mcgarrybowen Wins Intel

intel-logoWe knew that Intel had launched a global creative agency review back in August, but today we received an internal note from mcgarrybowen New York president Tom Sewell (who moved up from account management in May) congratulating the team for winning the pitch.

Here it is:

Tom Sewell
9:45 AM (45 minutes ago)

I’m proud to announce that Intel has named mcgarrybowen its global agency of record.

Thanks so much to every one of you. And congratulations.

The news broke last night when Intel CMO Steven Fund announced it on Twitter; AdAge published the scoop first while we were eating dinner and not checking Twitter.

For context: Venables Bell & Partners had been Intel’s AOR since 2009.  DDB also handled some campaigns, though the agency did not work with Intel at the time the review was announced. No word on which shops mcgarrybowen beat to win the business.

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mcgarrybowen Celebrates Fun for Courtyard by Marriott

mcgarrybowen has a new campaign for Courtyard by Marriott entitled “Make Room for a Little Fun,” which launched last week.

Aimed at millenials, the campaign is based on the insight that the demographic loves to travel (as opposed to those who see travel as a necessity for work). The strategy is readily apparent in the spot “Cattle Drive) (above). In it, an excited young man rides up and approaches a cattle driver who seems to be slogging through his day, offering him a caffeinated pick-me-up and noting the “sweet” free wi-fi. Other spots in the campaign take the humorous approach to the Yukon, an antiquated carriage, and a Viking ship. Each spot delivers the message “Some people have to travel for work. Some people get to travel for work,” followed by the “Make Room for a Little Fun” tagline.

Each spot was captured on-location in Norway, making use of the country’s varying landscapes. The campaign marks a shift in approach for the brand, as its humor is a stark contrast from past campaigns, which targeted a different demographic. Stick around for “Vikings” and “Yukon” after the jump. (more…)

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mcgarrybowen Celebrates ‘Mr. Amazing’ for Verizon

mcgarrybowen launched a spot for Verzion, entitled “Mr. Amazing,” which celebrates the company’s XLTE service and football season.

In the spot, some rather fantastical football leads into a man screaming “Yeah” at a field day type event, accompanied by the voiceover, “Don’t just dream about being the hero, make it happen.” The man, it is revealed, is streaming a football game at his daughter’s event, much to the relief of another father present. “So be that guy,” Verizon implores at the end of the spot, “with Verizon XLTE.” It’s a bit of an odd sendoff, as the phrasing of “that guy’ the way they use it usually has a negative connotation. It’s almost as if they can’t decide whether they want to make fun of the protagonist (who screams “Yeah!” after the initial fantasy segment) or celebrate him as “Mr. Amazing” and instead the spot attempts to do both. (more…)

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mcgarrybowen Plays iPhone Homewrecker for Verizon

mcgarrybowen has a new ad for Verizon Wireless, advertising the company’s iPhone trade-in offer allowing customers to trade in their old iPhone and for a new one, supposedly for free.

In the spot, a man reading a newspaper comes across a print ad highlighting the deal and is intrigued, reading the offer out loud. His iPhone overhears, saying, “Did you say something, Paul?” For the remainder of the spot, Siri attempts to remind Paul of the good times they’ve had together in an attempt to stop him from trading the phone in. The efforts are for naught though, as he eventually gets to Verizon to make the deal, followed by the fine print explaining that the transaction is nowhere near as straightforward as just pictured.

Finding sympathy with the to-be-replaced phone may seem like kind of an odd tactic, but it ends up being a good source of humor and makes the spot memorable. And the approach is executed well, with Siri’s attempts to stop the trade-in well thought out and naturally paced with Paul’s trip to the Verizon store. (more…)

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mcgarrybowen CFO Joins KBS as First-Ever Global COO

Today we confirmed that Christine Moore, who most recently served as CFO at mcgarrybowen, has left the agency to join KBS.

Moore served as CFO of world markets at IPG Media Brands before joining mcgarrybowen in May 2013 to replace outgoing partner/CFO/COO Erik Vukmirovich. In her new role, she will serve as the first global chief operating officer at KBS.

The hire follows KBS’s acquisition of London-based Albion, and part of Moore’s new responsibilities will involve winning new business and further establishing the agency’s footprint in the UK and Europe.

Moore worked in several financial positions at IPG before joining mcgarry; prior to entering the agency world, she held the position of senior group manager, advertising procurement at PepsiCo.

In other mcgarry news, today the agency announced the hiring of Katherine Lumb to serve as group planning director on the Verizon account. Lumb joins from Publicis Kaplan Thaler, where she held the VP/director of strategic planning position and worked on such accounts as Procter & Gamble Oral Care (among others). Earlier roles include VP, director of strategy & analysis at Publicis Modem and VP, creative experience director at Publicis Dialog.

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‘Is the AOR Dead’ Debate: 2014 Edition

Today we bring you the latest chapter in the spirited conversation that comes up in most creative industries on a yearly basis. This time, the two combatants debating the death of the AOR are:

  • In the blue corner keeping it cheesy,  Kraft Foods Group Chief Marketing Officer Deanie Elsner
  • And in the red corner helping you get your snack on, Dana Anderson, VP of marketing strategy and communications for Mondelez International

The feud started when Anderson published an editorial in the Wall Street Journal and opined that AORs are “no longer the pathway to Oz for clients or agencies.” Elsner took some serious umbrage with that sentiment from Anderson (for context, the two worked together at Kraft Foods before she flew the coop for Mondelez in 2012).

And so the debate is on.

(more…)

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Pizza Hut Names Deutsch LA Lead Creative Agency

Pizza Hut has named Deutsch Los Angeles as its new lead creative agency, AdAge reports, taking over duties for McgarryBowen immediately. Deutsch is already lead creative agency for Pizza Hut’s Yum! Brands sister Taco Bell.

McgarryBowen won lead creative duties in a review this past September that included incumbent The Martin Agency, but now Pizza Hut has decided to change direction yet again. The Martin Agency had held the role since 2009. Pizza Hut’s move comes amidst slumping sales figures and the brand is looking to evolve its image. The company spent $247.4 million on measured media last year. (more…)

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mcgarrybowen Brings Together TMNT, Pizza Hut

mcgarrybowen teamed up with production company Bullitt Branded (a new branded content company from the Russo Brothers) to combine the re-launch of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the re-launch of Pizza Hut’s “Cheesy Bites” in a new spot entitled “Sneaky Turtles.”

The 30-second cross-promotional spot keeps things pretty simple, relying on the appeal of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Said “Sneaky Turtles” break into a Pizza Hut test kitchen while no one is around and whip up a batch of “Cheesy Bites” — while making a complete mess. When the test kitchen chef returns, he’s pleased to discover the “Cheesy Bites” and eagerly digs in. The cross-promotion makes a lot of sense for Pizza Hut, given the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ well-known love of pizza, and using the re-launch of the Turtles on the big screen to re-launch a menu item is a nice touch, but we can’t help but feel like something’s missing. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

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Global CDO Livingston Leaving mcgarrybowen

We’ve confirmed that Doug Livingston, Global Chief Digital Officer at mcgarrybowen, will be leaving the agency at the end of this week.

Livingston previously left his position as EVP/director of digital integration at Grey NY to join mcgarry just over a year ago; the agency will not re-fill his role but does reportedly have plans for succession in place.

Livingston’s career includes more than two decades of work (including six years overseeing digital biz dev at Grey) for a wide variety of clients; he’s been involved in campaigns that earned Cannes Lions, CLIOs and Facebook Studio Awards. The agency has no word on where he’s headed next or what those aforementioned plans mean for the immediate future.

Email to staff from co-founder/owner Gordon Bowen after the jump.

(more…)

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WPP’s TAXI Begins Brewing New Relationship with Maxwell House

The year was 2010 when WPP rolled out the red carpet and doled out the cash for yet another advertising agency — TAXI.

The Toronto-based shop was bought to stand alone within the group and grow its own offices rather than merging with other units, according to Y&R Brands CEO Peter Stringham.

Apparently that was a good strategy: TAXI just wrangled itself a strong cup of the Kraft Foods empire with Maxwell House. Previously, the account was with W+K Portland.

The change comes only a couple of months after the coffee brand launched a new campaign called “Say Good Morning to a Good Day“; mcgarrybowen ran the account prior to W+K.

Seems that “the last drop” arrives more quickly each year. Stay tuned.

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United Bids ‘Namaste’ to Global Travel

If you feel like getting in the multilingual mood, here’s a new spot from McGarryBowen for United Airlines dubbed “Pecan,” which features an assortment of languages including Italian, French and Japanese. The globe-trotting spot hypes the airline’s travels to Europe, Asia and Central America, starring one character who knows his way around foreign languages. It’s breezy, quick and painless and includes the classic “Rhapsody” theme, but we do miss the most recent United theme redux. Credits after the jump.

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We Are Social Snags Two from JWT and mcgarrybowen

Today global agency We Are Social announced two new senior hires in its New York office.

Jenn Bader joins the agency from mcgarrybowen to serve as group account director; she’ll oversee accounts including current media darling/jewel in the crown Beats by Dre. After beginning her career as a front-end developer, Bader spent six years at Digitas working on Samsung, TGI Fridays and Kraft Foods before heading to mcgarrybowen, where she oversaw digital/social for Chase and Verizon Wireless.

Craig Stauber will be director of research and insights, reporting to department head Peter Fontana. Stauber most recently spent four years as senior manager of analytics at JWT, where he primarily worked on CPG and financial services accounts. His resume also includes three years spent in the Deutsch New York analytics department.

Managing director Leila Thabet calls the two “…talented, well-versed practitioners in their fields who will provide value to clients and keep the agency on its fast growth trajectory.”

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Sparks Grove Hires Agency Vet Russell Heubach as ECD

ECDThe Atlanta-based Sparks Grove agency–itself a division of global consultancy North Highland–has hired Russell Heubach as the newest executive creative director in its New York office.

Heubach brings an extensive agency history to the role: he began his stateside career with stints at The Martin Agency, JWT and DDB before working as creative group head at Australia’s Publicis Mojo and regional ECD for JWT Dubai.

While he held the GCD title at mcgarrybowen in his last full-time in-house position, the past two years include freelance gigs with BBDO, DDB, CP+B, StrawberryFrog and, most recently, McCann Erickson, where he worked on the Verizon and Burger King accounts.

OK, then. As CCO Minsoo Park puts it:

“We are excited that someone with his background and industry recognition chose Sparks Grove. “

Heubach himself fills out the press release, writing:

“My goal is to help build and grow a company that services our clients and all of their possible needs with the highest creative excellence.”

He certainly has the track record.

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Canavari Leaving McGarryBowen

SusanCanavariWe’ve received confirmation that after spending the last three years as executive managing director at McGarryBowen’s New York office, working primarily on JPMorgan Chase, Susan Canavari is leaving said agency to work for said client. Still confirming approximate position (something in the realm of brand building officer) with the aforementioned financial institution, but we’ve been told that a transition process is underway at McGarryBowen, which cannot yet name Canavari’s replacement.

Prior to joining McGarryBowen, Canavari, you may recall, spent four years at DigitasLBi, where she last served as EVP/marketing on all non-American Express accounts and led the latter agency’s Kraft Foods One team.

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McGarryBowen Announces Kraft Singles Changes

McGarryBowen is behind a new campaign for Kraft announcing that the company has caved to pressure and made their Kraft singles line with “No artificial preservatives or flavors,” following similar changes to some of their macaroni and cheese products. For those interested, the specific change involves swapping out sorbic acid for natamycin, a naturally occurring anti-fungal agent commonly found in soil.

The campaign features three similarly minded ads, all of which show idyllic cow pastures that couldn’t be more different from the giant factory farms where Kraft actually sources its dairy. “Our story begins here, where we get our milk,” the spot “Dairy” begins. “Made” is similarly structured, while “Why” begins with the end of the story: the grilled cheese.

All three of the 15-second efforts employ simple animation to deliver their message in a way that’s designed to appeal to families that are concerned with what their children are eating (but not concerned enough to discover Kraft’s questionable dairy sourcing). It’s another baby step in the right direction for Kraft, who seem to be attempting to figure out how to appeal to an increasingly health conscious customer base while making their concessions as small as possible. The problem with leading with the wholesomeness of your product when you’re Kraft, of course, is that it opens you up for scrutiny. Stick around for “Made” and “Why” as well as credits after the jump. continued…

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McGarryBowen’s Super Bowl Spot for Pizza Hut Features ‘Professional Baby’

In other pizza-related campaign news, what is a professional baby? How does one go about becoming a professional baby? At what point does an amateur baby turn professional? These and other questions come to mind after watching mcgarrybowen’s “Baby Waterskiing” spot from their #GoForGreatness campaign.

The YouTube inspired spot, which Whitehouse Post editors Tim Warmanen and Carlos Lowenstein sliced together for Pizza Hut’s YouTube-inspired “Go For Greatness” Super Bowl campaign (which also features the spot “Grandma Drummer”) shows several seconds of a baby named Ryder waterskiing before flashing the warning “Do not attempt. Professional baby.” At this point it becomes hard to pay attention to the rest of the ad, which promotes Pizza Hut’s new hand-tossed pizza, because how you can you not dwell on the “professional baby” disclaimer? The 30 second ad ends by inviting viewers to “Upload your greatness” to Pizza Hut’s YouTube page. Especially if you have a professional baby in the house. Stick around for “Grandma Drummer” and credits after the jump. continued…

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Redefining Luxury, the 2014 Wienermoble Is Now Available for Lease

My dream of hogging the road in a 27-foot-long, 14,000-pound frankfurter could finally become a reality if I win Oscar Mayer's contest to let someone "lease" a 2014 Wienermobile for a day.

McGarryBowen touts the promotion in an amusing spoof of a luxury car ad tagged "Form. Meats. Function." Potential leaseholders are asked to tweet with the hashtag #Tweet2Lease to explain why they are worthy—or as the ad puts it in dealership pricing terms, "1 tweet and 140 characters down." 

Per Wienermobile regulations, you get to ride in the huge hot dog, but not actually drive it, but looking at the entries, it's clear that most are dreaming of getting behind the wheel instead of just riding sausage-shotgun.

So far, the contest tweets are a mixed bag. @ForeverZoe1 claims, "I deserve to drive the wienermobile to Prom," while @piggiepi pleads, "Can I please have the biggest wiener for one day?" My favorite, via @stevierut, is dripping with brandcentric sarcasm: "I have 176 followers and they're all VERY influential opinion leaders." Then there's this inevitable, if no longer particularly timely bon mot from @AdverTina: "I want 2 use the @Wienermobile 2 visit @anthonyweiner's house."

Don't strain too hard to compose the perfect 140 characters or fret over endless (and in most cases, utterly predictable) puns. The lucky wiener … er, winner will be chosen at random on Feb. 7.


    



Life No Longer Easy: Staples Changes Slogan to ‘Make More Happen’

I remember the Easy Button last being at all interesting about five years ago. People could actually buy a product that embodied Staples’ marketing strategy in Staples, some mixture of cool/scary meta-advertising that got old once you pressed the button more than 10 times. Staples has actually been running with “That Was Easy” for a decade, but McGarryBowen just retired it in favor of the less punchy “Make More Happen.”

Would you prefer your supply store to make things easy or to make more things happen? Rhetorical, but the rebrand is meant to change the perception of Staples as just an office supply store. The logo changed slightly, too, with the now-rotating “L” you can see in the new promo above that includes dog food, rain boots, paint brushes, etc. They sell dog food? Is this Staples or Walmart? It’s hard to tell. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, since Staples can’t do Walmart as well as Walmart can, but at least they’re trying to adapt instead of coasting down an easy route to irrelevance. Credits after the jump.

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McGarryBowen Makes Some Cuts

mcgarrybowenSpeaking of McGarryBowen, we’ve been swamped with tips this morning about cuts and now, we’ve received confirmation that the Dentsu-owned agency has cut approximately six percent of staff across departments on a global scale. From what we’ve been told, McGB houses approximately 600 staffers in the network, so you can do the math from here. Sources in the know tell us that the cuts were part of a restructuring as McGarryBowen is veering from traditional to a more digitally-focused agency in 2014. To address certain tips we were receiving, we’ve been told that United Airlines is still partnering with the agency, though the JPMorgan Chase digital consolidation at Publicis Groupe a couple of months ago did have some lingering effect.

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Ed Norton Sings Karaoke, Almost Dies Several Times in New Droid Spot

This one’s been making the rounds for awhile now, but we thought we’d give some love anyway. McgarryBowen New York’s new spot for Verizion, “A Lot Can Happen in 48 Hours” features the talents of Ed Norton. It originally aired on December 5th, although it was posted to YouTube about a week before that.

In the spot, directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, Norton is thrown into a variety of dicey situations, with his Droid helping him get through most of them relatively unscathed. “A Lot Can Happen in 48 Hours” opens with Norton waking up to find himself in a strange room, with his Droid still at 3% power. “It’s been an interesting 48 hours,” Norton says, followed by a flashback. We then follow Norton through his series of misadventures, which begins with him finding a lost wallet and using Droid to find the location. This leads Norton to a karaoke bar, where he ogles a taken woman while singing “If I Could Turn Back Time” (the funniest part of the spot).

From here, Norton’s misadventures include attempting to land a plane, being held captive, having a key found in his stomach, playing a high-stakes game of Connect Four, and being held captive once again. Its everything-goes-wrong brand of humor borrows a little bit from The Hangover series, and although the spot seems to employ the kind of random connections Grey NY used in their 2012 DirectTV campaign, the superior execution helps keep it from feeling too easy or derivative. The spot uses a clever setup to promote the Droid’s impressive battery life, and then finds ways to showcase the phone’s other features in the process. This is certainly a far cry better than McgarryBowen Chicago’s disastrous “Denskies” campaign for Sears. Bonus points for the excellent use of a Lykke Li song. Credits after the jump. continued…

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