Hasta La Creative!

It’s kind of surprising, we suppose, that Organic has never had a chief marketing officer up to this point, but the Omnicom-owned agency has now filled the newly created role with the promotion of Tracy Richards, who works out of the New York office. The 13-year Organic vet most recently served as group director/global business development. Richards’ CMO appointment comes as part of a “restructuring” of Organic’s biz dev efforts that’s being led by the agency’s CEO, David Shulman.

Along with the Richards promotion, sources familiar with the matter tell us that Organic has also won Kohler, KC Professional (adding to the agency’s portfolio of KC brands), and another, yet-to-be disclosed new business win on the West Coast that the agency just won in “a competitive pitch” with Razorfish. We’ll keep you posted when we find out what the new biz actually is.

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This one’s been around awhile, but it hasn’t had much press and we felt it was worth sharing, especially if you’re a recent graduate or young creative with around 40 minutes or so to kill.

Not knowing what to do following graduation, two young creatives (William Novak and Francis Carter) embarked on a road trip and made a no-budget documentary called “The Ad-Venture,” exploring the current state of the ever-evolving world of advertising.

The creative pair interviewed industry professionals across the country, and begin the documentary by sharing inspiring messages from these individuals about the advantages and pitfalls of working advertising. Although at times it can feel overwhelmingly like a series of talking heads, these industry professionals touch on some interesting points about the current state of advertising and where it’s headed in the future. Mixed in with the interviews are intriguing relics from advertising’s golden age, which act as a welcome change of pace, and an intriguing look backwards to balance out the mostly forward-looking nature of the film.

As the documentary was dreamed up by young creatives, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they spend a significant amount of time delving into the creative process, getting differing opinions about how best to tackle a project, and the different processes interviewees utilize in their work. This part of the film tends to drag a little bit, as, even if this is an area of interest, it gets a bit repetitive hearing people talk about the creative process (especially when different people inevitably repeat the same basic ideas).

The pair also tackle the creative differences agencies in different parts of the country tend to have in an attempt to answer for the viewer where it is in the advertising world that they might belong. Although this section can feel like a bunch of creatives pitching for their own agencies, they quickly move on to how to stand out from the pack and land a job, ending the video on something of an inspiring note. Although it’s something of a mixed bag, and you may end up utilizing the fast-forward option quite a bit, there are enough clever insights and pieces of good advice to recommend “The Ad-Venture” to interested parties. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Listen folks, we love you, but we can’t be everything to everyone, whether it concerns the likes of Mark Taylor, the man who had three stints at Crispin Porter + Bogusky (yes, three) and a brief spell at GSD&M, who parted ways with the MDC-owned agency last summer.  In case you didn’t read the post from AdAge, which by the way still hilariously lives in some Mad Men era and/or ranks themselves up with the New York Times –”my exclusive or the highway”–but is even more anachronistic (just fucking be civil, not political), Taylor has now joined up with Energy BBDO as its new chief creative officer.

Anyhow, I digress. Here is a statement from Energy president/CEO, Tonise Paul, who says, “Mark is an amazing talent and we couldn’t be more delighted to welcome him to our Energy BBDO family. When you look at Mark’s work, you will see a history of marketing innovation. With the challenge of increasingly parity products and the opportunity afforded by the constant emergence of new technologies, this is how brands today win. Mark’s work is a collection of big, original ideas that have solved big business challenges. You will recognize it because it was often the first time you saw it done, starting with Subservient Chicken. On top of his track record of great work, Mark is a wonderful guy.”

Taylor will assume his new role on April 7 but until then, Chicago-based Energy BBDO will continue to be led by a group of senior creative directors.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

After spending the last four-and-a-half years at SapientNitro, where he worked out of the agency’s Boston office and last served as VP/general management/new business lead, Eric Healy has moved on to assume a new role at Rosetta. Specifically, Healy will serve as managing partner of the Publicis Groupe-owned agency’s consumer products & retail industry group. As you’d expect, Rosetta CEO Tom Adamski sings the new hire’s praises, saying in a statement, “…Eric is a true superstar, with a glowing record of business development, growth and expansion during the last 16 years. He’s the right leader at the right time to strengthen and solidify our reputation across the rapidly changing consumer products and retail industry.”

Prior to his time at SapientNitro, Healy worked as EVP of corporate development at Aegis and before, spent two years as SVP/director of interactive at Mullen and served for nearly four at Arnold. During his time at Arnold, Healy first oversaw the agency’s interactive practice before taking the lead on strategy, integrated marketing and creative development for its then-existent Vonage account.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We’re getting some more context/background on the matter, but it does appear that after spending the last two-and-a-half years as global managing director of the Mindshare Trading Desk, Joe Weaver has resigned from the WPP/GroupM agency. During his time running the MTD and its technology/analytics teams out of NYC, the self-proclaimed “digital Yoda” developed private marketing programs and solutions for Fortune 100/200 clients including Unilever, Kimberly-Clark and CVS.

From what we’re hearing, Weaver has left Mindshare to assume a newly created role at eight-year-old, Emeryville, CA-based video platform, TubeMogul. No confirmation on this as of yet, but we’re checking. Anyhow, prior to Mindshare, Weaver helped launch the digital arm of Media Storm back in 2005 and subsequently spent nearly five years at the company serving as director/digital. Following his Media Storm stint, Weaver held the global group director/digital position for 18 months at Omnicom proper, where he worked with various luxury and financial clients as well as on new business efforts.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In October, Philly-based Red Tettemer O’Connell + Partners welcomed eight new hires with paper doll likenesses of themselves.

Now, in an attempt to up the ante in the creative welcoming of new employees department, the agency has crafted a totem pole featuring eleven new hires that were just announced today. The totem pole was sculpted by Steve Thompson, RTO+P’s “Maker,” out of basswood and stands proud at 26 inches tall.

“We’re stoked to have all this new talent aboard and we’ve heard the totem of their likenesses can actually produce rain when held at a specific angle,” says Steve Red, president/CCO of RTO+P. You can view a short documentary on the sculpting process above. New hires include (from top to bottom of the totem pole): Jacqui Abel, Senior Account Manager; Jonathan Bayless, Social Driver; Megan Auld-Wright, Copywriter; Travis Hyatt, Developer; Gillian Darr, Account Coordinator; Chris Arasin, Interactive Designer; Allison Berger, Community Manager; Will Nathanson, Account Director; Alex Moreno, Junior Social Creative; Joe Schoppy, Junior Social Creative; and Meg Dibley, Junior Content Producer.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Students at the VCU Brandcenter are back, launching a campaign promoting the AICP Show and AICP Next Awards for the 9th straight year.

The campaign takes a humorous route to displaying the lasting quality of an AICP award, showing top creatives like Gerry Graf, Co: collective partner/chief content officer Tiffany Rolfe and Droga5′s Ted Royer waxing on the perceived perks of yesteryear. While these perks may have vanished, their AICP awarded work is in the permanent exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art.

“Every generation hears about the halcyon days when perks were free-flowing – perhaps they were, or perhaps it’s all wishful thinking. But through it all, the one constant is that no one can ever take away your AICP honor and recognition,” explained Matt Miller, President and CEO of AICP.

“Ty Montague of Co:Collective, Susan Credle of Leo Burnett, and Diane Jackson of DDB Chicago (all VCU BrandCenter Board members and either current or past AICP Show Curators)” collaborated with Miller, AICP Director of Events Ileana Montalvo and AICP Chief of Staff Kristin Wilcha in selecting the campaign from among those presented by second year student teams at VCU Brandcenter. The results are pretty funny, with Graf commenting on vanishing drum kits, Rolfe wondering where the prostitutes went, and Royer lamenting the ever-shrinking office. The entry deadline for the awards is March 7. Both the AICP Show and the AICP Next Awards will take place June 10-12, during AICP week. You can check out Graf’s video above, and stick around for Royer and Rolfe’s two cents, along with credits, after the jump. continued…

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Joshua Davis, media arts director at NYC/London experience design firm, Sub Rosa, co-directed the new music video for fellow New Yorkers Phantogram’s “Fall In Love.” Davis also produced all the graphics for the video, which debuted last week in anticipation of their new album Voices, which was released yesterday.

The music video, directed by Timothy Saccenti, “blends digital and physical experiences created via a series of randomly generated graphics that are projected through software in real time.” Davis created the graphics using 55 different JAVA programs that each “had a unique composition and animation.” For the video, the team narrowed it down to 12 programs, and projected the animations onto the band and dancers live while filming. Phantogram (Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter), which just released their second full-length, Voices, and are described with little accuracy as an “American hazy dream-pop duo,” are not bad. Blending elements of trip-hop, dance pop and R&B in the song, the video above fits their style well. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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After spending nearly the last five years at W+K, where he most recently served as strategic planning director on P&G corporate, Dave Burg has left the agency’s HQ to join up with fellow Portland operation, Roundhouse. Burg has now assumed the role of head of planning at Roundhouse, a creative agency that works with clients including Microsoft (on Xbox, primarily), Red Bull and Adidas.

During his time at W+K, meanwhile, Burg not only led strategy on P&G projects (“Proud Sponsor of Moms” campaign, for example) but worked on Dodge and Target and served as planning director on Coca-Cola including past Super Bowl efforts like the polar bear work during the last Giants-Patriots battle. Prior to W+K, Burg spent four years at Leo Burnett Chicago as a senior brand strategist, leading day-to-day duties on the McDonald’s national account. No word yet on if there are plans to replace him at W+K, but we’re checking. Update: W+K is “reallocating resources internally” following Burg’s departure.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We’ve received confirmation that Juan Carlos Pagan, who’s spent the last two-and-a-half years as head of design at DDB New York, is leaving the agency at week’s end. No word yet, though, on where Pagan’s headed to next, but the creative has pulled double duty as he also serves as partner/CD of his own Brooklyn-based design studio, Pagan & Sharp. During his time at DDB NY, Pagan has worked on several outdoor/print efforts for New York Lottery among other accounts.

Prior to DDB, Pagan (part of the ADC Young Guns class of 2013) spent a few years as as an art director of what was then G2 and served in a similar role at MTV. No word yet on if there are plans to replace the creative.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.