Fallon is a legendary advertising agency, and one of the pillars of the Minneapolis market. Fallon picked up Arby’s a few years ago and has helped the brand find its unique baritone voice. There is a keen sense of humor in play here; yet, this is no-nonsense product advertising. In other words, there’s something for […]
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Sid Lee Collective, an agency-sponsored incubator fueling employees’ passion projects, is opening an art exhibit on Saturday entitled “Refuge.”
The exhibit includes various expressions of the importance of aiding refugees from war-torn countries, from photography documenting children in a camp for Syrian refugees to a model representing refugee camp cubicles and banners with messages such as “Home For Now” and “Imagine Equality.” Some of the art is being sold, with proceeds from their sale, along with related merchandise, going to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Refugee and Immigrant Fund.
“It’s a platform for us to push passion products, and we thought we’d look at something with a bit more purpose, that’s more meaningful,” Sid Lee New York executive creative director Dan Brooks explained to Adweek. “We came upon the idea of harnessing the power of the collective and bringing creatives under one banner to make a statement about civil liberties and the refugee crisis.”
Clearly, the installation was also motivated by recent political events, such as the president’s executive order targeting refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
“More and more, you’re seeing people who weren’t normally activists taking a stand, with the equality marches in New York and the news coverage around the travel ban…It’s an opportunity and maybe even a responsibility now for people who are involved in communication and creativity to use a bit of their influence to inspire people and be purpose-driven,” he added.
Images (top to bottom): Adrian Yu, Jo Metson, Sid Lee
As a signature event celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary, this year’s National Canadian Film Day 150 will see more than 1,500 screenings in schools, theatres and public squares across the country and in consulates and embassies around the world. To help promote and drive participation in the festival on April 19, Reel Canada, the nonprofit that […]
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Agencies are notorious for being the pauper’s child when it comes to promoting their own brand. But The PIA Agency, a woman-owned agency in San Diego, isn’t playing the avoidance game. “Our great country was built from brilliant minds and resilient souls from all over the world,” says David Clark, PIA’s executive creative director. Create […]
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Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners is one of the few ad agenices in America worthy of admiration. The reasons are many, and now we have a new one. Forced to defend the account once again, BSSP is walking away from BMW Mini after 11 years. According to Campaign, agency CEO , Gret Stern said: There […]
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Wexley School for Girls won Best Of Show at the 2017 American Advertising Awards Seattle (still known as the ADDYs) for the following War Dragons spot. Ads for adventure-focused video games tend to stay pretty straightforward, which is partially why the dark humor and unexpected twists of this spot work so well. As Ian Cohen […]
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Do you get tired of reading about how the ad agency business sucks, and how no one wants to work in advertising any longer due to the long hours, low pay and lack of prestige? Personally, I see many of these sour takes on the industry as little more than ill-informed attempts to fill space. […]
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Havas is shaking things up around the world.
This week, the independent network made several key changes to its global structure in a still-developing move designed to create a series of full-service divisions arranged by region. The news first ran in Adweek on Friday.
As part of the shift, chief creative officer of the Americas Toygar Bazarkaya was fired. The agency statement:
“Toygar Bazarkaya, Chief Creative Officer of the Americas, is leaving Havas. We would like to thank Toygar for his leadership over the last year and a half, as well as for the significant contributions he has brought to our agency and our clients. Toygar has been a valuable partner and trusted colleague to many of us at Havas.”
Havas Chicago CEO Paul Marobella and CCO Jason Peterson (who was promoted to president in 2013) will now be co-chairs of the U.S. Creative division while also retaining their positions within the Chicago operation. As of next week, creative leads in all North American offices of Havas and Arnold report directly to Peterson with Havas New York CEO Laura Maness and Arnold global CEO Pam Hamlin reporting to Marobella.
Instagram master Peterson will also oversee the search for Bazarkaya’s successor.
The news comes a few weeks after 13-year veteran Andrew Benett stepped down as global CEO of Havas Creative with chairman/CEO Yannick Bolloré assuming the role.
New York-based global CMO Matt Weiss and global chief content officer Vin Farrell also recently left in what we hear was an unrelated move. Their positions will not be filled because Bolloré has chosen to restructure the entire network around a group of newly named regional chairmen, thereby rendering such global roles less relevant. As the CEO explained in a small Thursday press briefing announcing the launch of a new Havas Village in London, “we believe we need to transcend traditional definitions of creative and media to better deliver for our clients.”
This means putting the creative and media sides of each region under one P&L and handing more power to the chairmen: European group CEO Chris Hirst in the U.K.; Havas Media global CEO Alfonso Rodés Vilà in Spain; Bolloré himself in the U.S. and France; Havas Creative Group CEO Mike Amour in APAC; and Jorge Percovich in Latin America. The U.S. reorg was the last in this group to be announced.
The rearrangement also sees former Havas Media global MD and Vivendi president Dominique Delport named global managing director and chief client officer for the entire Havas Group, overseeing “global clients relationships, marketing initiatives and New Business.”
According to the press release from London, Bolloré’s goal is to develop a more “client-centric and region-based organization” in order to “ensure agility and a seamless experience for clients.” It all sounds a lot like Havas’s own take on recent pivots by its larger competitors.
Expect more such changes to come.
If you answered “yes” to all of these questions, then VITRO has a sweeeet fucking Airbnb deal for you.
The MDC Partners agency, which announced plans to open in Austin just over a year ago, would love to give a depressingly empty room in said office to a “CMO or higher level executive from a nationally known brand with an annual marketing budget of at least one million dollars” for a few days for the low low price of FREE. Or $10 per night, depending on which section of the listing you’re referencing.*
The listing claims to include “a real bed” and a bathroom, but there’s an important disclaimer:
Enjoy a truly immersive and elusive “millennial experience” sleeping in an empty room just to be part of the buzz of a city lavishing itself in hedonistic celebrations of creative commerce. There are actually currently no beds, but you can drag a couch in from the lobby, or we’re always happy to provide an extra IKEA desk to shelter under.
The whole thing is kind of amusing, and it could theoretically eliminate the universal complaint from everyone who visits Austin for SXSW or any other event: the awful, interminable traffic.
Is VITRO simply desperate for new business?? Of course they are! They’re an ad agency.
“SXSW has grown so much, it seems like each year is a new exercise in what agency or publication or brand can out do everybody else with something bigger, newer or even more outlandish,” said CEO Tom Sullivan. “We wanted to take the opposite approach. To go scrappy rather than big. So rather than reinventing something, we used an existing, highly popularized platform to make a point around an undeniable SXSW truth—that it’s impossible to find a place to stay. Plus, it never hurts to have a little fun with the (admittedly awesome) ridiculousness that is Austin during South By.”
A key question remains: what should one do at SXSW? Joe Biden or Ke$ha? Mastodon or Special Agent Dale Cooper? Whatever, just make sure you go to the GSD&M party. We hear Matthew McConaughey will definitely not show up.
Finally, check out that logo.
*VITRO promises to totally refund the lame $10 minimum fee required by the corporate suits at Airbnb.
In honor of International Women’s Day, DDB is temporarily changing its name to DDB&R for the day, in honor of the agency’s first chief copywriter, Phyllis Robinson.
“The move to add Phyllis’ name to the door is a symbolic reminder of the contributions many women of her generation and later generations have made to the ad industry,” DDB North America CEO Wendy Clark said in a statement. “It also signals to our own employees our continued non-negotiable belief that talent has no gender.”
Robinson joined DDB in 1949 after starting her career with Bresnick & Solomont and Grey. She was the copywriter behind iconic campaigns for Levy’s Jewish Rye, Ohrbach and Polaroid.
In addition to the name change, which will appear on social media and on email signatures, as well as on DDB’s door and in its meeting rooms, the effort also includes a social media initiative riffing on some of Robinson’s most famous ads. A famous print ad for Levy’s, for example, is changed to “You don’t have to be male to change advertising.”
Today we’re DDB&R in honor of #PhyllisRobinson & her classic work. Learn more at https://t.co/wFozNt7AyM. #DDBandR #InternationalWomensDay pic.twitter.com/TCe7wthGHe
— DDB&R Worldwide (@DDB_Worldwide) March 8, 2017
There’s also a video riffing on Robinson’s Polaroid campaign which starred Candice Bergen.
While most of the efforts honoring Robinson will only be around for International Women’s Day, Adweek reports that a quote appearing in DDB meeting rooms today, “Do the kind of work nobody else is doing,” will remain permanently.
Zambezi recently promoted Jean Freeman, who took majority ownership of the agency two years ago and previously served as COO, to the role of chief executive officer. Freeman replaced co-founder Chris Raih, who will continue to lead new business efforts as president, in the role.
In a statement, Freeman, who last year introduced a revamped benefits package for the agency including three months of paid parental leave, “baby bonuses” for new and current parents and “unlimited paid time-off,” said that Zambezi aims “to become the most admired and progressive independent agency in the country.”
In one of her first decisions as CEO, Freeman decided to close the Los Angeles agencies offices today in honor of International Women’s Day and in support of “A Day Without A Woman,” a “one day demonstration of economic solidarity” in support of women’s rights and the rights of “all gender-oppressed people.”
In an internal memo Freeman sent to staff last Friday, she wrote that rather than solely have women participate in “A Day Without A Woman,” the agency was extending the effort to its men as well and that “Men and women need to be united to support this effort together.”
Here’s the internal memo in full:
Our company will be closed Wednesday, March 8th.In support of A Day Without A Woman, a movement to highlight the impact that women have on our society, Zambezi will be closed.The movement has asked businesses to stand with women by giving them a day off to participate in solidarity.Instead of just allowing women to have the day off to engage in this effort, we are extending this to the entire company. Men and women need to be united to support this effort together.
Y&R recently teamed up with U.S. News & World Report and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for the second annual Best Countries Report.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the United States’ reputation suffered following the 2016 presidential election, with our country falling three positions to the number seven in the Overall Best Countries Ranking. Nearly 75 percent of respondents claimed to have lost respect for U.S. leadership following the election.
The United States does remain the most powerful country in the world, however, followed closely by President Trump’s “new best friend” in Russia. (We feel like that should be China, but what do we know?)
Switzerland topped the Overall Best Countries Ranking, with former number one Germany falling to number four. Canada held fast to the number two position while the U.K. stayed at number three, perhaps a bit surprising in light of the Brexit vote. Rising stability in Japan saw the country climb two positions to number five.
What does this all mean? The world is in disarray, with accepted norms upended.
“Our data captured widespread global concern for the social and geopolitical changes that cast many nations into uncertainty and turmoil,” Y&R BAV Consulting chairman and CEO John Gerzema said in a statement. “The new rankings reflect people’s desire to restore some sense of order by rewarding nations they perceive as championing neutrality, stability and diplomacy.”
Best Countries Overall:
1. Switzerland
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. Germany
5. Japan
6. Sweden
7. United States
8. Australia
9. France
10. Norway
Check out the full results here.
Do the coastal elites who work in Manhattan and L.A. ad agencies truly understand what motivates the people in the middle of the nation to buy hamburgers, life insurance policies, and pickup trucks? Clearly, the best of them do. Carl’s Jr., for instance, runs sexist ads made by award-winning creatives from 72andsunny in Southern California. […]
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Independent Bay Area agency barrettSF has promoted three recent hires to associate partner status.
Director of brand strategy Jillian Davis, creative director Todd Eisner and head of production Conor Duignan officially got the designation today, said founder and ECD Jamie Barrett in a release.
Davis arrived at barrettSF in the summer of 2015 after working in strategy roles at Minneapolis shop mono and San Francisco design firm office. Both Eisner and Duignan are veterans of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners; the former was an ACD there before moving to Argonaut while the latter spent nearly a decade with GS&P as a broadcast producer.
Eisner came to barrettSF just over a year ago and went on to lead creative for clients including WWE 2K, Mafia 2K, Yellow Pages and Rubio’s Restaurants. Duignan joined last June and now works across all the agency’s accounts.
“Hiring Jillian, Conor and Todd were three of the best decisions we’ve ever made,” said Jamie Barrett in a statement. They’ve made us better in every way, and we couldn’t imagine a future without them. Patrick Kelly, Molly Warner and I are honored to call them our partners.”
Warner became an associate partner last April. The agency’s three core partners include Barrett, Kelly and ECD Pete Harvey, who also came aboard from GS&P in 2013.
[Pic via]
TBWA’s internal media unit Backslash recently rolled out a short video addressing the issue of being black in the notably diversity-challenged advertising industry, entitled “Candid Conversations: Black in Advertising.”
The video caps off a Black History Month which also saw Havas Chicago’s “#BlackAtWork” obstacle course tackling the same topic.
“Candid Conversations” spotlights creatives at TBWA and other agencies, as well as Airbnb CMO Jonathan Mildenhall, who described himself as “the only brown face” at McCann Erickson in 1990. Creatives express the unique challenges of being black in the advertising industry and the importance of diversity in advertising. TBWAChiatDay junior strategist Jasmine Spraglin also cites the lack of diversity in the ads she saw on TV growing up as one of the reasons she joined the industry in the first place. One of the more appalling anecdotes of racism in the industry comes from chief creative officer Vida Cornelius, who recalls a CMO addressing her shorts and t-shirt clad junior creatives as if they were her bosses.
At one point, shortly after Mildenhall appears onscreen, the camera briefly focuses on a certain industry blog’s post about Mildenhall calling out the lack of diversity in the Cannes Lions Festival’s jury president selections. Thanks, guys.
It’s hard to imagine anyone, barring the willfully ignorant, completely blind to the diversity issues in advertising, Backslash here provides a good perspective on the issue from the creatives and other industry professionals who know it better than anyone. The video was circulated through TBWA’s global network last week and screened at TBWAChiatDay’s Los Angeles office.
“We felt that, for Black History Month, it was important to think about African American culture as it relates to advertising,” TBWA Worldwide chief strategy officer Nick Barham told Adweek.
“There are conversations that people of color in advertising have when they’re by themselves, and I wanted people to hear that,” added Backslash content director Chay Lee. “Change comes from people having conversations. Once you’re on the radar, anything can happen.”
CREDITS
Jack Morton Worldwide won an assignment from the Ad Council to work on social media, content and community management for “Love Has No Labels,” the bias and diversity PSA campaign it launched with R/GA in 2015, following a formal review.
“We’re happy to be supporting the Ad Council and encouraging people to rethink bias across race, gender [and other areas],” Jack Morton vice president, senior account director Alicia Durfree told AgencySpy. “We’ll be working with them on furthering social media strategy and providing great content.”
Durfree added that the team at Jack Morton were already fans of the “Love Has No Labels” campaign, which she called “a great fit from both a personal and agency standpoint.”
“The whole team is proud to support it and feels passionate about the cause,” she said, adding that it coincides with IPG’s own diversity initiatives.
Presently, Jack Morton will be focused on supporting distribution for the “Fans of Love” effort R/GA and the Ad Council rolled out for Valentine’s Day. The agency currently has “Fans of Love” content planned through March and will gauge further efforts based on audience reaction. Following the conclusion of the “Fans of Love” effort, the assignment will be more open ended, with Jack Morton collaborating with the Ad Council and R/GA on social media strategy and content, as well as community management.
Havas Chicago tackles the everyday racism of a typical agency workplace with its #BlackAtWork “jobstacle course” for Black History Month.
“I love reading these articles about how white and old the industry is, and the industry itself acknowledges and talks about the problem versus actually changing and activating on the kind of issues we have,” Havas Chicago chief creative officer Jason Peterson told Adweek. “In my point of view, America is multicultural, so if you’re an agency that doesn’t have or isn’t made up of a multicultural point of view, there’s no way you can do your job properly.”
So Peterson turned to art director Jason LaFlore and other creatives in Chicago to come up with a Black History Month project that would “show our point of view and not be passive and have a real active positioning.”
The initiative addresses not the overt racism of, say, an agency CEO comparing black people and Guatemalans to monkeys, but rather the subtler forms of racism which nonetheless make navigating the workplace environment an added challenge for black employees. Located in the lobby of Havas Chicago’s building, the obstacle course is meant to make it clear how subtle forms of racism can make the job more difficult while also addressing the lack of diversity in the advertising industry (and the connection between the latter and the prevalence of the former). The obstacle course will remain up for the remainder of the month.
Phrases showing the kind of passive and not-so-passive racism black employees might face like “That’s so ghetto,” “Can you teach me to Dougie?” and “You don’t sound black” force visitors to dodge out of their path in one exhibit. (Side note: remember this?)
A “Beam of Perception,” meanwhile, challenges participants to walk a fine line on a balance beam between “Angry” and “Lazy” without falling over.
Now imagine doing that every day.
“If you’re too nonchalant about your job, you’re automatically seen as lazy,” LaFlore told Adweek. “If you’re too passionate about your job, you might be seen as the angry black man or the angry black woman.”
Omnicom agency TBWA Worldwide purchased a majority stake in independent U.K. agency Lucky Generals, finalizing a deal proposed last month.
TBWA declined to specify about its stake in the agency and any financial details about the transaction.
Following the acquisition, TBWA will form a new TBWA U.K. Group, consisting of TBWALondon and Lucky Generals, which will continue to operate as separate agencies under the same group. Lucky Generals founders Helen Calcraft, Andy Nairn and Danny Brooke-Taylor will remain in their current leadership roles at the agency.
“Lucky Generals’ vision, a creative company for people on a mission, is completely aligned with our own: a radically open creative collective,” TBWA Worldwide president and CEO Troy Ruhanen said in a statement. “They are relentlessly creative and innovative, with a focus on disruptive work, platforms and businesses. What Helen, Andy, Danny and their teams have built in a short period of time is remarkable. I cannot think of a better addition to the family.”
“We have been fortunate enough to have had conversations with many international groups, but Omnicom and TBWA Worldwide were the only ones to understand our desire for autonomy — perhaps because entrepreneurialism, disruption and creativity are hardwired into their DNA,” added Calcraft. “We already feel like we’ve established a great personal connection with the team. This deal will allow us to preserve our unique culture, build our brand and grow. Most important, with the support of Omnicom and TBWA, we will be able to better deliver on our clients’ needs in the UK and around the globe.”
Lucky Generals’ currently employs less than 50 and works with such clients as Amazon, Unilever, Pot Noodle and Paddy Power, according to its homepage and LinkedIn profile.
CMD is a Portland stalwart. The shop opened its doors in 1978 as a provider of slide shows and filmstrips for business meetings and other corporate presentations. Today, the agency is one of the largest in Stump Town, employing more than 170 people and pulling in millions of dollars in revenue each year. Interestingly, CMD […]
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Content marketing has been around since John Deere started a magazine for farmers in the late 19th century. For the past 10 to 12 years, the discipline has come back with a furry, as digital reawakened the opportunity in long-form brand and multi-platform storytelling. The changes have been disruptive, and many clients and agencies continue […]
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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.
