Hasta La Creative!

In case you missed it (you didn’t), MRY made headlines in certain tech media circles this week for a stunt video in which it claimed to have begun hiring drones as employees…and someone was a little perturbed that we didn’t post on it.

Here is CMO David Berkowitz’s guest story on The Verge and here’s the video itself:

The agency also lost its CCO Cedric Devitt to Big Spaceship this week; the latter agency, which seems to be on something of a minor hiring spree, pried VP of tech Vinny DiBartolo away from R/GA as well.

But, as Berkowitz tells us:

“Unfortunately for the drones, their interviews with the creative team didn’t go over that well, but they do hold more promise for delivering coffee. Fortunately, we had some great leadership already in place, and our veteran David Weinstock is now our sole Chief Creative Officer.”

You may remember that, almost exactly one year ago, Devitt released an internal memo to clarify Weinstock’s promotion to the co-CCO position after three years as ECD; since last March, he has overseen creative for all of MRY’s clients “west of the Mississippi.”

While it’s true that most agencies employ “zero drones,” Deutsch LA proved over the holidays that MRY is hardly alone in jumping on this trend…and that drones have questionable taste in whiskey.

It looks like MRY is on a senior-level staffing streak of sorts. Less than three weeks after bringing on AKQA alum Ian Chee as chief strategy officer and simultaneously promoting Matt Rednor to chief innovation officer, the NYC-based shop formerly known as Mr. Youth has appointed David Berkowitz as its first-ever CMO. Berkowitz joins MRY after spending seven-and-a-half years at Dentsu-owned agency, 360i, where he last served as VP of emerging media and worked with brands including Kraft, H&R Block and Bravo.

Regarding the hiring of Berkowitz, who has also moonlighted as an online marketing columnist for the likes of Mediapost during his career, MRY CEO Matt Britton says in a statement, ““David has a proven track record of seeing what’s just around the corner and creatively applying it for the world’s leading brands for more than a decade; in addition to being a riveting thought leader with a standout industry pedigree, there is no doubt that he will raise the bar for our team and our client partners.”

Current client partners at MRY, which of course merged with LBi this year, include Coca-Cola, Symantec and Neutrogena.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.