Hasta La Creative!

After spending nearly 15 months at what is now FCB L.A., Michael Bryce has left the agency, sources familiar with the matter confirm. Bryce, whose last day at FCB was Friday, joined the agency as executive creative director at the beginning of 2013 following a yearlong CD stint at 72andSunny, where he worked on campaigns for Samsung GS II and Activision. During his time at FCB, meanwhile, Bryce led creative efforts for the likes of Levi’s, Dockers and Nabi.

The creative vet, though, spent the majority of his career at Deutsch LA (14 years, give or take), where he last served as EVP/group creative director and managed the agency’s U.S. Playstation account while leading work for clients such as CiCi’s Pizza, DirecTV and TGIFridays along the way. No word yet on replacement plans at FCB, etc, but we’ll likely fill in the blanks soon enough.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Well, if the first clip we posted yesterday that provided a glimpse into the judging for the ADC’s 93rd Annual Awards of Art + Craft in Advertising and Design wasn’t enough to leave our freezing souls envious, here’s round two. Once again, we head back vicariously to Costa Rica, where this year’s judging for the Advertising and Interactive categories of the awards show took place (hell, if the ANDY juries can head to Hawaii, why can’t these folks go someplace exotic?). This time around, we’re greeted by catamarans and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners ECD, Margaret Johnson, who’s heading up the Advertising jury. We’re checking our frequent flyer mileage as we speak.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Details are still a little hazy on this, but we have at least received confirmation that Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai and its management team will be going their separate ways. From what we’ve been told, W+K Shanghai managing director Jason White, who’s served in said role for two-and-a-half years (marking his second stint in said office),  is leaving because he’s heading back to the States to take up an undisclosed job with Beats by Dre in LA. As a result of White’s decision, his creative partners (we’re checking in on exact names) have decided that they wanted to move on as well. The departures aren’t immediate, though, as the management team will actually be leaving towards the end of the year.

As for White, the exec has had a nine-year relationship with W+K, first as management supervisor on Nike before heading assume his first role at W+K Shanghai as head of account management on Coca-Cola and Heineken. We’re sure will more details will emerge on the departures as 2014 progresses and will keep you posted when they do.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Word from a few folks on the Spy line is that Doug Perkul, who’s spent the last three-and-a-half years at Sid Lee and the last two as managing partner at its Amsterdam office, is leaving for a client-side gig at O’Neill. No confirmation from the Sid Lee camp on this as of yet, but we did get some vague responses from those in the know that the agency’s relationship with the surf/lifestyle brand dates back to last October when Sid Lee developed some ideas for O’Neill at the latter’s request. From what we’ve been told, the ideas were well-received and a bond was formed between agency and client there after, though no word yet if an official partnership was formed.  But yes, that’s pretty much all she wrote thus far. Whatever the case, it appears all is amicable and we should find out more about Perkul’s potential new gig at O’Neill (we’re hearing CMO) in the next couple of weeks.

Prior to Sid Lee, Perkul founded and served as managing director of his own NYC-based creative boutique agency, Schatzi, and also had a stint as a digital producer/account lead at R/GA. We’ll keep you posted when the fog lifts from this tale, but if you know more in the meantime, give us a shout.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The trio of former Mother staffers who left the agency’s New York office for an Austin adventure have officially launched their shop (just in time for SXSWi, we suppose) that’s been dubbed Preacher. Along with doing some experiential work for Nike retail and a content project for Skillshare, creative director Rob Baird, managing director Krystie Loyland and strategy director Seth Gaffney have landed clients including healthy snack company Snikiddy, a Texas-based coffee brand called Seventh Flag launching this March, and a new golf lifestyle brand that Preacher is helping create from scratch to launch this summer under a yet-to-be-disclosed name that the latter came up with.

In case you need some background on the Preachers’ past, Baird was one of the original staffers at Mother NY, overseeing client work Virgin Mobile, Stella Artois, Dell Computers, Coca-Cola, Yahoo! and Sour Patch Kids (and doing two stints in the process). During his career, the creative vet spent time at TBWA Chiat Day on Skittles and Absolut, and Fallon on Starbucks, Timberland and SoBe. Gaffney served as co-head of strategy at Mother while Loyland held the post of VP of new business and account director.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Th1ng director/animator Sylvain Chomet received a personal request from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening to animate the iconic “couch gag” that concludes the opening credits of the show, now entering its 26th season. Obviously, you don’t turn down a personal request from Matt Groenig, so the three-time Oscar nominee Chomet offered up a distinctly French take on the gag, which was just revealed online today.

Chomet joins an illustrious list of individuals invited by Groening to animate the sequence, including Bill Plympton, Banksy, and Guillermo Del Toro. Indeed, in recent years the couch gag has all too often overshadowed the rest of the episode. Executive producer Dominic Buttimore (Bart Simpson would have a field day with that one), a longtime collaborator, “worked closely with Chomet to create and storyboard the concept for the animation sequence, which was immediately met with ‘laughter and appreciation’ by Groening and Simpsons’ longtime show-runner/producer Al Jean. Jean went as far as to call the experience a “dream come true.”

The new couch gag (featured above) is one of the show’s best, thanks to some great jokes and Chomet’s inimitable animation style. It will air during the episode “Diggs” this Sunday, March 9th. Stick around after the jump for credits and couch gags from Plympton and Banksy. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

There’s no official word as of yet, but a phone call or two tells us that Ken Burbary is no longer at Lowe Campbell Ewald, where he’s spent the last two years working out of the agency’s Detroit-area office as chief digital officer. The CDO gig was not Burbary’s first rodeo at what was then Campbell Ewald, where he originally spent nearly a decade in the late 90′s onwards and eventually served as SVP/chief technology officer. In between his two stints at LCE, Burbary served as VP/group director on the strategy/analytics side at Digitas. We’ll keep you posted when we find out more.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

After 14 months spent overseeing strategy and client services in Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s Gothenburg, Stockholm and Copenhagen branches, Anders Davidsson has moved up the charts, landing his new gig as CEO of the Scandinavian region. Davidsson succeeds Gustav Marten, who now assumes the post of executive chairman/chief innovation officer of said region (the lads are pictured above). As for Davidsson, prior to his stint at CP+B, the agency’s new Scandinavian chief exec served as director/board member of  brand agency Greenspace in London, working with clients like Carlsberg and Toyota. Prior to the Greenspace gig, Davidsson oversaw the Volvo Cars account at SCP/GREY in Gothenburg.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

After spending nearly two-and-a-half years at Energy BBDO, where he last served as SVP/group creative director on accounts including Wrigley, Chicago native Rick Hamann has moved on to a fellow Windy City operation, The Onion, where he now joins up as SVP and head of the satirical pub’s in-house creative agency, Onion Labs. In a statement, Onion CEO Steve Hannah says, “With over-15 years in advertising and experience working for a wide assortment of brands, Rick is the perfect person to head up Onion Labs. It will be his job to make sure that the most original, inventive comedy and pop culture ideas are created for our clients, and that they are absolutely aligned with their business goals.”

Here are some recent campaigns here and here if you need a refresher on the Onion Labs. During his time at Energy, Hamann moved up from VP/CD to his most recent GCD role, working with the likes of the aforementioned Wrigley (with ex-Energy BBDO AD/CD Jimmy Dietzen) as well as Quaker, Pearl Vision on various print/TV/digital efforts in the process. During his career, Hamann has also served as a copywriter at JWT Chicago and now-defunct Element79 before moving to up senior creative roles at Factory Design Labs and Cramer-Krasselt.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It took some time, but the folks at TBWA\Chiat\Day New York have finally landed a new head of integrated production in Chad Hopenwasser, who joins the agency after spending nearly the last eight years at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Hopenwasser essentially succeeds Robert Valdes, who left Chiat NY last spring and eventually joined up with Droga5 NY to serve as head of interactive production. But Valdes, as you may know, has recently left Droga5 to join up with old Chiat pal Mark Figliulo at the latter’s new shop, Figliulo & Partners.

As for Hopenwasser, the exec spent the last couple of years at CP+B  serving as VP/director of video production across the agency’s network, working on, among other efforts, campaigns for Xbox and the new Kraft Mac n’ Cheese work starring Vanilla Ice. Prior to his lengthy stay at CP+B, Hopenwasser spent six years at Grey New York. He will officially assume his new post at Chiat NY in mid-March and work along the agency’s ECD, Matt Ian, and report to report to office president, Robert Harwood-Matthews.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.