Hasta La Creative!

Dentsu Aegis Network’s “global mobile-first agency” Fetch is opening a new office in Los Angeles, led by Ruairi McGuckin as managing partner, West Coast.

The expansion follows recent business growth for the agency’s New York and San Francisco offices, including the additions of Travelocity, GSN Games and Yelp to its client roster. McGuckin will be responsible for overseeing accounts for the Los Angeles based client roster, including the recent addition of Hulu, while reporting directly to executive vice president, U.S. managing director Guillaume Lelait. 

“LA is a natural progression for Fetch. We have several clients in this market and it offers a wealth of access to talent and technology innovation – a critical component to continuing to grow our US presence,” said Lelait. “Our expansion into LA also speaks [to] our move towards delivering mobile-first strategies to the growing entertainment economy coming out of that region and we believe Ruairi’s experience will allow us to tap into this and many other facets of the market to further enhance overall North American offering.”

McGuckin arrives at Fetch from Criteo, where he has served as head of account strategy, mobile since October of 2013, following under a year as director of marketing, customer acquisition with Kabam. Before that he spent two and half years with Fox Mobile Group as vice president, digital marketing and a year with SGN Games as vice president, marketing.

“Fetch’s expertise is strategically aligned with the challenges and opportunities mobile advertisers face in today’s increasingly fragmented marketplace,” said McGuckin. “LA is ripe with brands who take a mobile-first approach, but may need help figuring out the best place to invest time and resources. I am thrilled to be leading Fetch’s brand expansion into this market and look forward to where we are headed as an industry.”

Additionally, Fetch announced a series of senior hires, including U.S. executive creative director Octavio Maron, account director Natalie Robinson and head of programmatic Joshua Niederriter. 

Maron will be responsible for the “overall direction, strength, profile, output, and distinction of the agency’s creative brand.” He joins Fetch from Pontomobi (part of Dentsu Aegis Network Brazil), where he has served as CCO since July of 2013. Before that he spent four years as executive creative director with AG2 Publicis Modem.

Robinson will serve as the regional lead for Hotels.com North America, AOL and upcoming new business wins. She  joins the agency from Essence, where she has served as an associate account director in New York since last April, following around a year and a half as a senior account manager in London. Prior to that she spent a year and a half as a digital account manager with Neo@Ogilvy.

Niederriter arrives at Fetch from AKQA, where he has served as associate director, media technology since July of 2014, following stints as a campaign manager and technical supervisor with the agency.

Former Ogilvy & Mather executive creative director Tommy Henvey and executive producer Patti McConnell launched Something Different, a creative marketing boutique in Brooklyn that “will leverage a lean and flexible business structure to provide brands with the thing that agencies do well—produce great creative—while avoiding pitfalls that cause work to bog down and cost too much.”

The pair plan to avoid overstaffing and attendant layers of bureaucracy with an agency model that assembles creative, production and planning teams on an assignment basis to work directly and intimately with clients. In that respect it somewhat resembles recent project-based entities like San Francisco’s Partners in Crime while maintaining the same sort of small permanent staff as Erich & Kallman and Joan, the new shop launched by Jamie Robinson and Lisa Clunie. 

“We’ll bring in the right people at the right time,” Henvey explained. “If we need a planner, we’ll pull in a great planner. If we need a designer, we’ll hire a designer who has the right head for what the project needs.”

Before launching Something Else, Henvey spent around eight years as an executive creative director with Ogilvy & Mather, working with clients such as  Time Warner Cable, Kraft, NASCAR and Citizens Bank. He previously served as an ECD with mcgarrybowen and a GCD at Y&R after nine years in BBDO’s creative department.

McConnell joined Ogilvy & Mather in 2001 and served in a variety of executive producer and senior partner positions, most recently as senior partner/executive producer for North America. She also held the partner/executive producer title at JWT New York and worked as an executive producer at BBDO.

“Clients are looking for a different way to get things done, that’s why there are a billion new places popping up, trying to figure out the best way to do it. We figured a billion and one might be the magic number,” Henvey said. “The process of making things today can be tedious. Our plan is to make it smoother, more efficient and more fun.”

“Clients want to sit across the table from people they like and feel comfortable collaborating with,” added McConnell. “They want to work with people who allow them to have a voice in their advertising and branding, and who respect their voice.”

Yesterday you almost certainly learned that one of the world’s biggest advertisers had announced a definitive move away from that thing we call “traditional advertising.”

Unlike Sprint, Mondelez didn’t hire a PR veteran to launch its own in-house studio and take work away from its agencies of record. It will turn instead to media companies–namely, BuzzFeed and Fox to date–to help produce more non-ad stuff in the way of apps, games and sponsored content.

So what does that mean for the company’s many agency partners? They’ll be collaborating with the BuzzFeed team.

Today we spoke to the client’s global head of content and media monetization Laura Henderson and BuzzFeed’s global CRO Lee Brown.

Regarding the new model, Henderson said:

“This new approach will see us forming new models to build muscle memory and allow us to future-proof against the changing landscape. We are pushing our agency partners; creative and media, to think differently about how we develop content that engages our consumers, and ultimately how we rethink the advertising model to create more value for everyone.”

In other words, agency partners will be spending less time on their own ads. Brown said, “”Our global partnership with Mondelez fits into two major buckets: branded content as well as the co-creation of unbranded content.” The example cited was this February Facebook video explaining how to use Triscuits to make cheddar and sour cream bites. It won’t win anything at Cannes this month, but it got more than 23 million views…which is more than any recent case study we’ve seen.

“The goal is for our agencies to collaborate in new ways with these partners,” said Henderson.

You may remember that Mondelez ended its relationship with Mother New York back in January after the agency had run creative on its Sour Patch Kids brand for several years. A rep told us, “We do not have plans for new TV at this time so they don’t currently have an assignment with us for this year.”

Seems like they were already moving toward the new model. Expect to hear this refrain more often in the coming months and years.

Two weeks after we posted on Campbell Ewald downsizing in its Detroit office, another round of layoffs hit the network this week.

An agency spokesperson clarified that C-E’s New York and Los Angeles offices were not affected but acknowledged that, “As earlier noted there have been layoffs this month in the Detroit and San Antonio offices. These layoffs represent about 10% of the total Campbell Ewald workforce.”

The downsizing move is directly tied to the loss of multiple accounts including–to our knowledge–USAA, U.S. Navy, Edward Jones and Henry Ford Health Center. Three of those four losses came about specifically because of the “Ghetto Day” email controversy while Y&R recently began working on the U.S. Navy business last month after a review and nearly a year’s worth of legal challenges.

We hear that the total let go in Detroit this week was in the mid-two digit range and that the creative department was particularly affected. Campbell Ewald currently lists 500-1000 employees, which indicates that the number let go over the last month totals somewhere between 50 and 100 based on the statement above. The agency named a new CEO and CCO last month.

MullenLowe has not responded to multiple email queries regarding the launch of its San Antonio office, which was created to take over the USAA account from C-E. We continue to hear that a small number of staffers who worked on that business at Campbell Ewald are now on the account at MullenLowe.

It’s unclear whether the Campbell Ewald San Antonio operation will stay open moving forward as it was a dedicated office serving USAA.

London-based VCCP signed a “don’t call it M&A” deal with San Francisco’s MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER in order for the two agencies to form an international creative partnership, Adweek reports.

The newly formed network will include VCCP’s London, Berlin, Madrid, Sydney and Prague offices and MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER’s San Francisco headquarters, with plans for MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER to open a New York office in the coming months. In the long term, the agencies hope to collectively expand to expand to markets in South America and Asia. 

While VCCP has been looking for a creative partner on this side of the Atlantic for some time, MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER has dismissed offers from holding companies to form such partnerships in the past.

“We never gave it much thought. It wasn’t something we needed or were looking for,” MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER executive creative director John Matejczyk told Adweek. 

But VCCP, he said, is “ambitious in the same way that we are. They’re trying to help clients, look for business opportunities, and look for creative ways to figure out solutions. We thought we could go further together. It feels like the start of something cool.”

“We wanted to find a partner in the U.S. who had the same focus on creative work, the same challenger mentality. We spent two years looking for that agency, and when I met these guys, I thought, I wasted two years of my life,” said VCCP CEO Adrian Coleman. “It’s the coming together of two agencies that can help grow each other.”

“From a client perspective, on a global level, it’s giving the market an alternative from typical holding companies,” he added.

None of the details regarding the financial structure of this deal have been made public, so feel free to be confused.

Former Wieden + Kennedy ECD Jamie Robinson has partnered with Lisa Clunie of lifestyle site Refinery29 to launch a creative agency in New York.

The new shop is called Joan, and it officially opens today with General Mills as its first client.

According to the release, Joan will offer clients “big brand thinking and high end creative with a modern understanding of culture, distribution and content creation.”

This is familiar territory for Clunie, who is herself an agency veteran. Last March, she stepped down as senior partner and director of creative management at Ogilvy, allowing CCO Steve Simpson to joke about “assaults upon her optimism” in the internal memo. She spent just over a year as COO at Refinery29, which is often cited as a new media success story earning an outsize share of coverage for its approach to that thing we call “sponsored content.”

“This is an exciting yet challenging time for brands to connect with their audiences. Speed and agility are key ingredients, but brands need more,” said Clunie in a statement. “Jaime and I are excited to combine audience development, distribution planning and content strategy with big, game changing brand ideas. Our process of co-developing content with clients, testing and learning will make working with us more effective and frankly, more fun.”

This is indeed a challenging market, but W+K’s Mark Fitzloff thinks Joan will be OK. The pair have already begun working on unspecified yogurt, snack and meal-focused projects for General Mills–and the client’s chief creative officer Michael Fanuele called them “what the industry has been waiting for,” adding, “They’re ten tons of talent in a nine ton bag of joy.”

Regarding the inspiration behind this new agency’s name, Robinson said:

“Our name was inspired by all of the Joans throughout history who have brought big changes to the world–from reshaping rock and roll, transforming comedy, putting a new face on protests in the 60’s and, of course, the Joan who triumphed on the French battlefield. Lisa and I want to commit all of our positive energy to creating a different kind of client relationship–one of listening, understanding, collaborating and making the best work possible, together.”

Joan will also focus on select causes, establishing a Foundation of Diversity that will dedicate a portion of total profits to select groups and providing each employee with an unspecified financial stake in the company. (The release calls that approach “the smartest way to deeply connect people with the work and its outcomes.”)

Prior to joining Ogilvy in 2011, Clunie held various accounts and management positions at Fallon, BBH and Saatchi & Saatchi New York, where she was managing director.

Robinson left W+K last October after approximately eight months along with fellow ECD David Kolbusz, who now leads Droga5 London. She previously spent six years in the creative department of San Francisco’s Pereira & O’Dell.

As soon as Tamara Ingram became JWT’s new global chairman/CEO following the March resignation of Gustavo Martinez, she let the world know that “diversity and inclusion will be at the top of my agenda … [because] companies don’t value women enough.”

According to AdAge’s sources, she already made good on that promise by planning a Diversity and Inclusion Council.

AdAge’s report includes several interesting details:

• Ingram announced the Council in an internal video
• The agency has partnered with consulting firm inQUEST to act as an objective third party reviewing its efforts on this front
• Ingram will also launch a “talk to me” hotline for employees who feel threatened or uncomfortable about “certain issues”

Perhaps most surprisingly, JWT chief talent officer Laura Agostini–who played a central role in the Erin Johnson lawsuit and allegedly declined to act on Johnson’s repeated complaints about Martinez’s behavior–will retain her position.

JWT also hired former Y&R chief talent officer Celia Berk to fill the newly-created role of chief employee engagement officer while simultaneously acting as group talent partner within the larger WPP organization. Her LinkedIn profile describes the new gigs as such:

As Chief Employee Experience Officer, reports to the CEO and focuses on ensuring the work lives of JWT employees are as rewarding as possible.

As Group Talent Partner, reports to WPP’s Chief Client Team Officer and works with the company’s 45 global account teams to advance WPP’s strategic focus on “horizontality.”

According to the AdAge story (and yes, they definitely scooped us on this), Ingram released an internal video in which she essentially repeated the same points in the U.K. appearance linked atop this post regarding the importance of “represent[ing] all people,” including every member of JWT’s own staff.

An agency spokesperson referred us to WPP’s PR firm Finsbury, which has not provided any comment at the time of this post. It would certainly seem like someone within the agency spoke to AdAge, but there’s no official statement or rollout yet.

Expect to hear more next week.

San Francisco agency Heat is adding an office in New York, its first expansion since being acquired by Deloitte Digital in late February.

For now the New York outpost, which launches in June, will be run out of the agency’s San Francisco headquarters; a permanent location for the New York office will be announced later this year. To lead the new office, the agency is bringing on industry veteran Tim Maleeny as general manager and chief strategy officer and tasking him with injecting the agency’s culture into the Manhattan ad world.

Maleeny joins the agency from Havas New York, where he has served as managing partner and CSO for the past three years. Prior to joining Havas, he spent over three and a half years at Ogilvy & Mather as head of strategic planning. Before that he spent eight years as director of strategy for Puclicis & Hal Riney, following four as senior vice president, group account director with Hal Riney & Partners, during which time he worked with Heat’s principals, John Elder, Steve Stone and Mike Barrett.

“We have to bring our culture to New York as best we can but use a truly New York City-centric approach,” Barrett, who serves as Heat’s managing director, told Adweek. “I think the difference is the San Francisco ad environment feels like a more collaborative partnership which I think New York clients will like.”

“With West Coast agencies, it’s about creative first and it’s very idea driven. New York is more process oriented,” added Maleeny. 

“You could argue the last thing this industry needs is another new ad agency,” he said. “What it is yearning for is a new kind of agency.”

“As we go into New York, it’s not just Heat—it’s Heat plus Deloitte Digital,” added Elder,who serves as president of Heat.

Former CP+B executives Jeff Steinhour and Markham Cronin launched a full-service agency in Miami called Markham & Stein.

The pair, who have over 50 years of industry experience between them, spent 10 years together at CP+B, with Cronin handling creative and Steinhour accounts, before Markham left for West Wayne in 2000. Following a stint there and at Carmichael Lynch as a creative director, and two years as CCO at BrightHouse, he decided to launch Markham Unlimited in 2005.

“I was spending 20 percent of my time doing the valuable part of my job for clients and the other 80 percent actually running the agency,” Markham told Adweek. “So when the opportunity came to talk to Jeff about maybe doing this, there was no question it was something we should try and do together.”

Steinhour was one of CP+B’s four founding partners along with Chuck Porter, Sam Crispin and Alex Bogusky; until recently, he served as partner, vice chairman and managing director of the agency’s Miami office. He says Markham & Stein is “A new kind of shop … that brings the strategic and creative power of a big agency in a more nimble and tenacious package,” adding that “Clients are looking for groundbreaking branding solutions that once upon a time required a large agency.”

International boat engine maker Mercury Marine became the agency’s first official client, but Steinhour and Cronin have been working together on clients such as Markham Unlimited’s H & H Jewels, Coconut Grove Business Development District and Oriental Bank for several months. (The new agency inherited Cronin’s clients and his 21 employees.) The first work for Mercury Marine, for which M&S won global AOR duties after a review involving at least five other agencies, will launch in the fall. 

“As we’ve grown, we talk to bigger and bigger clients which are talking to smaller and smaller agencies,” Cronin told Adweek. “The old model of dumping every piece of marketing activity into a big agency is at its end: We’re seeing more project-based work and work split into separate disciplines. This benefits a shop of our size as the nimbleness and lack of overhead gets us talking to national and global clients.”

Regarding the formation of this new entity, Steinhour added: “After I decided to leave CP+B last fall, Mark called me and said, ‘I could use your help with a couple of pitches. That went well, one thing led to another … and we said, maybe it’s time to do something more formal. We formed a new LLC and called all of his clients, none of who had any issues. It felt pretty natural.”

The duo chose to launch the agency in Miami, Cronin says, because “It’s one of the most vibrant, thriving cities in the U.S. with heavy South American and Latin American influences. Both of us have lived in Miami for the past 25 years, and selfishly I believe that [the city] deserves a handful of good agencies.”

The agency also has a couple of clients based in Puerto Rico, with a small number of employees based in the U.S. territory focusing on those accounts.

On Monday, we wrote about Deutsch parting ways with senior vice president, director of diversity Felicia Geiger and eliminating the position altogether. 

We’re not generally ones to “beat a dead horse,” but we missed Campaign’s recent conversation with Geiger, who said: “I was told that the agency was no longer going to invest in diversity. They wanted to put their efforts behind other initiatives, such as technology.”

After news of Geiger’s dismissal became public, Deutsch positioned the decision as a strategic move to shift responsibility for diversity efforts away from a single executive.

Before leaving the agency, Geiger told Campaign that she suggested the agency fill one of its recently vacated CCO roles with a diversity candidate: “I had suggested this would be a great way to infuse diversity at the most senior levels, and that suggestion was not taken up.”

Those positions were filled at the end of last month by creative veterans Dan Kelleher and Jason Bagley. 

Geiger’s job at one point included a budget “well over six figures,” which included investments in programs such as the Multicultural Advertising Intern Program and nonprofit TORCH, which exposes New York high schoolers to a range of career opportunities, but that budget was slashed considerably around 2014. She was told in January that the agency’s diversity budget, and in all likelihood her position, would be eliminated.

“I said I would like to keep this confidential, because as the agency cheerleader, people would flip if they found out,” she said. “And we agreed that we would keep this under wraps,” she added.

This week’s reaction shows she wasn’t exactly wrong about people flipping out.