Former McCann Creatives Reunite at SF-Based H&L

A trio of McCann ex-pats including Jacob Ford, David Swope and Rob Bagot, who worked at said agency during the mid-aughts, have once again joined forces at H&L Partners, the San Francisco-based shop formerly known as Hoffman/Lewis. Ford (pictured), who has spent the last four years as digital creative director at ATTIK (working of course on Scion), has joined in the same role at H&L while Swope, who’s served as ECD at TiVo for the last three years, has assumed the role of ACD. Bagot, meanwhile, leads the creative charge at H&L, where he’s already spent the last three months as partner/chief creative officer. Along with McCann, the creative head also served as group creative director at Eleven and had a senior creative role at BBDO.

Regarding H&L, which of course saw its co-founder Bob Hoffman leave earlier this year, Ford says in a statement, “I enjoy traditional agencies with digital sensibilities, like H&L Partners. They recognize that the most important thing is the idea, which can extend into any medium. Also, they are more of a tight knit group with everyone keen to learn new things.”  Along with the San Francisco office, H&L also has a space in St. Louis and counts clients including McDonald’s, Toyota, Slingbox and USC.

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Hoffman to Leave Hoffman/Lewis

After two decades-plus of co-running Bay Area operation Hoffman/Lewis, Bob Hoffman, aka the @AdContrarian is calling it quits, saying in a statement and perhaps is eyeying appointment to the papacy, according to this statement: “I just celebrated my 40th year in the agency business, and it’s time for a change. It’s better to leave 5 minutes too soon than 5 minutes too late. It’s time to reevaluate my professional life. That’s fancy business talk for ‘do something else.’”

Hoffman continues, “The agency has grown almost 30% in the past year, and it’s nice to be able to leave on an up note. I haven’t decided what I’ll do next, but I plan to continue my writing and speaking about advertising. Also, I understand there’s a job opening at the Vatican.”

Hoffman formed his San Francisco-based agency–which has lost its share of notable staffers in recent months–in 1991 alongside Roger Lewis, who subsequently retired in 2004. The departing exec will be succeeded by 19-year agency vet Josh Nichol on April 1 at Hoffman/Lewis, which counts clients including USC, Toyota and McDonald’s.

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