Hasta La Creative!

This year marks the tenth anniversary of MDC’s Anomaly: lovers of puppies, drinkers of Johnnie Walker, haters of “craft” beer, players of baseball, promoters of Dick’s for women.

On that note, we received a curious email this morning from an unnamed soul that certainly reads like the thoughts of a longtime Anomaly employee.

Why did this industry insider contact us? It seems that he is a bit “disillusioned” by his experience at the shop. Maybe he was promised a job involving “groundbreaking” work complete with “fully integrated,” social media-friendly components. Maybe he thought working for Budweiser would involve the development of more “sticky” content and deep, innovative strategy rather than traditional, multi-million dollar tearjerker Super Bowl ads.

Here is the note, complete with grammar/spelling mistakes; we did add a couple of paragraph breaks to make it easier on your eyes.

This summer Anomaly turns 10 years old – and while everyone in our office is always talking about how we’re the agency of the future, I’m starting to think we’re just a really great “AD” agency, meaning: we do really great ADS. Sure the Budweiser Superbowl spot is great, but we got fired from the social media portion of the business.

The Dick’s Sports spots are great (their basically Nike commercials with a Dick’s Sports logo on them) but we don’t handle any of their social media. We make amazing films for Johnnie Walker and Captain Morgan but don’t really do anything else on those accounts.

And when  I asked one of the partners why we don’t do things like EOS anymore they just shrugged and said “Well, we really didn’t create the EOS brand we just worked on their website and packaging.” I guess this is just what happens to agencies that realize its easier and more profitable to stick with the TV model, but for me it’s getting disillusioning.

Your website posted an ad we did ! for the Pepsi Tea brand Leaf, the partners freaked because they didn’t want anyone to know we did that spot. The first comment that was posted under the article you ran said: Thought U guys were cool – Anomaly the new JWT. One of the guys I worked totally nailed it when we saw our fist Panera spot for the Bread Broth Bowl and rolled his eyes and said  the copy sounded like Carl reading from one of his charts.  Anyway – happy 10th anniversary.

What do we make of this one, readers?

There’s nothing like an agency self-promotion to help alleviate the midday doldrums–and this four-minute clip from Cincinnati-based “design strategy firm” LPK does the trick (its self-deprecating tone also makes it a bit more endearing).

Of course we’ve seen some pretty lame agency self-promos on this blog, but LPK’s offering focuses onsincere thoughts from senior creatives to up-and-coming juniors in the same department. Keywords/phrases include “curiosity” and “work ethic,” along with classics like “be willing to take feedback” and “be open to the team’s point of views.”

With graduation looming, LPK (which has worked with the likes of Maker’s Mark, Gillette and JBL) decided to reach out to budding designers in search of a desirable junior designer candidate.

Overall, it’s a bit more refreshing than the average piece of pat-yourself-on-the-back agency propaganda.

In case you thought that creative stunts don’t lead to jobs (or “jobs”)…

Last week, AdFreak posted on a project created by Miami Ad School New York students Aditya Hariharan and Joshua Namdar, who reimagined all the major agencies as ice cream flavors.

The “Agency Scoops” tumblr used each agency’s work to cast it as a Ben & Jerry’s-style pint, and the students even managed to engage in a little good-natured ribbing.

For example, they described Droga5 as “no rules, no-nonsense creativity in a rich, wholesome environment” and DDB as “a slow-churned classic agency with a hint of forward thinking” (emphasis ours).

Today we learned that quite a few people in ad land noticed the work. The Droga organization was so interested, in fact, that it gave the pair Summer internships.

From the students themselves:

“The response from the ad community has been overwhelming…

As a result, we managed to secure an internship at Droga5 for the summer.”

No word on whether they’ve learned the first rule of the ad industry: never read the comments on your own AgencySpy post.

In case you missed it, Bud Light found itself in a bit of hot water yesterday after a reddit post first noted by Consumerist and then covered by every single news organization out there (including The New York Times and, yes, even TODAY) heaped criticism on a single line that appeared on some of its bottles:

“The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night”

Pic via reddit

Of course the company did not in any way mean to encourage sexual misbehavior with this copy, but once the story hit BuzzFeed it was damage control time.

After an initial period of silence, our sister site PRNewser got parent company AB InBev’s communications chief to respond via Twitter:

Bud Light not responding to calls about “remove ‘no’ from your vocabulary” tagline http://t.co/oltWllARAD pic.twitter.com/RfeLRmcVCG

— PRNewser (@PRNewser) April 28, 2015

@PRNewser Nope. We’re responding.

— Lisa Weser (@LisaWeser) April 28, 2015

@Adweek It’s clear that this message missed the mark, and we regret it. We would never condone disrespectful or irresponsible behavior. — Lisa Weser (@LisaWeser) April 28, 2015

This was part of a longer statement issued to various media outlets:

“The Bud Light Up for Whatever campaign, now in its second year, has inspired millions of consumers to engage with our brand in a positive and light-hearted way. In this spirit, we created more than 140 different scroll messages intended to encourage spontaneous fun. It’s clear that this message missed the mark, and we regret it. We would never condone disrespectful or irresponsible behavior.”

For context, the client announced back in February that it planned to run “a variety of messages on 12-ounce bottles to inspire consumers to try new experiences” as part of its ongoing #UpForWhatever campaign. This line was one of those messages.

Initially, we were told that Bud Light’s creative AOR BBDO was not involved because it does not work on packaging for the client. However, AB InBev later released this statement:

“BBDO is the creative agency for this UFW campaign, including all bottle scroll messages. We have an extensive review process and this label should not have made it through. It’s regrettable. This particular scroll will no longer be produced.”

So the client effectively blamed its own internal review process for allowing the message to receive approval but did note that BBDO worked on the creative behind the project.

Recalling all the bottles that feature this particular message will be impossible, and AB InBev is still in damage control mode: it has not been active on social media for the past two days.

A week ago, we posted a blind item on the ongoing Royal Caribbean review.

We told our (mostly angry) readers that the client had narrowed its list of contenders down to three…but our sources missed one.

The client did not speak to us regarding the details of the review and hesitated to discuss it even when the news first broke in February, but they did provide Andrew McMains with a list of the finalists today. They are:

• Deutsch LA
• Mullen
• Droga5
• 22squared

Our sources mentioned the first three but somehow left out 22. A legitimate oversight, we’re sure.

The client seemingly wants to downsize future campaigns: McMains describes the shops involved as “midsize players,” noting that the final pitches will happen this week in Miami. It would also appear that JWT Worldwide will not retain any of the RC business after holding the account for seven years, though we received mixed messages on that point when the review went public. (JWT London recently lost creative AOR duties to TBWA.)

Royal Caribbean also plans to review its media account (current AOR Mindshare), but of course our readers don’t care about that.

The IPG-owned, Brooklyn-based agency Huge recently created a separate San Francisco entity in order to serve a single client: Apple.

The new agency has a name (Elephant), a homepage, a Foursquare listing, an office several blocks from Huge San Francisco, and a not-quite-accurate entry on IPG’s own site. (The holding company apparently chose and registered the pachyderm name in 2012 before its newest operation came to be.)

Yet — as with Omnicom’s MAL, another agency created strictly for Apple — communications regarding Elephant are nearly nonexistent. Its website clarifies that visits to its office are “by appointment only,” and since its inception it has functioned as a secretive “black box” entity with no press mentions or public announcements.

Sam Weston, a Huge spokesperson, declined to comment save for the following:

“Almost a year ago we moved the Apple business to an independent entity called Elephant. Elephant works exclusively with Apple.”

This all started last April when, as reported in AdAge, Apple chose to greatly expand its digital marketing efforts by signing with four new agencies: AKQA and Huge on the West Coast and Area 17 and Kettle in New York.

Elephant came to be almost immediately and, while the agency did not specifically address the “why” behind the decision to create an “independent entity,”the move would appear to stem from a desire to avoid an overlapping of teams on competing accounts. (Huge has worked with Google and Samsung, two of Apple’s chief rivals in the digital space.)

Last year, Apple’s at-times-uneven relationship with MAL went public via internal emails revealed in court and reinforced the fact that the client is very particular about its agencies.

This is not a secret…and the existence of Elephant isn’t quite a secret either. For example, various employees have used the #helloelephant tag on Instagram to share images of the design themes in its San Francisco office:

#helloelephant pic.twitter.com/QKfRyrGJTf

— Fernanda Saboia (@saboia) March 28, 2015

Here are members of the Elephant team celebrating in late 2014:

…and here are some pics from the agency’s recent one-year anniversary party:

What’s less clear is who does what at the shop. When the AdAge story ran last year, sources said that the four agencies hired by Apple would work on “user experience and digital strategy, among other elements,” and, given past work from Huge and AKQA, that would appear to be an accurate summary.

While Elephant’s work is all digital, it does not collaborate with any of the agencies Apple signed in 2014 (or MAL, for that matter).

Throughout the past year, members of the Huge team have moved over to Elephant. But the specifics regarding those changes are, again, not clear. A source estimates that Elephant currently employs 30 people who operate with complete independence from the larger Huge organization, but the social media posts above would appear to indicate that the two agencies do share some employees or, at the very least, that Huge staffers sometimes visit the other office.

The larger IPG organization has no comment on Elephant and, given Apple’s history, the client will not mention the work done by its newest digital agency anytime soon.

The Martin Agency and BF Goodrich, the tire company now owned by Michelin, have decided to end their relationship after nearly ten years. The IPG agency told us in a statement that the two parties collectively decided that they would not be the “right partners” for one another moving forward, and a BF Goodrich spokesperson confirmed.

Martin first signed the Atlanta-based tire company in 2006, beating Carmichael Lynch and The Richards Group; AOR Doner did not defend the business at the time.

Over the past nine years, Martin has created a variety of work for the brand, which once cast none other than the late Joan Rivers in a less-than-saucy 70s spot. Last year, the agency helped turn the client’s drop-a-tire-out-of-an-airplane stunt into an ad promoting its new truck tire model.

Martin’s most recent notable work was its series of “unskippable” ads for longtime client GEICO. The shop also scored two new business wins at the end of 2014 in the form of Tic Tac and Ritz; its first “Life’s Rich”-themed work for the latter client debuted earlier this month.

BF Goodrich declined to comment on whether it plans to launch a formal creative review in the wake of Martin’s resignation.

You’ll recall that Translation won the Bud Light account from mcgarrybowen in late 2012 — but it didn’t hold on to the business for long.

Throughout 2013 and 2014, BBDO’s Chicago office swiped that client piece by piece: first Bud Light left, then BBDO took Bud Light Platinum and, finally, Bud Light Lime one year ago. After the account changed hands, Translation shuttered its Chicago office.

Of course, Energy BBDO’s Pac Man Super Bowl ad for Bud Light earned quite a bit of attention in February. Mashable even mentioned CCO Mark Taylor by name.

While the business still resides with the BBDO organization, we recently learned that the account would be moving from Chicago to the agency’s main office in New York. This change follows AB InBev’s decision, announced last December, to relocate its sales and marketing teams from St. Louis to Manhattan.

The transition has, so far, not been entirely smooth for BBDO.

The agency refrained from comment on related staffing changes, but sources tell us that certain individuals in its creative department hired specifically to work on Bud Light in Chicago in late 2013 and 2014 have been asked move to New York. Others will transfer to different accounts handled by Energy BBDO.

Some departures also occurred as a result of these changes, though we don’t have specific numbers and a source claims that the overall effect on BBDO’s employee account was a wash.

The bottom line: BBDO will continue to produce work for the client, though its Chicago staff is now slightly smaller and its New York staff slightly larger.

Updates if we get them.

It would appear that someone who either works within the Saatchi & Saatchi New York office or has a very deep knowledge of the organization is not happy with recent decisions made by agency management.

Today, the shop apparently let creative technologist Steve Nowicki go after almost four years — and someone who uses the pen name “Vox Saatchi” and writes in the royal “we” expressed his or her displeasure in a rant that went out to everyone in the office under the subject line “Sinking Ship.”

It’s more than a bit brutal in addressing CEO-since-2013 Brent Smart:

Dear Brent and the Rest of the Peanut Gallery Senior Management,

Today you fired one of the best employees at Saatchi, Steve Nowicki. Steve was energetic, intelligent, kind and incredibly helpful. He was one of the best parts of Saatchi New York. He worked tirelessly to help each and every account. He would lend a hand whenever you needed him. He was, quite simply, the best.

It makes sense that you let him go, however, because you have no idea what you’re doing. You’re leading the agency into the ground. We hope someone, anyone at the agency can forward this to Kevin Roberts and Robert Senior.

Several weeks ago you told us that the new normal is being overworked and that there is no help on the way. That you are tired of hearing people complain. You said if we don’t like how things are at Saatchi, we should leave. That this is “the new normal”. You point fingers and place blame on everyone while not taking any responsibility for losing (lots of) business and losing (fantastic) employees. A great CEO would inspire us to greatness, yet the opposite is happening.

People are leaving on a daily basis because you’re causing this ship to sink. And instead of turning things around, you let go one of the best employees we’ve had in years.

Saatchi has a great name. And at one point it created great work. But not under this leadership. And it’s clear now that we’re definitely heading in the wrong direction. And you’re right, no help is on the way. Not with you in charge.

We hope things change soon! We really do. This place could be fantastic. We need someone to turn it around, and fast. We’re hopeful. We work hard everyday. We need someone who works hard for us.

Sincerely,

Vox Saatchi

It’s not clear whether “Vox” is addressing the creative shakeup that hit the agency last Summer and preceded the hire of Droga5’s Paul Bichler and CP+B veterans Chris Moreira and Mark Schöller as ECDs. But the anonymous writer claims to speak for the employees and is definitely not the same person who runs the internal “day-to-day life” Hudson/Houston account.

In short, someone is pissed.

U.K. indie agency Karmarama, which works with the likes of BBC and Honda, made several new creative hires to help emphasize its integrated offering.

Among those joining the agency’s roster are Creative Director Jo Jenkins, who spent the last six-and-a-half years as creative partner at Proximity BBDO, where she ran creative on P&G and Volkswagen among other accounts. In her new role at Karmarama, Jenkins will creative direct the agency’s CRM output.

Along with Jenkins, Karmarama welcomes two creative duos: Pete Ioulianou and Ollie Agius, who most recently led work on Adidas while at iris, and Vicki Murfitt and Paul Crump, two Engine alums who include projects for BMW and Rolls-Royce in their portfolios.

Regarding the creative moves, Karmarama group executive creative director Caitlin Ryan says:

“We are one of the few genuinely media-neutral, integrated ad agencies – for that to work, you need best-in-class, highly talented creatives across the disciplines who are brilliant at collaborating. Easy to say – harder to do. Which is why Karmarama is attracting such top level talent from many different places.”

The agency’s recent work includes campaigns for Cobra beer, Air New Zealand, and the BBC, in addition to a literally topless campaign for CoppaFeel that won a fair amount of attention..

For a “Flashback Friday,” do you remember this 2008 ad starring David Hasselhoff?