and CEO of KBS before moving to its parent company in late 2014 and then transitioning to CP+B just over two years ago while retaining her role within the holding company.
Since then, MDC has been through some notable challenges including: the resignation of founder, chairman and CEO Miles Nadal (who was recently fined another $5.5 million and barred from running a public company for another five years); the firing of CP+B Boulder CEO Andrew Keller, who later went to Facebook; the news that MDC had hired Senecal’s husband Bill Grogan to serve as president of global brands for all of its agencies; last November’s one-day stock plunge prompted by analysts’ decision to downgrade its rating after the network failed to meet Q3 revenue goals. (The stock has since recovered much of its value.)
During that same time period, MDC has acquired acclaimed Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors and won pitches for such massive clients as Coors Light and General Mills, both of which went to 72andSunny.
The news regarding Senecal overshadowed that of Aldrich’s promotion, primarily because the agency did not intend to make it public at this time.
The 14 year CP+B veteran was promoted to managing director of the Boulder office in 2014. Moving forward, she will be president of CP+B West, which now includes the two locations. Her promotion completes the new Crispin regional leadership team, which also includes Vinicius Reis in Sao Paulo and Miami, Richard Pinder in Europe and Bamboo Yee in Beijing. Earlier this week, The Drum ran a story on Reis and the agency’s “Miami mojo.”
Senecal’s statement on the promotion:
Each of our 10 offices are led by entrepreneurs who are passionate about building CP+B, in their markets around the world. We have found that by elevating regional leaders, we can better share resources seamlessly across offices in each region, to bring more top strategic and creative talent to our client partners.
As part of that process, we’re also building our next generation of leadership. Creating this expanded role for Danielle is a natural step as she embodies the CP+B DNA, always looking to uncover the toughest business challenges, and solving them in the boldest, most inventive ways.
During her tenure, Aldrich helped lead the winning pitches for American Airlines, Hershey’s, Hotels.com and Fruit of the Loom.
And yes, she oversaw Subservient Chicken.
Here’s an unusual story from South Africa.
Seems that an unnamed citizen of that country lodged a complaint in February because he considered a billboard advertising “100% black owned advertising agency” BWD (or Breeze Web Designers) to be racist.
We won’t get into the logic or lack thereof behind that complaint, which we learned of today via South African news site The Media Online. But it seems that the local Advertising Standards Authority had to consider the citizen’s opinion as part of its standard operating procedures.
This single person then facilitated “a two-month investigation.”
South Africa has a uniquely horrific history, and in 2003—less than a decade after electing its first democratic government—the country passed the initial stage of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (or B-BBEE) Strategy, a program designed to “advance economic transformation and enhance the economic participation of black people in the South African economy.” Phase 2 went into effect in 2014.
Lodging a complaint with the South African ASA is fairly simple, as you can see from this form. But it also requires one to go out of his or her way to visit the ASA website or look up its contact information, so it’s hard to avoid drawing the conclusion that the person who registered said complaint was very upset over this particular billboard. One can’t help but wonder why.
We cannot claim to be in any way familiar with regulations related to the B-BEEE. But in a tweet sharing the story, The Media Online wrote, “What a ridiculous complaint in the first place.”
In a January blog post announcing the new campaign, BWD creative director Bongani Gosa wrote:
“So you’re doing billboards,” you may say. “So are 1000s of other companies.” The truth is… those 1000s are NOT advertising agencies. Traditionally, advertising agencies do NOT advertise themselves on billboards. So we opted to go against that tradition – to get noticed.
So he was simply advertising his own company. From the original story:
The complaint was dismissed as the billboard’s message was not infringing on any government or advertising laws. The ASA said BWD Advertising was merely exercising its right to broadcast an achievement and an “edge” it has in the advertising industry.
In response to the ASA decision, Gosa said, “I firmly believe in growing our country by empowering the youth. Only if they are mentored correctly, will they lead the country forward without racism and corruption, which is something that I promote passionately. No divided country can truly prosper.”
In case you thought the American agency world is a little odd.
W+K Portland has launched On She Goes, a digital travel platform designed specifically to address the travel experiences of women of color.
“This project was born out of a need for the voices and perspectives of women of color to be channeled and heard,” publishing producer and On She Goes co-creator (along with five other women from W+K’s publishing department) Serita Wesley explained to Campaign. “The topic of travel is a major one at Wieden+Kennedy, especially due to the number of International offices. The women of color working on this project heard the call of other women of color that this project was needed more than ever.”
“We welcome anyone who our content resonates with, who finds the information and perspectives we’re sharing helpful,” added W+K senior strategist Rebecca Russell.
On She Goes launched this week with a wide range of content on topics including “10 Trips for Traveling Solo,” “How to Maintain Your Natural Hair while Traveling,” “Being Black in China” “Travel 101 for Fat Babes” and the above “We Belong Here” anthem video. There’s also an extensive section of the site devoted to topics related to Portland, with New York and Los Angeles “Cities” sections coming soon, a series of podcasts, and other stories, videos, travel tips and community items.
In total On She Goes features around 50 articles from 20 different writers, and the site is currently looking for pitches from future contributors. Currently W+K provides the funding to maintain the site and pay writers as a property of its publishing department but it is open to future financial partnerships and advertising.
You know we always love internal memos. And the latest is a bit of a twist on the standard in that it seems … kind of normal?
Like many agencies (DDB, etc.), Venables Bell & Partners has addressed the industry-wide diversity challenge by diving into the area of study called “implicit bias.”
You have almost certainly heard of this concept—Hillary Clinton even used the phrase during the first presidential debate approximately two million years ago. The idea is less about racism or other types of overt discrimination (which would be explicit bias) than the idea that pretty much every person harbors unconscious stereotypes about other groups of people that ultimately influence his or her behavior, even if this person understands how counterproductive they can be.
It’s human nature to be more comfortable around those most similar to us. But this tendency can lead to some serious problems, as we are all too painfully aware.
Anyway, here’s the recent memo from chairman and co-founder Paul Venables, aka Paolo, explaining why a little bit of training can be good for everyone.
Subject line: Here’s a word I don’t get to use very often
Mandatory.
And for all the right and best reasons possible.
You know that VB+P is committed to being an honest and fearless agency that takes diversity head-on. We are challenging ourselves to open our minds to more than our own opinions and beliefs because it is imperative, right now, more than ever.
We need to understand what it means to truly listen to and to connect with everyone that makes up our community inside and outside of these walls.
Our next initiative is to dive into our own implicit biases and we are excited to hold our first Implicit Bias Workshop for the entire agency. And yes, here comes that word, it’s mandatory. Because we truly believe in this.
This workshop will be put on by Paradigm, and they have had success at companies like Google. It will open up awareness and discussion with the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. All of us have it, and it is an ongoing conversation in our industry. We’ll address what implicit bias means and how it affects our everyday decisions and company culture.
We will hold two sessions. The first one will be next Thursday, 5/18 at 2pm and the second one will be on Thursday 5/25 at 2pm. Both will be two hour sessions.
I ask that all of you not only commit to a session but go with an open mind and questions. This will be a safe space to discuss and challenge previously conceived notions. I fully expect we will do this our way, with absolute sincerity and big hearts.
Please let Talya know whether you will be able to attend a session on 5/18 (2p) or 5/25 (10:30aor 2p). These will be 2 hour sessions.
Thank you for dedicating your time to help us drive our diversity program forward. Thank you for being you, doing what you do, and sharing far too many hours of your life with us.
Let the signing up begin.
Chairman Paolo
Somebody needs to get in on Paradigm’s business, which is huge out in Silicon Valley. As company co-founder and CEO Joelle Emerson put it in a recent Medium Q&A, “While you probably can’t get rid of unconscious bias entirely, you can work to reduce it over time, while putting in place immediate strategies to limit its impact.”
What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?
The folks at San Francisco-based independent agency Butler, Shine Stern & Partners have a message for mom this Mother’s Day: “I’m sorry.”
In a video celebrating the holiday, the agency takes an honest look at all the crap moms put up with, as employees apologize for myriad offenses from birth to present day. These include weighing in at 11 pounds when born, “saying my eyes were always bloodshot from swimming,” a long list of bad boyfriends, illicit trips across the border, “for all of high school” and still living at home.
At the conclusion of the spot, BSSP employees switch gears and thank mom, for, you know, putting up with all their shit.
We’re kind of curious about that mysterious “burning down the bathroom” confession, though. Although maybe we don’t want to know.
Oh hey, did you know that sometimes advertising can be almost completely free?! It’s this crazy new disruptive idea they call “earned media.”
More than a year ago, our Florida friends at Zimmerman made use of that practice to score some mentions for their client Jamba Juice. Today we received a link to a case study about that project from a reader who, upon learning that Z Town had won a Gold Pencil at this week’s One Show, took to Google to figure out how that might happen.
Here’s the video, which one can easily find by searching “swishy chug case study” to reach a URL that begins with the word “internal.”
See, that happened. We even helped it go off the charts. If you don’t believe us, won’t you believe some screen shots from Zimmerman’s own internal site?
Even the Russians were impressed. The point, we think, is that advertising is valuable … but PR is priceless.
Aren’t you at least a little sad that Zimmerman didn’t win McDonald’s now?
Yesterday, French media giant Vivendi surprised almost no one by offering to buy out its own Vincent Bolloré’s 60% controlling stake in Havas for around $2.5 billion.
Despite the fact that his son Yannick Bolloré, who is currently CEO and chairman of Havas and its creative group, sometimes played coy with the press about a potential acquisition, the internal memo he sent to all staff yesterday is both serious about the challenges of the consolidation and cautiously optimistic about the future of the family business.
Bolloré’s note includes a couple of assets to better familiarize the Havas team with Vivendi, including an intro video and a corporate presentation. Here’s the video.
Good God, Keith Richards is old.
Here’s Yannick’s full memo.
Dear all,
I hope this message finds you well.
Today Vivendi opened negociations with the Bolloré Group to acquire their stake in the Havas Group. Over the past 12 months there has been much speculation around this project in the press as I am sure you are aware.
As you know, the Bolloré Group is our shareholder with approximately 60% stake and has always supported our development. The Bolloré Group is also a shareholder of the Vivendi Group with 30% of voting rights. Havas and Vivendi are both consolidated in the Bolloré Group’s accounts. The Vivendi Group is a major player in the worlds of content, media and communications with prestigious assets such as Universal Music Group, Canal +, DailyMotion, Gameloft and a stake in Telecom Italia amongst others.
I would like to share some thoughts with you on this opportunity.
First of all, I would like to underline that I have chosen to express myself in my role as Chairman & CEO of the Havas Group.
Through this acquisition project, Vivendi expresses its will to become a world leader in content and communications. The Havas Group has a healthy and positive financial situation and would bring to Vivendi its expertise in consumer science, content creation and production and data.
I would like to point out that Vivendi wishes to preserve jobs and to allow us to develop our business in an industry which is undergoing rapid consolidation and is threatened by increasing competition from companies coming from other sectors.
Many of you have often mentioned how this convergence would be attractive for our talents. Our groups evolve in the same environment, some of our teams already collaborate and our cultures are similar and complementary.
Finally, our clients expect us to come up with innovative solutions and having privileged access to Vivendi’s prestigious assets would enable us to create unique offerings and services all over the world. We have already launched shared initiatives which this operation would accelerate.
We are all aware of the importance of having a stable shareholding which ensures our long term development perspectives.
Please click here to download Vivendi’s corporate film and presentation.
It is clear that the closing of this transaction remains subject, among others, to the completion of satisfactory due diligence, the execution of a share purchase agreement between Vivendi and Groupe Bolloré, the consultation with the employee representative bodies and the approval of the relevant competition authorities.
I will obviously keep you up to date with the next steps.
All my very best,
Yannick
Note the conditional statements in the latter half of the document. A report in Campaign today cites analysts predicting that the group WSJ’s CMO Today calls “Havendi” will have to “make significant effort to convince clients that the agency is not biased towards Vivendi-owned media assets.”
Bolloré didn’t directly address that issue in his memo, but it will certainly come up as the merger undergoes scrutiny in coming weeks.
On another note, Vivendi does put together a compelling corporate presentation, as also included in the zip link from Yannick’s memo.
And here are those aforementioned media assets.
While Yannick makes a point of stating Vivendi’s desire to “preserve jobs” in the note, we very much expect more restructuring announcements if/when the deal goes through.
Happy Friday.
This Mother’s Day, New York-based independent agency Barker is celebrating working moms everywhere, with yo’ mama jokes.
There’s a twist, of course. The jokes on the agency’s “Yo Mama” joke generator offer a spin on the format, actually documenting the trials and accomplishments of working mothers with lines like, “Yo Mama so assertive, she got a raise—because she asked for one” and “Yo Mama so powerful, she broke the glass ceiling.”
The bottom of the page contains the message, “Happy Working Mother’s Day From the Working Moms at Barker.”
In a release, Barker explains the effort was inspired by the recent “Working Mother of the Year” win by Barker executive vice president, creative director Sandi Harari, while also giving a nod to “other industry thought leaders like Sallie Krawcheck and Cindy Gallop.”
Harari, as you may recall, recently wrote an open letter to men in the ad industry.
“We’re extremely fortunate to work at an agency with such strong female leaders who not only run their own departments, but who are also amazing moms,” Barker brand manager Emma Swanson said in a statement. “We thought it would be great to honor them by creating ‘Working Mother’s Day.’”
Credits:
Agency: BARKER
Chief Idea Officer: John Barker
Associate Creative Director: Jennifer Schwartz
Art Director: Sam Canvin
Creative Technologist: Larry Williamson
Brand Manager: Emma Swanson
Like many chief executives, TBWAChiatDay New York’s Rob Schwartz often sends out all-staff memos related to goings-on about the office. These rally-the-troops notes go out every Friday in order to reassure hundreds of staffers across departments that things are working like they should.
Last week’s was a bit unusual in that it addressed the mysterious thing we call “work-life balance,” or the vague idea that we collectively shouldn’t spend every waking minute working on or thinking about the thing that pays our expenses—the point, of course, being that a sufficiently rested employee is a more productive employee.
Schwartz doesn’t quite agree with that principle, though, as he explained in a memo specifically related to the fact that much of the New York team worked throughout the previous weekend on an unspecified new business pitch.
Here’s the full note:
The creative review went late last night.
Not past midnight late. Or even 10pm late.
Just it’s-really-dark-outside late.
The creative teams had a number of ideas.
Some of them quite good.
Jexy and Nuno were one of those teams with good ideas.
I should back up a sec.
Jexy and Nuno are a new team here in New York.
They’re actually an old team from our Singapore office.
They did some great work there. They got hired elsewhere. They did some great work elsewhere and then came back to us here in NY.
Let’s come back to last night.
Jexy and Nuno presented a lot of nice work for the pitch we’re working on.
Then they had to go. Weekend plans. A bachelor party in Miami.
And with that they left the room.
Chris Garbutt and the rest of us listened to the rest of the ideas from the rest of teams. Some good ideas. Some crappy ones. A creative review. You know the drill.
Then something happened.
Jexy and Nuno came came back into the room.
“We’re not going to the bachelor party. We’re going to stay here this weekend.”
Chris asked them why.
“We’ve got work to do.”
This is a decision each and everyone of us has to make.
Work or other stuff?
I never bought into the whole “work-life-balance” thing.
Work is life. Life is work, in my book.
We are lucky enough to work in a creative business.
We are paid to dream for clients.
That takes a bit of time. Sometimes time on the weekend.
Now, I’m not saying you should work every weekend.
Or miss your daughter’s 7th birthday.
Or your grandfather’s 70th.
What I am saying is that sometimes you have to miss a bachelor party or a boat party or some other kind of fiesta.
In the grand scheme of things you won’t miss much.
But what you just might gain is a great idea. An idea that transforms a brand. An idea that makes a dent in the universe. An idea that makes a mark on your career.
So thank you Jexy and Nuno
Thank you for reminding us all why we show up at this place every day — including, sometimes, Saturday and Sunday.
Xo,
~Rob
When we reached out to the agency, Schwartz clarified that his point was simple: great people work hard.
That said, hours count for something. One current employee tells us that a creative leader recently sent out an email urging his team to arrive at the office at 9 AM instead of 10 AM in the interest of billings.
Scott Goodson is free to spread his independent wings once again.
The founder and CEO of StrawberryFrog has bought his former agency back from international PR firm Apco Worldwide, which surprised many in the marketing world by acquiring a majority share in the SF organization back in 2012.
As reported in Adweek this afternoon, the agency has bought back the shares owned by Apco in a deal whose details have not been disclosed.
The 5-year relationship was somewhat troubled. In 2014, employees of the agency’s Amsterdam office sued the parent company for failing to pay their salaries after the business went south. Apco later clarified that StrawberryFrog Amsterdam was a completely independent organization also known as the Dutch Advertising Consortium, and the suit was later dismissed due to the organization’s bankruptcy.
Neither Apco nor StrawberryFrog would comment on the split today after multiple requests.
In other agency news, the Goodson shop’s latest spot for client SunTrust Bank stars an Atlanta Braves groundskeeper with a borderline embarrassing fondness for the music of one Jon Bon Jovi.
Did we say borderline??
As promised, media company VICE has continued encroaching on agencies’ business in the opening months of 2017.
Its primary agency Virtue Worldwide has existed in some form since 2006, but it effectively relaunched in January, when it brought on former Story Worldwide chief creative officer Lars Hemming Jorgensen as its new CEO and scored a Wall Street Journal writeup in the process.
That piece outlined the media company’s plans for a 450-person unit created by combining the old Virtue with Carrot Creative in VICE’s Williamsburg, Brooklyn headquarters.
Co-president Andrew Creighton said:
“A lot of brands have to hire so many different people and agencies, which creates multiple margins and disconnections in their communications. So having that all tied together is really important.”
And as noted in our headline, the agency has been in expansion mode, hiring from both traditional creative shops and other marketing departments to build out its team. Recent additions include:
In the WSJ piece, Creighton insisted that Virtue would not threaten any agencies, adding, “We play well together. At some point there is going to be push and pull and some tension. That’s a commercial reality. But we just want to do great work.”
The shop’s clients currently include Budweiser, Audi, Samsung, YouTube and more.
Global consultancy Accenture Interactive has acquired Sydney-based creative agency The Monkeys and design agency Maud, Campaign reports.
The Monkeys CEO Mark Green, CCOs Justin Drape and Scott Nowell will continue in their current roles, as will Maud CCO David Park, while also taking on additional responsibilities in leadership roles for Accenture Interactive in the region.
“The combination of Accenture Interactive, The Monkeys and Maud is a great opportunity for our clients and teams as it will dramatically enhance our ability to connect brand strategy and creative all the way through to customer experience delivery,” Green said in a statement. “We look forward to offering clients an unrivaled and holistic customer experience offering.”
“For over a decade, The Monkeys has created provocative ideas that have redefined the industry and delivered innovative customer experiences,” Michael Buckley, head of Accenture Interactive Australia and New Zealand told Campaign Asia-Pacific, adding,
“It’s the start of a new model,” he added. “Similar to the Karmarama acquisition in London, if our focus is to be the number one customer experience business in the world, we need The Monkeys to achieve it. We’re now part creative, part consultant and part technology, and we can take that to clients as a new solution.”
Accenture purchased London-based independent agency Karmarama last November for an undisclosed sum. The shop’s client roster includes Unilever, the BBC, Cobra Beer Honda and Just Eat.
This January, Accenture welcomed Deepthi Prakash from BBDO New York as managing director. The following month, the consultancy agreed to acquire a majority stake in German digital agency SinnerSchrader AG. Last month Accenture selected UM as its global media agency of record, following a review. This latest acquisition marks Accenture’s 12th since 2013, as it attempts to compete with traditional agencies and holding companies by acquiring creative shops and increasing its strategic offerings.
South Carolina’s own Erwin Penland has changed its name to EP+Co., which we presume to be short for “Erwin Penland and Company.”
The company has been relatively quiet about the change, which coincides with its move into a new headquarters in downtown Greenville. The 125,000 square foot building, which has been under construction for around two years, led to quite a bit of chatter in the local business community.
As you can see, it’s very nice!
Some big changes happened at EP+Co. while the building took shape: agency founder Joe Erwin resigned, with his successor Joe Scarino leading the company for less than 3 months before leaving for a top marketing role at client Chick-Fil-A. CCO Con Williamson and COO Allen Bosworth then stepped up to share the role of president.
The new branding will not lead to any operational changes at the agency, though it does include a new look and refreshed digital presence.
“We’ve updated our brand identity, which includes a new logo, colors, and font, but most importantly an acknowledgment of the entire organization,” said an agency spokesperson. “We are still the same great EP, but now we are EP+Co. EP+Co is symbolic of the combined efforts of the entire agency—not just one person. Ever forward.”
So it’s less about redefining the organization than giving credit to those who do the work.
EP+Co. most recently appeared on our radar regarding a review that saw now-former client L.L. Bean go to The VIA Agency of Maine, but in recent months it also won some new accounts including Strayer University while earning attention for a viral tweet from its biggest client, Denny’s.
Plus: mini balance boards!
Media giant Hearst recently acquired a stake in King & Partners, a New York-based design and branding agency.
The details of the deal remain unclear at this time.
King & Partners, which specializes in fashion brands, was founded in 2010 by Tony King, founder and CCO of similarly runway-minded createthe group who also worked as a designer and art director at Gucci and agency.com, among other businesses.
He also founded e-commerce system Sellect and is an investor in CA Creative, a New York-based digital agency that also focuses on fashion and lifestyle brands.
In a 2012 interview with WWD, King said “We consider our clients as our partners. Our work is completely bespoke for each brand. Nothing looks the same.” Those clients include both fashion brands like Carolina Herrera and various hospitality brands.
Neither Hearst nor King & Partners have responded to multiple requests for comment on the deal.
A press release from this week, however, focuses on the Sellect e-commerce portion of the company and its partnership with Hearst’s media agency Tower Digital, noting that Tower will offer the service to advertising partners.
Hearst’s best-known marketing investment was its 2010 acquisition of iCrossing for an estimated $300 million-plus. Since then, the resulting company has bought up other businesses like data management platform Red Aril and content marketing agency Mediablaze.
TM Advertising has become the second agency to leave the Interpublic Group network so far this year.
Today the Dallas-based agency announced that its management team had purchased the organization back from the holding company after serving as a sister agency to McCann since 2001. You will not be surprised to learn that none of the involved parties are discussing terms of the sale.
Interestingly, the press release notes that TM will “continue to have access to McCann Worldgroup’s international and domestic resources when necessary.” According to the parties involved, this will apply on a case-by-case basis for a 12 month period for TM. Then they’re on their own.
The aforementioned management team consists of some TM veterans and other, newer faces: CEO Becca Weigman (formerly with RAPP); chief creative officer and DDB veteran Lisa Bennett; chief strategy officer Tyler Back (who spent several years with Publicis Dallas); chief media officer Kim Moss, who held similar roles at The Martin Agency; chief digital officer and 10-year TM veteran Jeff Kempf.
“We’ve enjoyed a terrific partnership with IPG and McCann Worldgroup,” said Weigman, citing her agency’s “independent spirit and a nimble, modern approach to building our clients’ businesses.”
She cites growth plans and an expansion of the agency’s own capabilities as the reason for the change, noting that TM is now the only female-owned creative agency in the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area.
TM was long known as American Airlines’ agency of record, and kept the account for 34 years before the client launched a creative review just over a year and a half ago; the business eventually went to CP+B. In an internal memo announcing that the agency would not participate in the review (the reasons for which are unclear), Weigman positioned the loss as “a new beginning” for a shop whose client roster now includes Universal Orlando Resort, the Texas Rangers, Japan Airlines and American’s credit union … but not Captain D’s, which went with The&Partnership earlier this year.
Back in February, Dailey of Los Angeles also bought itself back from IPG after more than 30 years by way of a similar management group consisting of five principals.
ICYMI, former Microsoft executive, WPP guy and political pollster Mark Penn has been not-so-quietly building a lineup of agencies across disciplines.
Last week, his marketing-focused investment firm Stagwell Group continued its two-year attempt to offer every service a client could possibly need by acquiring a minority stake in MMI, an independent Dallas-based company that describes itself as “a data-driven conversation agency” specializing in shopper marketing and activations.
This marks the 11th agency Stagwell has acquired over the past two years, according to its own press release. They include Code and Theory, Atlanta’s Scout, PR firm Finn Partners and its first big purchase, the politically connected communications firm SKDKnickerbocker. (That one earned Penn another NYT writeup.)
Penn launched Stagwell back in 2015 with a plan to “seek out investments in the exploding digital marketing arena,” adding this gem:
“From finding soccer moms to uncovering Microtrends. I have always believed that data and creativity have to go together and that creative talent needs to be nurtured. We will be looking for investments that understand those principles.”
Speaking of trends, has anyone used Bing lately??
Here is what tipsters claim to be an internal memo from MMI CEO Benjamin Spiegel. Apologies if you’d expected something a bit more exciting.
Hello xxx,
I hope all is well and I am looking forward to our meeting later this month. I wanted to quickly share some MMI updates with you. As you might recall from our last meeting, part of our plan is to bring the best ideas, technologies, talent and ultimately success to our partners – with P&G an important part of that strategy. To support our growth and continue to bring maximum value to our clients, we decided to join an agency network. After careful evaluation of our options and vetting of interested parties, we decided to take a minority investment from a network called The Stagwell Group http://www.stagwellgroup.com/.
Best,
Benjamin Spiegel
Chief Executive Officer – MMI Agency
mmiagency.com | @mmiagency
Today marks a new week with a new ad agency. And like so many businesses in the space, this one comes with an angle: mobile-first social media with a B2B slant.
Madison Avenue Social almost solely handles on the kind of work that comes with share and like buttons. According to the release, its three principals share a “belief that Social Media should ignite a brand conversation that engages, educates and inspires people to take action.”
Sounds like conventional wisdom, though the trio has arguably lived it.
They are president Deirdre Catucci (former marketing director at AT&T), chief media officer Tim McHale (who held the same title at Tribal DDB) and executive creative director Mike Gentile (veteran of MRM//McCann and Hill Holiday).
Before joining together to launch Madison Avenue Social, they worked on Paran Johar’s popular Mobile Media Summit events until he sold his company to European trade show group Comexposium Group in 2015. The release tells us that the three decided to start an agency after “quietly taking on social media responsibilities for several world class brands, including Cross Pens and Sheaffer Pen Co.,” with the latter serving its more than 100,000 Facebook fans.
The agency’s now-trademarked tagline is “We Evoke Emotion,” which Catucci said was “based on the belief—backed up by outstanding metrics—that people are only inspired to take action when something touches them emotionally.”
She also argued that her experience with both AT&T and Mobile Media Summit convinced her that phones now rule all media, particularly social. “We decided to formalize our social media offering, applicable for both B2B and B2C, primarily because it represents what clients need today. Few social agencies really understand their similarities or differences, for that matter; like the lead-gen capability for B2B firms and the sales attribution capability for B2C companies of all kinds, tech or otherwise. If you don’t know mobile, you aren’t really maximizing social.”
It’s a pretty specific positioning.
And on that front, the three also announced a partnership with Mediasmith, an independent San Francisco media shop that will help them provide a fuller set of services to clients.
Gentile also has an ad tech background; before helping to launch this new agency, he was creative director at “relationship marketing solutions” software company Selligent.
“One thing we’re excited about is being able to tell brand stories in a modern way—the same way consumers, influencers and marketers all begin and end their days, by engaging with friends, family and clients on social,” Gentile said. “My experience in mobile, as well as email, DR and digital has certainly helped me understand how creative storytelling is unique on social vis-à-vis other media.”
Good thing other agencies have no idea how social media works.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
