Hasta La Creative!

Today we learned that Matt Bonin, chief production officer at Ogilvy New York, will soon be leaving the agency.

The matters of where he’s going and why remain unknown at the moment, but here’s a statement from Bonin himself:

“After three incredible years at Ogilvy I have received an amazing offer from another company and have decided to leave. Ogilvy is a world-class creative agency with an incredibly bright future and some of the best talent and leaders I’ve ever worked with.  I wish them all the best moving forward.”

A recap of his career to date, which includes brief stops at quite a few agencies: after entering the industry as a producer at Y&R, he spent the last half of the 00’s in the head of integrated video role at CP+B. He left that agency to accept the VP/head of video job at production studio Trailer Park, which created the position for him in late 2009; goodness Mfg.’s merger with Trailer Park then allowed for him to work with several of his former Crispin colleagues (most of whom joined Deutsch LA in the hiring spree that followed its recent Sprint win).

Only two months later, Tool of North America hired him as an executive producer — but he ended up spending less than a year there before joining Chiat LA in yet another then-new role: executive director of integration. Bonin’s subsequent move to the East Coast began as a rumor almost exactly three years ago and became official one week later; once again, Ogilvy created the chief production officer role specifically for him.

The same source who alerted us to Bonin’s pending departure hinted at more changes to come within Ogilvy New York’s creative team, claiming that the agency’s recent executive shakeup led to some tensions within the office.

Chris Garbutt, who’d served as chief creative at Ogilvy France, moved to New York for the CCO Ogilvy East role one year ago, and he promoted Corinna Falusi from ECD/partner to chief creative after Calle Sjoenell departed for a gig at Lowe Brindfors in his native Sweden last August. So the agency’s top New York creative officer now responds to its chief East Coast creative, who is also based in New York. (Other easterly offices include those in Atlanta, Washington, Miami, Chapel Hill, and Parsippany, New Jersey.)

Expect to hear more about Bonin’s move in coming days.

I grew up reading the classic Choose Your Own Adventure book series, so Ogilvy’s new Choose Your Own Adventure video series “Yourope” for British Airways has brought on a welcome rush of nostalgia.

The initial video positions you at a British Airways terminal with a choice of four destinations which you can choose to visit: Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, and Rome. The “choose your own adventure” aspect doesn’t end with choosing a destination, however. When you choose Barcelona, you’re given a choice between night and day; when you choose Rome you get to choose between “old” and “new”; in Berlin the choice is between “punk” and “posh”; and in Paris it’s “classic” and “curious.” A different video, each directed by Brandon LaGanke, will play based on which side of the destination you choose. Once it’s complete, you can choose to explore the other side of your destination or to travel somewhere new. For example, if you chose night Barcelona you could then check out daytime Barcelona.

It’s a fun idea, and the execution is well done. Not stopping at choosing a destination, but adding different aspects of the same city creates depth and really adds to the illusion that you’re choosing your own destiny. That each side of each city is given not only its own video, but a different feel — complete with a unique music selection — is the icing on the cake. I’m sure we’ll have haters in the comments section decrying this as a lame, digital gimmick, but I found it to be good fun. If this series left you hungry for more Choose Your Own Adventure style shenanigans, check out this kickass Freaks and Geeks interactive game. Credits after the jump. continued…

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