Hasta La Creative!

Grey has acquired a majority stake in Maruri Publicidad,  “the leading full-service communications firm in Ecuador” and a Grey partner since the early nineties. 

CEO/COO Eduardo Maruri, who founded the agency with his father, Jimmy Maruri, in 1991, and general manager Fausto Maruri will continue to oversee the company, which will now operate under the name Maruri Grey. The agency, which employs some 130 employees in Guayaquil and Quito, has been awarded  30 Cannes Lions in the past five years and named agency of the year by the local industry trade association a dozen times. Its client roster includes DIRECTV, SABMiller and La Fabril and the agency brought in nearly $10 million in revenue last year. 

“We are delighted to conclude this agreement with Eduardo Maruri and his stellar management team,” Grey Group chairman and CEO James R. Heekin III said in a statement. “Maruri is a premier total communications company, renowned for its creativity and represents another step forward in expanding our capabilities in the fast-growing Latin American region.”

“This change from being Maruri to Maruri Grey is simply a consolidation of the strong relationship and mutual benefits we have enjoyed for over two decades,” added Eduardo. “We are confident Ecuador can play an even more important role in the region in the years ahead.”

The acquisition follows a series of similar moves from Grey as it looks to strengthen its international network. Last month, Grey acquired a majority stake in Brussels-based agency Famous, one of the largest independent agencies in the country, to create Famous Grey. It also expanded its capabilities in Greater China by purchasing a majority stake in Shanghai-based PR and social media agency Easycom.

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Rather than go for blunt messaging to discuss the environment for the World Wildlife Fund, Grey Group Shanghai (with the help of a group of local 10th grade high school students) opted for a mix of subtlety and visual trickery to blur the line between illusion and reality.

With a campaign dubbed “Save the Vanishing Tree,” which was unveiled on March 21, the agency utilized “ambient media” — in this case, its team painted a strip around the trunk of a tree to give the illusion of transparency, ultimately giving the impression to passersby that part of the trunk had vanished.

Here’s the team at work:

Here’s a view of the work:

…and here are audience reaction shots:

According to a statement from Grey:

“The idea uses ambient media in a really clever way to disrupt and draw people’s attention, give them a dose of reality to a serious environmental problem. This is because as the country continues to prosper, we live under the illusion that everything is just fine.”

Along with the painting portion, QR codes were placed nearby the tree to drive people to the WWF website, which sheds light on the deforestation currently plaguing nations around the world. In China specifically, 12-15 million hectares of forest are lost each year — which is the equivalent of decimating one Forbidden City every three minutes.

The ultimate objective of the WWF initiative, which also includes print and OOH components, is to emphasize China’s increasing participation in the green movement in a rather clever way.

Expect the campaign to expand to other nations.

Agency: Grey Shanghai

Client: WWF China

Chief Creative Officer: Canon Wu

Creative Director: Jonathan Lim

Art Director: Yuki Xu, Sasa Yu

Copywriter: Top Yu

Planner: Rachel Woolley

Public Relations: Benjamin Li

Illustrator: Shanghai High School, International Division Grade 10 –

Ann Tang, Saku, Sarie, Anya

Production: Meethepeople

Michael Houston became one of four regional chief executives at Grey and one of the few African-Americans in the executive suite of a large, mainstream Madison Avenue agency.

Procter & Gamble, which acquired Gillette in 2005, is shifting the account — and its hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising — to Grey.