VICE Media Insiders Defend Outgoing Creative Director

VICE-logoVice Media may not be a traditional agency, but it does have a lot of clients and, depending on who you ask, some quality creative talent.

Holding companies are certainly interested: you may recall that Sir Martin and WPP bought a stake in the still-growing company in 2012 before Rupert Murdoch could climb on board.

Vice also acquired Carrot Creative back in 2013, and Carrot CEO Mike Germano assumed the chief digital officer position.

There’s no denying that Vice Media does real work: in July we posted on in-house creative studio Virtue’s Spanglish-flavored campaign for AT&T. Based on what we hear from both an inside source and a report in this morning’s New York Post, the company seems to have all the interpersonal drama of a traditional ad agency as well.

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Vice Acquires Carrot Creative

Good-Handshake

The New York Times got the exclusive on this one, but what the hell, we have the announce and feel it’s worth mentioning that the now-media conglomerate that is Vice has acquired DUMBO-based digital agency, Carrot Creative. So, why now? According to a statement from Carrot co-founder/chief experience officer Chris Petescia,”The thought of selling to a holding company has always been incomprehensible to us. By contrast, when VICE approached us, it made perfect sense. Not joining VICE would have been an absurd contradiction to the very principles we stand for; they are aligned with Carrot in mission and spirit. Carrot has always been at the forefront of innovation; VICE is a steroid injection into our greatest ambitions. To say that we’re excited would be an understatement.”

The “steroid injection” will mean that Carrot’s creative/dev team will join up with Vice’s in-house web and mobile teams, with the immediate goal being to focus on the latter’s new verticals that include news, food and sports. Along with the vertical work, Carrot will focus on app development, advertising efforts and UX as the relationship endures. According to the parties involved, Carrot Creative, which works with clients including Jaguar, MTV, Disney and Home Depot, and its 65 staffers will remain in their DUMBO quarters (Vice’s hub is in Willamsburg). We’ve been told that as a result of the acquisition, fellow Carrot co-founder/CEO Mike Germano will remain in his role as the agency’s CEO and serve in a dual role of chief digital officer at Vice. Everything else will remain the same.

 

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