Hasta La Creative!

Adobe has made a habit of releasing new comedic spots from agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners for Advertising Week in New York and this year is no exception. “Secret Agent” is part of the agency’s ongoing “How’s Your Customer Experience?” campaign,  coming on the heels of “Billion Dollar Contract” earlier this month.

The spot, shot on location in Budapest, promotes Adobe Marketing Cloud as a hotel’s poor customer service lands one secret agent in a lot of trouble. Fresh off terminating his mark, the Bond-style character goes to check into the private penthouse he ordered with the hotel’s app, but then the hotel uses a bunch of apps, and the receptionist can’t seem to find any reservation under Hunter. He argues that the confirmation email was sent to his app, but she points out that marketing handles emails. When he pulls out the promotion he printed out from the website, she informs him that “promotions are on a different system” and things just go downhill for him from there.

Perhaps it’s just a symptom of the agency exploring similar themes for Adobe for so long, but something about the spot feels a little tired. It pales in comparison to the best of GS&P’s work for the client and feels more forced than its recent predecessor, even while hitting some of the same marks that have made similar entries memorable.

“Our latest Adobe Marketing Cloud campaign highlights how a very common problem for brands—the lack of connection between their different communication channels—can translate to a very serious problem for customers,” Alex Amado, vice presoident of experience marketing at Adobe, told Adweek. 

“When cross-channel marketing goes wrong, it’s bad news for businesses and consumers alike,” added GS&P creative director Will Elliott. “We wanted to show that all the bad guys in the world couldn’t defeat a secret agent, but a bad customer experience could.”

Advertising Week audiences will become well acquainted with the ad by the end of the week, as it’s set to run some 75 times before Advertising Week panels. There’s also an accompanying social media activation on site at Advertising Week. From there the spot will roll out in select markets to Comcast and DirecTV subscribers. 

Credits:
Client/Company: Adobe
Title of Creative Work: “Secret Agent”
Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners
Creative
Co-Chairmen: Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby
Chief Creative Officer: Margaret Johnson
Creative Director: Will Elliott
Creative Director: Patrick Knowlton
ACD/Art Director: Andrew Livingston
ACD/Copywriter: Simon Bruyn
Production
Director of Production: Tod Puckett
Senior Producer: Benton Roman
Account Services
Managing Partner: Brian McPherson
Account Director: Theo Abel
Account Manager: Chelsea Bruzzone
Assistant Account Manager: Zack Piánko
Brand and Communication Strategy
Director of Brand Strategy: Bonnie Wan
Brand Strategist: Etienne Ma, Andrew Mak
Director of Communication Strategy: Christine Chen
Communication Strategy Deputy Director: Dong Kim
Senior Communication Strategist: Victoria Barbatelli
Communication Strategist: Tara Hughes
Junior Communication Strategist: Nicole Bruno, Catherine Kim
Business Affairs
Business Affairs Manager: Heidi Kileen
Production Company
Company name: Biscuit Filmworks / Revolver
Director: Steve Rogers
Managing Director: Shawn Lacy
Executive Producer: Holly Vega
Producer: Kathy Rhodes
Head of Production: Mercedes Allen Sarria
Head of Production: Rachel Glaub
Director of Photography: Nicolas Karakatsanis
Production Designer: Tunde Csaki
Editorial Company
Company name: Arcade Edit
Managing Partner: Damian Stevens
EP: Crissy DeSimone
HOP: Kirsten Thon-Webb
Editor: Geoff Hounsell
Assistant Editor: Laura Sanford
Producer: Alexa Atkin
Telecine
Company name: The Mill NYC
Colorist: Fergus McCall
Senior Colour Producer: Natalie Westerfield
VFX/Finishing
Executive Producer: Leighton Greer
Senior VFX Producer: Will Unterreiner
Production Coordinator: Alex Benavente
Shoot Supervisor: Chris Mortimer
Creative Director: Tim Davies
2D Lead Artist: Tim Davies
2D Artists: Edward Black, Kelsey Napier
Music
Company name: Woodwork Music
Sound Design
Company name: Barking Owl
Sound Designer: Michael Anastasi
Creative Director: Kelly Bayett
Producer: Ashley Benton
Mix
Company name: Barking Owl
Mixer: Morgan Johnson

San Francisco agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners restructured its agency leadership with Margaret Johnson becoming the first chief creative officer in the agency’s 33 year history.

Managing partner Derek Robson will also become president, effective immediately. Beyond these two promotions, director of account management Brian McPherson and director of new business Leslie Barrett will serve as managing partners with director of brand strategy Bonnie Wan and director of communication strategy Christine Chen also taking on partnership roles.

Don’t worry, founding co-chairmen Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein aren’t going anywhere: they will continue to take an active role in organizational efforts.

“We are reinventing our company every day, and these are the people who will formulate the big changes, come up with the big ideas that will keep us not just relevant but game-changing,” Goodby said in a statement. “Our new president, chief creative officer, and new partners will make a difference immediately—and down the line, five and ten years from now.”

Johnson joined GS&P some twenty years ago, following three years as an art director with The Richards Group. She went on to be named an executive creative director and, in 2012, the agency’s first female partner. While with GS&P she has worked with clients including Nike, Nintendo and Frito-Lay and presently works on Sonic, Nest, TD Ameritrade, Häagen-Dazs and Foster Farms. 

“Margaret has grown up at GS&P and has the DNA of the agency in her blood,” Silverstein told Adweek, adding, “She’s fearless and has led us with innovative creative thinking that taps into culture. She’s earned the admiration of our people and our clients, and there is no one else we would want to carry forth our legacy.”

Robson joined GS&P in 2005 following 13 years as a managing director with BBH, and later became a managing partner with the agency. Prior to that he served  in account planner positions with OgilvyOne and Ogilvy & Mather. In his new role he will serve as strategic leader while collaborating with other agency partners.

McPherson has been with GS&P for twenty years and currently leads the Frito-Lay, Adobe and Princess Cruises accounts. Barrett has spent nearly 17 years with the agency, recently leading new business efforts that led GS&P to add StubHub, the Golden State Warriors and GREE to its client roster while expanding its work on Comcast and Frito-Lay.

Wan and Chen will lead communications moving forward, with Wan on the brand side and Chen promoting the agency’s campaigns and “maintain[ing] rigor around how GS&P diagnoses business problems and approaches work.”

Eric Kallman was set to become the future co-leader of GS&P creative upon his ECD promotion last year, but he left to launch his own unit Erich & Kallman after approximately six months. That shop’s first work for Chick-Fil-A debuted last month.

Japan-based mobile social gaming company GREE International–the company behind titles such as Knights & Dragons, Modern War and League of War: Mercenaries–appointed Goodby, Silverstein & Partners as its first agency of record.

GREE International may not be a familiar name to many, and there is no estimate for the company’s ad budget, but it’s apparently a fairly large account. A representative claimed “the company’s goals are very aggressive,” and the company competes with other game makers such as Clash of Clans (which spends around $48 million on measured media annually), Mobile Strike ($55.6 million) and Game of War ($84 million) for context.

“The mobile gaming market is changing dramatically and while expertise in digital marketing remains critically important, building brand and establishing a strong franchise with consumers has become equally important. GS&P clearly excels in this area across the categories they’ve worked in including a deep history in the gaming industry with premiere companies,” said GREE International vice president of marketing Shawn Conly in a statement. “We reviewed five leading creative agencies in our selection process, and GS&P’s level of strategic thinking, truly creative problem solving, deep resources, and demonstration of partnership were key deciding factors in selecting them as our agency of record.”

“We look forward to working in the gaming space with GREE International to build the brand in innovative ways,” added GS&P partner, executive creative director Margaret Johnson.  “As a brand, GREE International offers a myriad of creative possibilities, particularly in the social space.”

The appointment follows a string of recent account wins for GS&P, including StubHub and the Golden State Warriors. The win also came before today’s announcement that the shop’s creative department had hired a dozen new members.

Goodby Silverstein & Partners launched a new campaign for Adobe entitled “Make a Masterpiece.”

For the campaign, the agency worked with four digital artists, who recreated lost, damaged or stolen artistic masterpieces using Adobe Stock footage. Indian artist Ankur Patar tackled Rembrandt van Rijn‘s “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee”; U.S. artist Mike Campau took on Karl Friedrich Schinkel‘s “Cathedral Towering Over a Town”; Ecuadorian artist Karla Cordova was tasked with recreating Frida Kahlo‘s “The Wounded Table” and French artist Jean-Charles Debroize wrestled with Caravaggio‘s “Saint Matthew and the Angel.”

In the below spot, Patar outlines his creative process, which included using some 236 stock images, including inserting his own image into the piece. It’s a pretty fascinating look at what such digital artists can do with Adobe Stock, as Patar explains how he takes some features from a shot of one person and combines them with another to create the image he wants. “This is a dream project for me, and I hope it inspires other artists with the possibilities of Adobe Stock,” he comments.

While only Patar’s project is featured in the spot, details of the other “Make a Masterpiece” works can be found on the campaign website, including time-lapse videos of their creation and artist bios. 

“No one can truly replace these lost paintings. But by faithfully re-creating them with Adobe Stock, we can remember them again and reshape what the world thinks about stock photography in the process,” GS&P associate partner and creative director Will Elliott told Adweek.

Credits:
Client: Adobe Systems
Title of Creative Work: Make a Masterpiece

Ad Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Creative
Co-Chairmen: Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby
Executive Creative Director: Margaret Johnson
Creative Director: Will Elliott
Creative Director: Patrick Knowlton
Art Director: Bennett Austin
Copywriter: Jordan Dodson

Production
Director of Graphic Services: Jim King

Account Services
Managing Partner: Robert Riccardi
Account Director: Theo Abel
Account Manager: Molly Navalinski
Assistant Account Manager: Aliza Niewood

Brand and Communication Strategy
Director of Brand Strategy: Bonnie Wan
Brand Strategist: Etienne Ma
Communication Strategy Deputy Director: Dong Kim
Senior Communication Strategist: Caitlin Neelon
Communication Strategist: Natalie Williamson
Jr. Communication Strategist: Chloe Bosmeny
Research & Analytics Director: Cassi Husain

Business Affairs
Business Affairs Manager: Heidi Killeen 

Yes, our Wednesday post on rumors that some portion of the Corona business would be up for review was extremely vague. But we were correct: the beer’s parent company just announced that it will no longer be working with GS&P.

Our sources told us nothing about which parts of the business would be changing hands, but both GS&P and Corona Light’s parent company Constellation told AdAge this afternoon that they had “mutually agreed to end their relationship.”

So Corona Light/Modelo has launched an agency review. An unnamed GS&P spokesperson said:

“Both parties agree that it’s time for a change, and we wish them nothing but success in the years ahead.”

Cramer-Krasselt is apparently safe for now, as Corona Extra is not on the list of divisions seeking new creative representation. And while Modelo is less of a household name than Corona, it could be the real prize for whichever agency wins the forthcoming pitch: a year ago market watchers were already calling it “the new Corona” and noting that its sales increases were considerably higher than those of its sister brand. Modelo has yet to run a national TV campaign, so the winning agency will, in all likelihood, be responsible for launching that effort next year.

The AdAge piece tells us nothing about the shops that have already started pitching Constellation, but this week a source did mention the letters D, D, and B…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Way back in January 2013, we confirmed rumors that West Coast-friendly GS&P was indeed opening a New York City office — and today the client behind its “first major account” approved the release of the news to the trades. That client is the classic Rupert Murdoch tabloid rag The New York Post.

The agency tells Adweek that the work will include “digital, out-of-home and experiential elements” and that it will debut next month. We’re not exactly sure what that will entail but we’re curious, because we’ve lived in New York for 12 years and the only Post ads we’ve ever seen were subway posters.

The win comes after a headlining shift in May that saw ECD Christian Haas leave the agency; his departure preceded the hiring of agency veteran Nathan Frank and his former partner Paul Caiozzo, who Adweek credits with the pitch.

On a side note, media analysts estimate that the always-unprofitable Post loses anywhere from $20 to $100 million dollars every year.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We hear from a tipster today that the number of parties involved in the summer-long Infiniti pitch is down to two.

While no official statements have been released, rumor has it that CP+B and GS&P are the last shops standing.

One thing is certain: this has been an epic pitch. The review began way back in December 2013, and in May the company’s own director of marketing told AdAge that agencies chasing the account (which has been with TBWA for more than a decade) would “have their work cut out for them”. Another dream client, then.

In June, the pitch officially involved seven agencies, and July saw that number drop down to four: Anomaly, BBH, CP+B and GS&P. Our source claims that the first two shops are no longer in the running, that one of them voluntarily dropped out of the review, and that WPP still isn’t happy about the fact that it did not make the first list of finalists. That would mean that Omnicom could still retain its longtime client — and that it’s now competing against MDC rather than WPP or Publicis.

No matter who wins the pitch, the account will remain with TBWA until the end of the year.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This week, Helsinki-based hasan & partners opened its first “international” shop in Stockholm–and brought along a team with an extensive agency history to staff it.

About the four founding partners:

• Creative Director Daniel Wall comes from McCann, where he led the “creative SWAT team” known as Surprise Department; he also worked at W+K Amsterdam and Farfar.
• Fellow Creative Director Jakob Swedenborg has a nearly identical resume; he also worked at W+K and McCann along with Sweden’s Lowe Bridnfors.
  
• Peter Laurelli, the new shop’s third CD, most recently worked at GolinHarris after founding his own agency Blond Swedish Amateurs (do NOT try to Google that, BTW) and serving in creative roles at GS&P and 180 Amsterdam
• Leading the office will be managing director Camilla Hahn Fortkord, who most recently directed Coca-Cola and other accounts at McCann Stockholm.

This move follows hasan’s acquisition of digital studio Perfect Fools–a move executives recently discussed during electroshock therapy sessions for our amusement.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.