Former RAPP, CP+B Executives to Lead Doner LA

doner team

MDC’s Doner announced plans to expand its Los Angeles office beginning with the appointment of two new executives: ECD Jason Gaboriau and Managing Director Zihla Salinas (both of whom will also hold the executive vice president title).

Gaboriau, who was a member of the post-Bogusky team at CP+B, left that agency last fall after nearly four years during which he worked on Old Navy, A1, Grey Poupon, and various other accounts. Earlier in his career, he co-founded New York’s Amalgamated, which became Silver+Partners and will now close following Eric Silver’s February move to McCann.

While Gaboriau is modest about his CP+B work, the release tells us that he “grew the agency from a small production outpost with one client to a fully integrated agency with over 100 employees and several clients.” He replaces Rob Palmer, who left one month ago to accept a CCO position at area startup Fuhu (maker of the Nabi tablet for kids).

The move will allow Doner to “grow and define [its] vision for the future” by (possibly) doubling down on digital.

Salinas, who served as SVP of strategy and development at the larger MCD organization after spending four years as CMO at RAPP, will oversee all office operations and work closely with Gaboriau. In previous positions she specialized in “the rapid expansion of digital strategies,” hinting that Doner clients such as The UPS Store, Menchies, Neato Robotics, and Jafra International will see more digital work in the future. The agency also reportedly looks to hire in the coming months.

Both new executives will report to co-CEO/President David DeMuth and co-CEO/CCO Rob Strasberg.

CP+B Poaches W+K ECD to Run LA Creative

kevin jones

Today in More CP+B News, the agency’s Los Angeles office has found its newest executive creative director in Wieden+Kennedy veteran Kevin Jones.

Jones will lead all creative efforts at the office moving forward, and he brings more than two decades’ worth of experience to the role. He spent approximately ten years in different positions within the W+K organization, beginning his career as a writer there and advancing to directorial roles at W+K and Hal Riney while performing freelance creative work for other major shops like Goodby and Publicis.

Jones held the ECD position at W+K Portland since 2009 before accepting CP+B’s offer, and his name appears atop much of the agency’s recent work for auto clients like Chrysler and Dodge as well as Target, Nike and T-Mobile.

(more…)

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ECD Gaboriau No Longer with CP+B Los Angeles

CPB-LogoThis afternoon we learned that VP/ECD Jason Gaboriau is no longer with Crispin’s Los Angeles office.

He joined CP+B in 2011 when the agency hired him, along with co-ECD and in-house vet Tiffany Rolfe, to re-establish its L.A. location.

Gaboriau, who helped found New York’s Amalgamated, made the move to L.A. after former DDB CCO Eric Silver took majority ownership of the previous agency in late 2010. Rolfe later left CP+B to join CO: Collective, where she still serves as partner and chief content officer. Several months afterward, CP+B lured Sue Anderson away from TBWAChiatDay, where she had served as GCD on the Absolut account; she currently holds the ECD title at CP+B L.A.

At Amalgamated, Gaboriau worked on creative for Coca-Cola, Svedka and Ben & Jerry’s, among other clients. Recent CP+B credits include A1 and an extended 2012 campaign for Old Navy that played heavily on 90?s nostalgia.

We have no information on the details of Gaboriau’s departure, though a tipster tells us that he was involved in recent pitches to win business from Turbo Tax, the L.A. Clippers (which went with RPA after a very quick review) and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

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CP+B Changes A.1.’s Relationship Status with Steak

As we mentioned in Stir yesterday morning, Kraft has decided to drop the “steak” from A.1.’s title, now calling it A.1. Original Sauce. Now we have an online spot from CP+B to go along with the name change, explaining the nature of A.1.’s evolving relationship with steak.

In CP+B’s “New Friend Requests,” the Boulder-based agency imagines A.1. rethinking its commitment to steak via Facebook. We see posts of the two together, one of which contains the line “It’s just you and me forever.” But then A.1. gets new friend requests, first from pork, then from myriad other foods. This leads to the sauce changing its relationship status with steak to “It’s complicated,” citing a need to “see other foods.” Initially steak doesn’t take too kindly to this, but eventually steak and A.1. reconcile, with the spot ending with the tagline, “For almost everything. Almost.” The idea is about equal parts clever and goofy, but CP+B mostly make it work, although the spot could have benefited from a shortened run time (it clocks in at 2 minutes). Both the name change and the “For almost everything. Almost.” campaign stem from insights into diehard A1 users, who use the sauce on everything from chicken, pork, and fish to vegetables.

The “For almost everything. Almost.” campaign will also include TV spots, which debut Monday, the first from the brand in five years, in addition to digital, social, radio, out of home and in-store activations. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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