Hasta La Creative!

Production company Tool has just announced the addition of Christopher Neff as executive producer for their digital team.

Neff joins Tool from 180LA, where he served as director of interactive production. While at 180LA, Neff worked on such notable projects as Pepsi’s “Now is What You Make It” World Cup campaign and HP’s award-winning interactive YouTube experience “2Days Beat.” He also won a One Show Interactive award in 2012 for his work on Sony’s Facebook-based, Google Earth-enabled, $1 million digital treasure hunt.

Tool Digital Managing Partner Dustin Callif was excited to welcome Neff aboard, saying, “Chris brings a passion for digital production that is a perfect fit for what we’re looking to accomplish. He is an ideal person to help evolve and grow our digital capabilities.”

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Esurance has announced today the addition of Alan Gellman as chief marketing officer. Gellman will oversee “all of Esurance’s marketing and advertising efforts, including direct marketing, online and offline advertising, search, brand partnerships, communications and customer experience.” He will be based out of Esurance’s San Francisco offices, and report to president and CEO Gary Tolman.

Gellman joins Esurance following ten years at Wells Fargo, first as senior vice president of marketing strategy, and then as senior vice president of digital marketing. Recently, Gellman led Wells Fargo’s lead agency of record search, as well as focusing on integrated marketing efforts. Previously he “established a customer engagement strategy with innovative new measurement capabilities” while leading strategy, research and analytics for Wells Fargo’s consumer credit group. Gellman actually began his career in advertising, before making the leap to consumer packaged goods with General Foods, Kraft and ConAgra.

“After a very comprehensive search, I am pleased to welcome Alan to the Esurance team,” said Tolman. “His experience in regulated industries and strong focus on digital, analytics, and putting customers first will help us grow the Esurance business as we continue to drive innovation and the evolution of self-directed insurance.”

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This week, Conan O’Brien has been doing shows at Dallas’ Majestic Theater in anticipation of the NCAA Final Four. Although O’Brien may not have acknowledged it, the “Son of Conan” was there, too.

Conan O’Brien look-alike Greg Keating was in Dallas, ostensibly to “reconnect” with Conan O’Brien, but with a few ulterior motives up his sleeve. In a slick move, Johnson & Sekin approached Keating with the opportunity to promote American Airlines, Omni, DART mass transit, Dallas Comedy House and Raising Cane’s while O’Brien was in Dallas. Although it meant taking a few days off from school, the Temple advertising major and aspiring copywriter jumped at the opportunity to further his “pursuit of dad” while diving headfirst into the ad world and gaining exposure. He can be seen in the above clip, slyly promoting Raising Cane’s while on a Dallas morning news program where he explains he first realized he looked like O’Brien in third grade when a basketball coach referred to him as “Conan.”

“Johnson & Sekin was great because it was crazy fast and they had it all organized,” Keating said, adding “I’m not just saying that because I’ll be looking for an ad job.”

We’d be surprised if Keating doesn’t land himself a copywriting gig at an agency somewhere in the near future (I mean, who wouldn’t hire this guy?). But hey, if advertising doesn’t work out, he always has a future as a Conan impersonator.

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We’ve been told by those in the know that this is “completely unrelated” to Monday’s cuts, but Arnold chief digital officer Matt Howell and Arnold are, as mentioned, parting ways. Here’s a quick statement from the agency:

“Matt Howell will be leaving his post as Chief Digital Officer at Arnold. He has been an important contributor to the agency and we thank him for his work and leadership. Over the last year, we re-engineered the agency’s operating model to move from digital as a department to digital embedded throughout the company. That vision has streamlined our structure to include four ‘super groups’ – marketing, strategy, creative and production, with digital leadership and specialists in each.”

To refresh memory if need be, Howell joined Arnold three years ago as managing partner/global CDO after serving as president of the now-defunct, Boston-based agency, Modernista! No word yet on Howell’s next stop but we’ll keep you posted when we find out.

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We’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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Joel Clement’s search for a stateside agency is over. Today McGarrah Jessee announced that Clement, who most recently served as executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi Thailand, will join the Austin firm to “focus primarily on writing.”

This summer Clement announced his plans to leave the agency after eight years, eight months of which he spent as ECD and regional creative director for Saatchi & Saatchi’s Asia operations.

In the release, he clarifies that he “had a pretty specific ideal in mind” when planning his repatriation and that he “found it all at McGarrah Jessee.”

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Caviar Content has just announced the signing of beauty and lifestyle director Charles Mehling for worldwide representation.

Mehling made his commercial debut with a campaign for Earl Jeans featuring supermodel Gisele Bündchen, with whom he has become a regular collaborator, including a recent Pantene campaign. In addition to Bündchen, Mehling’s enviable celebrity and supermodel portfolio includes work with Kate Moss, Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zooey Deschanel, Jennifer Aniston, Naomi Watts, Natalia Vodianova, Karen Elson, Angela Lindvall and Georgia May Jagger. He’s worked with brands including Rimmel, Dove, BCBG, Budweiser, David Yurman, Garnier, Olay, Pantene and Smart Water.

Mehling launched his directorial career with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s debut music video, going on to work with artists including The Kooks, Emeli Sandé, The Script, Stereophonics, Kasabian and James Morrison. He also directed several music documentaries, most notably an in-depth biography of the Scottish singer/songwriter Paolo Nutini, as well as a short film entitled “For The First Time.”

“We are very excited by the signing of Charles to our roster! His work demonstrates a fantastic blend of beauty and fashion with strong natural performances,” said Sorcha Shepherd, EP at Caviar London. “He has a deep understanding of how to capture subtle human nuances that can really elevate a beauty & lifestyle piece into something truly engaging. The fact that he is also such an accomplished photographer makes him an even stronger contender in the world of advertising, where more and more brands are looking to find a solution for both stills and film in one great package.”

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The Clio Awards announced today that WMcCann Brazil Chairman & McCann Worldgroup, Latin America & Caribbean CCO Washington Olivetto will receive the 2014 Clio Lifetime Achievement Award at the 55th annual awards show on October 1 at Cipriani in New York.

Olivetto is known around the world as an influential figure in the advertising industry, and in Brazil as an important cultural figure. His best known work includes iconic campaigns for Salvation Army, Nestle and Brazilian household staple BomBril, “which boasts the longest-running campaign with the same lead character,” with poster boy Carlos Moreno serving continuously from 1978 to 2004. Olivetto’s W/Brasil merged with McCann Erickson Worldwide’s Brazilian operations to form WMcCann in 2010, with operations based in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. WMcCann currently owns the two most popular campaigns airing in Brazil, for Bradesco, the biggest bank in Brazil, and Brazilian food company Seara. In 20o1, Olivetto won the Clio Awards’ Grand-Prix film award with a TV spot for Época Magazine. In addition to advertising, Olivetto is known in Brazil as a soccer mega-fan and expert, the creator of an ideological movement in the history of Brazilian soccer called “Democracia Corintiana.”

“Washington Olivetto is a name synonymous with innovation in the advertising industry,” explained Nicole Purcell, executive vice president, Clio Awards. “For decades, Washington’s work has been bringing Brazilian creative to the world and the most sophisticated thinking in global advertising to the Brazilian market. Defying contradiction, he’s at once a classic adman and a radical pioneer.”

“I’m exceptionally honored to receive the Clio Lifetime Achievement Award, in no small part on account of distinguished names of those who received the award before me,” said Olivetto. “I hope this award shines a light on the exemplary work being done around Latin America, and particularly in Brazil, which has been a source of inspiration and the greatest, most rewarding challenge I could have asked for.”

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Deirdre Davi has just joined Facebook as director of North American business marketing, where she will help “marketers understand how Facebook can drive results and develop go-to-market strategies for key product updates, initiatives, and more to support sales goals.”

She joins Facebook from Sterling Brands, where she served as executive vice president for 11 and a half years. At that position, Davi developed and maintained relationships with brands like Google, Intel and T-Mobile, partnering with these and other brands “to develop audience understanding, positioning strategy, and recommendations for products, initiatives, and programs.” For the past five years she has worked almost exclusively with Google on marketing and driving sales, as well as increasing “their thought leadership visibility and advertising revenue.”

Previously, Davi was co-founder and chief operating officer at software company Plurimi, where she was responsible for overseeing all daily operations and functional areas, including “sales and marketing, engineering and product management, client services and financial management.”

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Michael K. Lyons, recently senior director of direct response at ESPN, is heading west to join California-based InterMedia Advertising, where he will serve as the agency’s new vice president and media director. Lyons will “head up media buying for the innovative, fast-growing $600 million agency, whose client roster includes ShoeDazzle, Clear Choice Dental, SuperBeta Plus, Marinello Schools of Beauty, and Lifestyle Lift.”

Prior to his post at ESPN, Lyons served as vice president of business development and media strategy at Precision Demand and spent two years as vice president of direct response at A&E. Before that, Lyons served a 14 year stint at Lifetime, where he rose from account executive to vice president of direct response and general ad sales.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.