Hasta La Creative!

According to an internal memo sent to staff by creative chairman John Patroulis and obtained by Ad Age, BBH North America CEO Pat Lafferty and BBH New York CCO Ari Weiss are both leaving the agency.

According to the memo, Lafferty and Weiss are leaving the agency to pursue unspecified, but separate, opportunities. It also states that the agency plans to “immediately start the search for the next CEO,” although the scope of the new appointment will be New York, rather than North America, according to AdAge’s sources. BBH global chief growth officer Mike Densmore will also fill the role of interim CEO during this search. 

Lafferty joined BBH in the North American CEO role in May of 2013, following nearly three years at McCann Worldgroup. With McCann he served as managing director, global brand community and then COO, North America. Prior to joining that shop, he spent three and a half years serving as CMO for Travel Channel, following two years as senior vice president, marketing for Discovery Communications.

Weiss was promoted to the chief creative officer role in January, when Patroulis ascended to his current creative chairman role; he originally joined BBH New York in March of 2011 as executive creative director after serving stints in CD roles at BBDO, GS&P and 180LA and writing copy for Cliff Freeman & Partners and W+K.

Patroulis will move back into his former CCO role in addition to his creative chairman duties. “This has the benefit of creating a simpler leadership structure – creative/strategist/account – which has worked out pretty well for BBH throughout its nearly 35-year history,” he wrote in the note to staff.

BBH New York continues its PS4 onslaught with a live-action spot at the center of their new campaign for Infamous: Second Son, the third game in the best-selling Infamous series and Sony PS4 exclusive (you might consider it Sony’s answer to TitanFall, which we reported on yesterday).

The entirely live-action (although there is some silent gameplay footage on the end screen before the Playstation logo), :75 spot “depicts a locked-down city of Seattle where the superhuman protagonist, Delsin Rowe, fights back against the oppressive Department of Unified Protection (DUP).” Rowe is depicted in the ad by a somewhat passable lookalike in his trademark red cap, trailed by the DUP. The new ad teases the kind of action players can expect from the game, while avoiding revealing anything about the story. It should draw interest from both fans of the series and newcomers.

BBH New York’s campaign rolls out with “TV advertising based on the short film,” as well as additional “complementary online advertising.” Gameplay developer Sucker Punch, meanwhile, has released a trailer showcasing gameplay features players can expect in the new game. Infamous: Second Son will be released on globally on March 21st. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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ADC Behind The Cube: BBH’s Ari Weiss discusses “Good Shirts” from ADC Global Network on Vimeo.

Last week, we brought you news of ADC’s “Behind the Cube” video for Student Thesis Gold Cube winner Dani Wolf. This week, ADC has a new “Behind the Cube” installment, featuring BBH New York executive creative director Ari Weiss.

Weiss discusses UNICEF’s “Good Shirts” campaign — which sold t-shirts depicting an item of aid, priced at the amount it cost UNICEF to donate that item — and its unexpected success. As a driving force behind the campaign, Weiss believed “Good Shirts” would be the “conversation piece” of the campaign, building buzz and getting more people to donate. Instead, the idea really took off, and the t-shirts raised around half a million dollars — including the sale of a $300,000 shirt to an anonymous San Francisco buyer. It’s an interesting look at the process behind one of the more buzzworthy Gold Cube campaigns from last year, including a look at some of the excellent t-shirt designs, and an excellent reminder that sometimes even the creatives behind a campaign can be surprised by its results.

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During the NBA Finals last month, PlayStation debuted a new mini-film from BBH NY titled “Greatness Awaits” which featured a wide array of game characters and a whimsical narrator talking sternly to the camera (much like in this 2009 spot BBH NY did for Johnnie Walker). With over 5 million YouTube plays, the big budget ad was hailed as a mild success, falling somewhere between “Hedgehog Reacts to Fart” and “One Direction Crash Barbie’s Party! 1D Dolls Party All Night! OMG !.::Original Video::.”

To the untrained eye, it would appear that the spot’s success was owed to its subtle nods to some of PlayStation’s biggest titles paired with the sort of over-the-top visual effects that gamers subsist upon. However, any true gamer knows that the ad’s success is owed predominantly to the elaborate costuming employed, causing PlayStation to make a second ad in order to offer the costumes as prizes of some sort. Yes, it’s an ad for an ad, or “Adception” if you will.

Anyway, gamers can bid of the costumes from the spot using trophy points or something that they earn by being good at video games. Then everyone will play dress-up and have a great time. Learn more at bidforgreatness.com and view credits after the jump.

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