Hasta La Creative!

Bacardi has decided to consolidate creative and media for its major brands, choosing BBDO and OMD without a review, Adweek reported yesterday.

According to that publication, the process began with a secret meeting between Bacardi mangement, led by CEO Mike Dolan, and executives at BBDO and OMD. Within a couple of weeks the brand had struck a deal with the two agencies to consolidate its major brands, handing off both creative and media responsibilties to the pair of Omnicom shops. Prior to the consolidation, Bacardi worked with a wide variety of agencies on its creative accounts, with media handled by Mindshare in North America and Zenith in Europe.

“Our goal is to be able to work better and to create a closer alignment between our global and local operations,” Dolan said in a statement. “To achieve this goal requires that we work with a global network.”

“It was so unique in how this happened,” OMD worldwide CEO Mainardo de Nardis told Adweek. “It wasn’t about a review, pitches, presentations, spreadsheets, pricing. We feel empowered because this is a decision based on strategic discussions about how to improve Bacardi’s business. It’s a real partnership with a huge amount of trust. If only [all new business] could be like this.”

Among Bacardi’s 200 brands are flagship brand Bacardi, Grey Goose, Martini, Bombay Sapphire, Dewars and William Lawson’s. Due to a conflict of interest, BBDO will resign from Belvedere Vodka in the U.S. and Famous Grouse in the U.K.

Released this Monday in anticipation for father’s day, Dove’s new digital spot for their Men+Care line, entitled “Calls for Dad” celebrates all that father’s do in an attempt to backlash outdated ideas of fathers as hands-off parents.

Adweek reports that Dove “hired Edelman Berland to interview 1,000 fathers ages 25-54” as research for the campaign. “Three-quarters of dads say they are responsible for their child’s emotional well-being,” said Rob Candelino, marketing vice president and general manager, Unilever’s skin care. “But only 20 percent see that in media.”

The spot aims to strike an emotional chord with fathers everywhere, as children of various ages in various situations call for dad. “For all the times they’ve answered our call…isn’t it time we celebrate dads?” the spot asks, undoubtedly leading to a few choked up fathers. Adweek reports that “Mindshare and Davie Brown Entertainment are the media buying and creative agencies, respectively, behind the initiative,” which has scored over 500,000 views on YouTube since its debut yesterday. We’ve reached out for credits and will update if/when we receive them.

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We’ve been told that this was purely coincidental seeing as they served in fairly different roles, but a spokesperson for Mindshare has confirmed that both Scott Sorokin and Michael Epstein have resigned from the agency. Sorokin joined the WPP/GroupM agency four years ago in the newly created role of global digital leader, which initially called for him to handle all things digital for Unilever.

Along with his work for the corporate giant, though, Sorokin (pictured) was responsible for Mindshare’s digital strategy, digital staff, organic/new biz growth and tech development. No word yet on where he’s headed to next, but prior to Mindshare, Sorokin spent a couple of years as president of Aegis Media/Carat and has also worked as global account director on Intel while at McCann/MRM. From what the agency tells us, there are plans to replace Sorokin, but in the meantime, his responsibilities will be handled by GroupM Interaction USA COO John Montgomery as well as Mindshare’s London-based global digital leader, Norm Johnston.

As for Epstein, the exec most recently served as president/strategic resource & client services at Mindshare, where he spent well over 12 years in various planning roles. We’ve been told that both execs parted ways amicably.

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