M&C Saatchi Buys Minority Stake in SS&K

Good-HandshakeM&C Saatchi, after two failed attempts to set up shop in New York City, is purchasing a one-third stake in SS&K, to serve as M&C Saatchi’s New York outpost, The New York Times reports.

Both agencies are expected to make the announcement today. The financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed, but M&C Saatchi’s stake is estimated at 33 percent, with the remaining majority share still in the hands of co-founders and partners Rob Shepardson, Lenny Stern and Mark Kaminsky. M&C Saatchi’s New York office, meanwhile, is expected to close by the end of year.

SS&K opened back in 1993 as Shepardson, Stern & Kaminsky, and continues to grow, recently adding HBO, Starbucks, E*Trade, Jackson Hewitt, Wells Fargo, Fresh Direct and The New Yorker to its client roster. The agency will become M&C Saatchi’s New York presence but will continue to keep its own name, and through its connection to M&C Saatchi will gain access to that agency’s global network, which includes offices in London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Sydney, Paris and Madrid.

“With hindsight, I don’t think we ever invested, if we’re honest with ourselves, the time or money to create a flagship office in Manhattan, the toughest of all markets,” Moray MacLennan, worldwide chief executive of M&C Saatchi, told The New York Times. “It’s a brutal old town you have.”

MacLennan cited the departure in July of Jeff Brooks, chief executive of M&C Saatchi New York, for MDC’s Assembly as “…the catalyst for our change of direction.” He also said he hopes to “move across” at least some people and clients to SS&K, adding, “we’re already working on an international pitch with SS&K.”

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Good Lord, Sallie Mae (Or Something Like It) Can Be a Beast

Let’s face it, student loans are a bitch (and we’re honestly still paying them off 12 years after graduating). So how else to present the horrific than a horror short film courtesy of SS+K, which is promoting nonprofit program SALT via the clip called The Red above. If you want to watch the extended cut (no word if a Blu-Ray/Netflix stream is on the way), go here, but in the meantime, here’s half of it from Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin and Josh Mond, who were Sundance darlings thanks to their feature film, Martha Marcy May Marlene. We’re not sure if this will be received just as well, but yeah, creeping plumes of red mixed with a dash of The Eye, maybe a splash of Paranormal Activity and other modern flicks gives us decent visual representation of what being in financial purgatory feels like. Credits after the jump.

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