Hasta La Creative!

MDC Partners’ KBS (formerly Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners) promoted Katie Klumper to president of its New York offices, Jonah Bloom to chief strategy officer and Matt Powell to global technology officer. The changes will not affect the role of KBS director of global business leadership Steve McCall. 

The series of promotions follows Stanley Black & Decker consolidating its digital account with KBS earlier this month following a review.

Klumper receives the promotion from her previous position as president of business leadership, a role she has held for the past year, following three years as a group account director. She originally joined the agency two years prior to that as an account director, after four years in that role with Cossette New York, working with clients such as Penguin Books, McGraw-Hill and Business Week. Before Cossette she served for a year as an account executive with Grey, working with Starbucks and HMSHost and then for a year with MacLaren McCann, working with Electronic Arts, Matterhorn Ice Cream Group and Province Newspaper Group. 

Bloom receives the promotion to CSO from his previous role as head of digital strategy, a position he has held since joining the agency in January of 2011. He was also the co-founder of the agency’s kbs+ content labs. Before that he spent a year and a half as CEO and editor-in-chief of Breaking Media, after over seven years as an editor for AdAge (we forgive him).

Powell previously served as Chief Information Officer, a role he began in early 2012 following two years as executive director of creative technology. He arrived at the agency six months earlier as director of marketing technologies, following a year and a half as vice president, director, business development and digital strategy with Company C.

KBS is still searching for replacements for its co-chief creative officers Dan Kelleher and Jonathan Mackler, who left the organization back in January. Kelleher later became CCO at Deutsch New York.

Lincoln Financial Group is in the late stages of a creative review, with finalists briefed for final presentations, Adweek reports. According to the publication, Lincoln Financial spent around $25 million in measured media last year.

Incumbent Gyro, originally chosen by Lincoln Financial in November of 2011, at which time the agency debuted its “Chief Life Officer” campaign for the brand, is not participating in the review, which is being managed by Ark Advisors in New York. Adweek’s sources have identified the three finalists as Grey, FCB and Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners. Participating agencies have been briefed for final presentations, set for July, and will pitch out of their respective New York offices.

For BMW’s Super Bowl spot, “Newfangled Idea,” Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners look back at an entertaining (and slightly embarrassing) 1994 Today show clip with Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel in which the hosts act more than a little befuddled about the whole Internet thing (and the “@” symbol).

The flashback functions as a setup to BMW’s forward-looking electric i3. Couric and Gumbel appear in the car, talking about how they don’t understand what they mean that there is “nothing under the hood” of the car or that it was made in a “wind-powered facility.” It’s a pretty clever way of illustrating how much people’s ideas can change about new technology in 20+ years, and making electric-doubters wonder if they’ll feel silly for their questions in another decade or two.

If you’re wondering how the pair feel about the clip, Gumbel offers some insight in a behind-the-scenes feature released by the brand. “People are inclined to ask, ‘Aren’t you embarassed by that clip?’ — or ‘Aren’t you angry about that clip?’ I say, ‘No! I’m not at all! I’m amused by it.’” He added, “I watched The Jetsons years ago, so I kind of thought we’d be in a jetpack, ya know, flying over things. I guess one day we’ll get there, but for the time being, the electric car is a great way to go.”

BMW is using a humorous new campaign to promote its diesel cars to consumers in the United States, where the engines were never really popular.