SVP/Account Director Leaves Deutsch LA

Amy Wiedemann, longtime Deutsch accounts staffer who was promoted to an SVP role last summer, has left the agency.

While we just received the news from our tipster, an agency spokesperson says that Wiedemann left Deutsch “several months ago.” Her destination is unclear.

You may recall that Deutsch’s LA office announced a series of management changes back in January including the promotions of Mike Sheldon (now North American CEO), Pete Favat (North American CCO), Kim Getty (West Coast president), Jeff White (North American EVP/CMO), and Linda Sawyer (chairman). Donny Deutsch the younger will no longer play an active role in the agency; we’ve received no updates on his forthcoming USA sitcom since January.

It would seem that Wiedemann’s departure followed these changes.

In eight years with the Deutsch organization, she moved from account supervisor role to that of director and VP; after the agency won Pizza Hut from mcgarrybowen nearly a year ago, Wiedemann was promoted to the SVP position and managed the client’s relaunch/rebranding project. She also teaches marketing communications at Los Angeles’ Loyola Marymount University.

We currently have no information on the reason for her departure or her current status. She hasn’t responded to our request for comment.

Volkswagen Swims with Sharks for a Week


Discovery’s annual Shark Week extravaganza not only confirms that viewers go crazy for underwater creatures that can rip them into a thousand pieces, but that brands will use just about any tangential connection to a popular theme to try and wring out that extra dollar. Take the fat, colorful Tide billboard above the Lincoln Tunnel that I came across yesterday: “We get the blood out, too.” That’s one way to do it.

Volkswagen and Deutsch are going all in as well, bringing cars and sharks a lot closer than they’ve ever been before, a true sharknado of brand association if there ever was one. The VW campaign is loaded on social media, mainly focusing on sharable videos through Instagram and Vine. VW created a Beetle convertible that will be used as an underwater cage hooked up to cameras for the remainder of the week, hoping to conquer a chunk of the digital space floating around with these exclusive videos. Credits after the jump.

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