Hasta La Creative!

Global digital agency Mirum hired Bret Otzenberger as chief technology officer, North America. In the role, Otzenberger will be leading Mirum’s North American technology team and shaping the agency’s technology delivery model out of its Minneapolis headquarters, while reporting to global chief technology officer Matt Webb.

The news follows the December 2015 resignation of Chuck Phillips, who had been CTO at Digitaria before the J. Walter Thompson organization consolidated its various digital properties to form Mirum last January.

“Bret is a rock star technologist and self-proclaimed geek at heart,” Webb said in a statement.  “With his deep expertise, creativity and passion, he will develop innovative technology solutions for Mirum clients, and deepen our technology practice in North America. He joins a seasoned team that he will no doubt lead to even greater accomplishments.”

Otzenberger arrives at Mirum from Minneapolis agency Olson (which rebranded as ICF Olson in March), where he served as senior vice president, technology, leading delivery teams for both Sitecore and Open Source development. Prior to Olson he spent nearly two years as vice president of engineering for Mirum (then known as Digitaria), leading the agency’s technology practice from its Minneapolis office and building its Adobe practice. That followed over two and a half years leading the technology team at JWT’s Minneapolis office as director of technology.

“With Mirum’s focus on innovation and business transformation, we have been looking for a North American CTO who can lead us to make what’s next. Bret is the ideal person to take this on,” said Mirum global and North American CEO Dan Khabie. “I am thrilled to welcome him back to Mirum as we continue to bolster our North American leadership.”

“I believe agencies must stay ahead of the technological curve, and create innovative solutions that have never been implemented before,” added Otzenberger. “I’m excited to return to Mirum at a time when the agency is strengthening its leadership and its momentum in the digital space. We’re poised to deliver the best creative solutions possible with technology-enabling, seamless user interactions.”

Olson announced the appointment of Kevin McKeon as chief creative officer, following “a truly exhaustive search process.”

McKeon arrives from StrawberryFrog, where has worked since 2004, most recently serving as a partner and chief creative officer. Prior to StrawberryFrog, McKeon spent two years with BBH as an executive creative director. He has also served as a creative director for BBDO and Lowe. Over the course of his career he has worked with such clients as Levi’s, Heineken, Johnnie Walker AXE Body Spray, Sam’s Club, Pampers, ING Direct and Orexo Pharmaceuticals. His work for Orexo Pharmaceuticals recently won a Gold Lion at Cannes. Olson cited McKeon’s “progressive work,” appreciation for integration and understanding of Olson’s agency model in its decision.

“From our first meeting onward, I’ve been really impressed by Olson’s deep integrated capabilities, their sophisticated thinking, and their incredible grasp on what smart, ambitious clients are looking for in 2015 and beyond,” said McKeon. “I think Olson is poised to make a great leap forward, and I’m just excited to be part of it.”

Olson recently debuted its first broadcast campaign for Supercuts, featuring three 30-second spots.

For each of the spots, an individual was tasked with documenting their hair growth from day to day through a series of selfies. The agency then teamed up with production company Supply & Demand to craft time-lapse videos showing the journey from haircut to haircut. It’s a pretty clever premise, and one that lends itself well to audience engagement.

“The cast…act not only as the people we look at, but the people who really made this commercial,” said director Mac Premo.

Olson may have been acquired by consulting firm ICF International this week, but this new, extended spot for client Trulia shows that the no-longer-independent agency is still doing what it does.

The agency tells us that the fear in the eyes and voices of these spooked house-hunters is real and that the whole thing was captured via hidden camera unbeknownst to any of the people involved.

As for whether that’s true…you be the judge. Now who’s scarier: the dolls or grandma? (Honestly, we’ve seen far worse on Craigslist.)

The work is attributed to Olson Engage and production company Three Volts.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Jonathan Cain, the keyboard player for Journey and writer of perhaps the band’s biggest hit, “Don’t Stop Believing,” vacationed in Belize recently—and tweeted about what a fantastic experience it was.

The Belize Tourism Board got wind of this, and with help from its ad agency, Olson, orchestrated an elaborate thank-you to Cain—in the form of a cover song, “Don’t Stop Belizein.” Popular local Belizean group The Laru Beya Boys recorded the song, which you can hear below.

Olsen and the Belize Tourism Board have collaborated on quirky campaigns in the past. Last year they offered free vacations to Vince Gilligan and eight members of the Breaking Bad cast—after the phrase “taking a trip to Belize” was used on the show as a euphemism for getting murdered.

@belizevacation @JourneyOfficial Loved your country and all the people! Thanks!

 

— Jonathan Cain (@TheJonathanCain) August 25, 2014

Top-selling floor-care appliance brand Bissell has named Minneapolis-based independent agency Olson its agency of record, shifting creative, media, strategy, digital, PR, social and analytics to Olson. Those duties were previously held jointly by creative agency Cramer-Krasselt and media agency PHD.

“It was important for us to find an agency that could handle all of the aspects of an integrated campaign, and Olson’s ability to provide an integrated solution with strong analytics helped them stand out,” explained Theresa Junkunc, director of marketing communications for BISSELL.

The win is the latest in a run of new business for Olson since September 2013, in which they’ve AOR duties for brands such as Sharp Electronics, Supercuts, Wet n Wild Beauty, Commerce Bank, Aurora Healthcare and the McDonald’s Twin Cities Co-Op.

“We’re thrilled by this opportunity to help a category leader reach new heights through innovation and integration,” said Olson chief executive officer John Partilla. “We can’t wait to get started.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It's a dispute petty enough to be a subplot on The Office. WNEP-TV, the ABC affiliate for the show's hometown of Scranton, Pa., is refusing to run a TV spot for Dunder Mifflin paper products during the Oscars. Why? Most likely because the fictional brand is too connected to rival network NBC. A de-fictionalized version of the show's paper brand has been sold in real life since 2011 by Staples-owned Quill.com, thanks to a licensing partnership with NBCUniversal. A Quill.com representative tells Adweek that WNEP won't air the Dunder Mifflin ad "apparently because of the brand’s NBC ties." WNEP declined to comment on whether it had rejected the ad, citing corporate policy. A similar ad just ran during the Super Bowl, apparently thanks to Scranton's CBS affiliate, WYOU-TV, being less finicky about the brand's background.

In another Office-esque twist, Dunder Mifflin's ad has found a new home during the Oscars broadcast on ABC affiliate WUTR in Utica, N.Y.—home of Scranton's rival branch in the show. As for the new spot itself, "The Battle" is a fairly straightforward follow-up to the brand's "Paper Fight" Super Bowl debut, featuring more white-collar grunts attacking one another with paper weaponry. It's like the perfect metaphor for an ad-placement spat. PR agency Olson is leading strategy on the campaign, and both ads were created through crowdsourcing platform Tongal.