Hasta La Creative!

Today Shareen Pathak of Digiday ran a rather unflattering portrait of The Barbarian Group, taking a look inside its recent “meltdown.”

The Group has seen something of a leadership exodus in recent months, changing CEOs for the second time in less than a year last week. Back in December, Sophie Kelly left the agency to be replaced by Peter Kim, who has since been succeded by interim CEO Aaron Lau. In March, co-founder and chairman Benjamin Palmer left the agency after 14 years, with chief strategy officer Ian Daly part of a wave of executive departures two months later. Owner/CXO Keith Butters, CCO Edu Pou, head of talent/HR Michelle Prota and head of account management Sherri Chambers also left the agency in May. 

“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,” Barbarian co-founder Rick Webb told Digiday. 

The publication pointed Barbarian’s relationship with Korean holding company Cheil Worldwide, “a company with a culture at odds with its own.” For example, one veteran of The Barbarian Group told us that Cheil didn’t want to pay full price for its in-house talent, especially on the technical side of things.

This party also pointed to clients not knowing quite what to make of the organization, saying, “We were in limbo between production shop and full-service agency. And while the middle was interesting, a lot of clients didn’t know how to engage.” At a certain point, Barbarian spent significant amounts of money pitching new business alongside more traditional shops — and this investment largely failed to pay off.

Agency veterans also claim that certain members of the leadership team “checked out” well ahead of Cheil firing Kelly.

“When they fired [Kelly], an account person, who personally owned the relationships with every major client, out of the blue without telling the clients in advance, the fate was sealed,” Webb told Digiday. “They’ve been play-acting since December, and they never had a chance.”

Lau, currently serving as interim CEO says finding permanent CEO for the agency is his next order of business. “I’m not here to change history,” he told the publication, “I’m here to shape the future.”

It would seem that certain media outlets also got a little overexcited about The SuperDesk, which would turn out to be a symbol of Barbarian’s ambitions despite the fact that — according to our sources, at least — most employees liked it.

Cheil UK has appointed Catherine Davis as the agency’s chief growth officer for the UK and Europe, responsible for “driving business growth across Europe with a specific focus on the UK market.” She will report directly to Cheil UK chief operating officer Matt Pye. The hire follows the appointment of Cheil UK’s president global chief growth officer, Lotta Malm-Hallqvist, in January.

Davis arrives from Grey London, where she has served as chief marketing officer since October of 2013 and new business and marketing director since 2009. Before joining Grey, Davis was marketing and PR director for CHINA NOW, “the largest festival devoted to China that the UK has ever seen.” She has also worked as a board account director for RKCR/Y&R and Burkitt DDB, a communications director for Leo Burnett/Magellan and senior account manager for TBWA.

“Cat’s new business record at Grey speaks for itself. She’s a phenomenal appointment, and follows hot on the heels of Lotta Malm-Hallqvist as global growth officer,” said Pye. “This underlines Cheil’s ambition to secure rapid growth with high-quality clients. It’s a really exciting time to be part of the Cheil network.”

Cheil Worldwide and R/GA teamed up with production company Psyop for the six minute conclusion to Samsung’s ambitious sci-fi soccer epic, “The Match.” The first episode in the series launched all the way back in November.

“The Match Part 2? picks up with Earth’s Galaxy 11 team trailing 3-1 at the half, and in need of some serious rallying to defeat the alien team. Of course, it’s hardly a spoiler to give away that the team is up to the task. Samsung wasn’t about to end its month long campaign with an alien apocalypse, as that would hardly help them move product. For those who have been following all along, it’s the ending they were waiting for. While Samsung’s timing is a little questionable — “The Match Part 2? was released just two days ago as a coda to the World Cup, while “The Match Part 1? made its debut with the opening of the tournament — it has still seemed to find its audience, with over four million views in two days. We’ve included “The Match Part 1? as a refresher after the jump. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Depois da Coca-Cola, a Cheil também abordou o aspecto da publicidade por um mundo melhor, com foco no que as marcas podem fazer para participar da vida das pessoas.

A agência chama isso de Lifeshare, onde toda marca pode ser uma empresa de mídia e falar diretamente com o seu público em diversas comunidades. Meet, Play e Share são os conceitos para tornar a conversa possível, sem interromper ou se tornar um estorvo como a propaganda quase sempre é encarada.

A tecnologia é parte fundamental para essas mudanças, e a Cheil apresentou alguns cases para provar seu ponto. Achei brilhante o “The Last Beerfighter” (vídeo acima), um arcade de luta onde as pessoas devem brigar pela cerveja. Um game que é, ao mesmo tempo, um dispenser de bebida.

O projeto foi criado para promover uma microcervejaria da Carolina do Norte, a BigBoss, que não tinha verba e queria fazer barulho além dos bares.

A Mckinney (que pertence a Cheil), agência responsável pela ideia, diz que a criação surgiu no que eles chamam de Projeto 10%. É o mesmo esquema já tão propagado pelo Google, que incentiva seus funcionários a pensarem 10% do dia de trabalho fora do briefing, para não clientes.

Outro case apresentado foi o “Bridge Of Life” da Samsung, que recentemente ganhou GP no Clio Awards. Tecnologia usada para prevenção de suicídios na Ponte Mapo em Seoul, onde sensores identificam quem se aproxima da borda e exibe uma mensagem.

Segundo a agência, a taxa de suicídios no local caiu 77%. Assiste o vídeo abaixo, mas não esquece de ativar as legendas.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Advertising Agency: Cheil, India
Executive Creative Director: Shobhit Mathur
Chief Operating Officer: Alok Agrawal
Creative Director: Piyush Jain
Art Director: Niharika Rastogi
Copywriters: Shobhit Mathur, Sreya Basu
Image Courtesy: GettyImages
Photographer: Miguel Navarro

Creative Agency: Cheil Worldwide, Canada (Toronto)
Executive Creative Director: Tom McManus
Associate Creative Directors: Noreen McDermott-Santilli, Derek Neal
Art Director: Derek Neal
Writer: Noreen McDermott-Santilli
Jr. Art Director: James Tuer
Senior Account Manager: Angela Fitzpatrick
Sr. Broadcast Producer: Tessa Waisglass
Account Coordinator: Justyna Leitgeber

Production Company: The Ebeling Group, New York
Executive Producer: Mick Ebeling
Senior Producers: Neil Van Harte, Eliza Pelham Randall
Producer:Amy Fahl

Director: NAKD, Toronto
Creative Directors: Chris Bahry, Alexandre Torres
Animators: Vinicius Nascimento, Marcin Porebski, Marcus Alquéres, Leonardo Mateus, Chris Bahry, Alexandre Torres
Compositing: Leonardo Mateus, Chris Bahry
Lighting and Rendering: Alexandre Torres, Chris Bahry
Modelers: Lee H. Wolland, Sergio Yamasaki, Steve Kahwati, Joel LeLièvre, Jon Mitchell, Erick Geisler, Edmund Kozin
Rigger: Paul Hormis

Music/Sound Design: Silent Joe, Toronto
Music Supervisor: Marco DiFelice, Silent Joe, Toronto

Creative Agency: Cheil Worldwide, Toronto, Canada
Executive Creative Director: Tom McManus
Associate Creative Directors: Noreen McDermott-Santilli, Derek Neal
Art Director: Derek Neal
Writer: Noreen McDermott-Santilli
Jr. Art Director: James Tuer
Senior Account Manager: Angela Fitzpatrick
Sr. Broadcast Producer: Tessa Waisglass
Account Coordinator: Justyna Leitgeber
Director: Chris Christodoulou
Production Company: Saddington & Baynes, London
Director of Photography: Will Powell
Lead Technical Director: Kevin Shepherd
CG: Kevin Shepherd, Mark Longworth
Retoucher: Christopher Peabody

Creative Agency: Cheil Worldwide, Toronto, Canada
Executive Creative Director: Tom McManus
Associate Creative Directors: Noreen McDermott-Santilli, Derek Neal
Art Director: Derek Neal
Writer: Noreen McDermott-Santilli
Jr. Art Director: James Tuer
Senior Account Manager: Angela Fitzpatrick
Sr. Broadcast Producer: Tessa Waisglass
Account Coordinator: Justyna Leitgeber
Director: Chris Christodoulou
Production Company: Saddington & Baynes, London
Director of Photography: Will Powell
Lead Technical Director: Kevin Shepherd
CG: Kevin Shepherd, Mark Longworth
Retoucher: Christopher Peabody

Creative Agency: Cheil Worldwide, Toronto, Canada
Executive Creative Director: Tom McManus
Associate Creative Directors: Noreen McDermott-Santilli, Derek Neal
Art Director: Derek Neal
Writer: Noreen McDermott-Santilli
Jr. Art Director: James Tuer
Senior Account Manager: Angela Fitzpatrick
Sr. Broadcast Producer: Tessa Waisglass
Account Coordinator: Justyna Leitgeber
Director: Chris Christodoulou
Production Company: Saddington & Baynes, London
Director of Photography: Will Powell
Lead Technical Director: Kevin Shepherd
CG: Kevin Shepherd, Mark Longworth
Retoucher: Christopher Peabody