Hasta La Creative!

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!

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.

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.

HMH, with offices in Portland and Charlotte, won a Rosey Award this week for their in-airport advertising for Palmetto Bluff, the high end Lowcountry resort located between Hilton Head Island, SC and Savannah, GA. The campaign reminds visitors to Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport that true Lowcountry adventure awaits them just across the state line. By […]

The post Lowcountry Luxury Within Reach, Geographically Speaking appeared first on AdPulp.

Omnicom’s 180LA will soon move out of its longtime office in downtown Santa Monica after just over a decade.

The agency’s staff are getting ready to say goodbye to the Santa Monica Pier and hello to nearby Playa Vista’s Silicon Beach, which is one of several corporate “campuses” in the area. (It’s not to be confused with nearby Playa Jefferson, which also houses Omnicom and R/GA among other companies.)

An agency spokesperson wrote:

Our lease in Santa Monica is up and we’re moving to Playa Vista this summer where several agencies now reside. The move will allow 180LA to capitalize on better value and amenities. We are busy creating our new space, and look forward to moving the 180 culture a little further South.

The shop will now be much closer to certain competitors like 72andSunny and Ogilvy along with media agencies (Group M, Mindshare) and tech giants (Google, Yahoo, etc.).

As for the reason behind the move, 180LA declined to comment. But the parties that brought it to our attention noted the recent loss of the Adidas account and subsequent departure of some executives including creative directors David Povill and Dave Cuccinello and chief strategy officer/managing partner Mike Harris. The Amsterdam office’s Adidas co-leads also went to Joan in January. (Adidas has yet to comment on that review.)

180LA, which ECD Rafael Rizuto called “the best performing office in the entire TBWA network” less than a year ago, continues to produce the work. According to another source close to the matter, a team from MillerCoors traveled to Los Angeles this week to review forthcoming campaigns for Miller Lite.

AT&T is moving the leadership of its entertainment division from Atlanta to El Segundo, California, and its agency partners are following along.

“Our Entertainment Group will be moving a few hundred managerial jobs from Atlanta to Los Angeles and Dallas,” an AT&T spokesperson confirmed to Adweek.

Omnicom will open a Los Angeles office dedicated to the client, combining resources from BBDO and Hearts and Science. The new unit will be led by current account leaders willing to relocate along with new hires in the L.A. area.

“BBDO and Hearts & Science will be setting up an operation in Los Angeles to help service the AT&T Entertainment Group business,” an agency spokesperson explained. “We expect it to be fully up and running by the end of the year.”

The move follows AT&T’s 2015 acquisition of DirecTV, which was already headquartered in Los Angeles county. Since the merger, AT&T has made the streaming service it inherited from DirecTV the focus of multiple advertising campaigns, including the recently-launched “Terms & Conditions” campaign starring Mark Wahlberg and January’s “Everywhere” effort.

Despite rumors to the contrary, the Atlanta offices of BBDO and Hearts and Science will remain in operation as usual. From the original story: “The vast majority of employees at AT&T’s Atlanta offices will remain there as managers transition to the West Coast in order to be closer to the heart of the tech and entertainment industries.”

In addition to AT&T, BBDO Atlanta’s client roster includes Toys R’ Us, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Voya, Baseball For All, Bayer and the Georgia Lottery.

Creative director Niall Kelly and director of strategic planning Jason Last have left Toronto-based agency john st. to launch their own agency, Conflict.

Conflict opened its doors in Toronto today, launched based on the notion that brands today need to be in the “conflict-resolution business.” Kelly and Last will personally lead all projects at the agency, which is already working with several clients in the area on creative strategy projects.

“If you look at the world’s best brands and businesses, you see that conflict is not only the source of their creativity and innovation, but also the source of their storytelling,” Last said in a statement. “When a brand finds an enduring and meaningful problem to solve for people, and then builds a credible story and experience around that problem, it’s an extremely powerful way to build affinity and develop a competitive advantage. That’s what we’ll help clients do.”

“Clients don’t want ‘all hands on deck’,” Kelly added, “they want the right hands on deck. That’s what we hope to provide. We’re a premium offering, but we don’t necessarily carry a premium price tag because there’s efficiency that comes when you only pay for the professionals solving your problem. We’ve heard from a lot of marketers at both big and small companies that this is exactly what they’re looking for.”
Last and Kelly spent the last three years as part of the senior management team at john st., working with brands including Mitsubishi, WWF, Maple Leaf Foods and Canadian Safe School Network, for which they worked on “Kids Read Mean Tweets.”

Before joining john st. in October of 2014, Kelly spent four years as a creative director with TAXI, where he worked on Boston Pizza. Prior to that he served stints in art director roles at zig inc. and Cossette, working with clients including McDonald’s, IKEA, Molson, Best Buy and Pfizer.

Last began his career as a strategic planner with john st. in 2008, working with clients such as ING Direct, Mitsubishi, Maple Leaf Foods, AstraZeneca, Corby Distilleries, and War Child. He left john st. to join Leo Burnett Toronto in 2012 and led brand and creative strategy on TD Bank and served as Canadian planning lead on Kellogg’s before returning to john st. in 2014.

Veteran creatives Hunter Simms and Thompson Harrell have launched their own independent agency, named Hunter S. & Thompson after the “nomenclatural coincidence” of their combined names.

Of course, the moniker very closely resembles that of the late “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” author whose ashes were famously fired out of a cannon by some guy named Jonny (who spent $3 million for the privilege).

The agency’s website describes Hunter S. & Thompson’s focus as “design, tech and purpose.” It also includes many projects the two partners have worked on while employed by other organizations (as these things tend to do). Examples include Office Max’s Elf on the Shelf, a New York Times app and a bunch of work for Spotify.

Simms joined AKQA as a creative director last August following two years as an associate creative director with Razorfish. At Razorfish he worked with clients including Dove, Mercedes-Benz, Spotify and Smart Car (hence the portolio). Before joining Razorfish, he spent around four years as an associate creative director with Tribal Worldwide, working with brands such as Reebok, the NFL and Pepsi.

Harrell served as an art director at BBH New York for three years beginning in 2006, working with clients including AXE, Johnnie Walker, Miller Lite, Levi’s, Vaseline, All, LG, Miller Lite, SoBe, and British Airways, before leaving to go freelance in 2009.

During that period he worked with agencies including R/GA, TBWAChiatDay, BBDO and Deutsch, and clients such as Nike, American Express, Nissan, LG and Jameson, later spending a year as in-house creative director at tech startup Skillshare Company before once again venturing out on his own.

So what makes Hunter S. & Thompson unique? They do have an office in the same Lower East Side building that once housed the late Gawker. They’ve collectively won lots of plaudits, and yet they “remain humble, focused and ready to cross land, sea, air and Internet to work for you.”

We reached out yesterday hoping to hear more about their new venture but have yet to hear back. As Thompson himself once said, “I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.”

This week, The Martin Agency told employees that it would soon be closing its New York office.

“Yesterday we announced to employees that, as part of a strategic decision to focus on growth in Richmond and London, we are reducing our presence in NYC,” a spokesperson told Adweek. It’s not clear how many employees will be laid off and how many will relocate to IPG’s corporate space in the city.

That makes Martin the latest in a series of top shops to shutter their Manhattan operations in recent years, most prominently Leo Burnett and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (both in 2015). Fashion-focused agency Lipman also closed in 2013 due to what sources called problems with its parent company, and the subsequent Page Six item about “a mysterious man with a 2-by-4” who alleged attacked David Lipman the day after his shop filed for bankruptcy is an agency horror story for the ages.

Like LB and GS&P, Martin’s NYC location started as a satellite unit, and it lasted more than a decade. But the IPG-owned network also made several high-profile moves in an effort to shore up its Manhattan investment over the past two years, hiring top executives and expanding its creative team around the time it won the Kayak creative review.

Its most prominent work for that client poked fun at the old, reliable man bun.

The reason for the move is one unnamed company’s decision not to renew its contract with Martin. Given that Kayak and Italian eatery Giovanni Rana were the Manhattan location’s biggest clients, the possibilities are very limited. We’ve reached out to both companies and will update this story if we hear back.

Our headlining question remains, though: why do so many agencies without major offices in New York struggle to maintain a presence here?

Some reasons we’ve heard cited are the (obvious) overhead costs and the distance—both geographic and cultural—between New York and cities like Chicago, San Francisco or Martin’s hometown of Richmond, Virginia. There’s also a good bit more competition in terms of creative reviews, especially from agencies that are very well-established in the New York area.

Then, of course, there’s the general trend in which clients hesitate to maintain long-term relationships with their agencies of record…if they even name AORs in the first place.

But we hear that if you can make it here, you can also make it in any number of other, unspecified places.

Cheil Worldwide hired Cathy Butler as CEO for digital agency The Barbarian Group, with hopes that new leadership can help put the agency back on track after a rough couple of years that saw the departure of major clients such as Pepsi.

Last August, Barbarian Group co-founder Rick Webb told Digiday, “The fact that it’s still around at all is a testament to its heritage, since right now it is literally being run into the ground.”

In December of 2015, CEO Sophie Kelly left the agency to be replaced by Peter Kim, who was then succeeded by interim CEO Aaron Lau less than nine months later. Multiple sources at the time told us that Cheil Worldwide made the decision to replace Kim, but he disputed that claim in a blog post where he said, “The truth is out there, but only half of it will ever make Agency Spy.”

Last March, co-founder and chairman Benjamin Palmer left the agency after 14 years, and chief strategy officer Ian Daly was part of a wave of executive departures two months later.

Lau told Digiday last August that finding a permanent CEO was a priority, adding, “I’m not here to change history. I’m here to shape the future.”

With the arrival of Butler as CEO, Lau moves into a role as North American CEO and president of international operations.

Butler arrives at The Barbarian Group from DigitasLBi, where she has served as executive vice president, group director, North American digital products since September of 2013, following stints as director of client services and executive client partner, director of client services for MRY U.S. (formerly LBi U.S.). She also spent over two and a half years as product manager, e-commerce for Barnes & Nobles and in production roles with Deutsch, The New York Times and Conde Nast.

“I have a always been a huge admirer of [The Barbarian Group], their point of view around challenging the status quo, and their reputation for being incredibly fearless in terms of the work,” Butler told Adweek. “It’s a great opportunity to bring this thinking to marketers today and demonstrate how we build brands at the speed of culture.”

“America does not need another agency that doesn’t challenge the status quo,” Lau added. “We’re hoping the positioning we have for each of ours will hopefully help break new ground. This is why we feel so excited about [hiring] Cathy.”