Hasta La Creative!

Minneapolis-based agency Campbell Mithun has announced the hiring of industry veteran David Carter, formerly of BBDO New York,  as its new chief creative officer.

Carter is one of the most highly awarded creatives in advertising today, with two of the One Show’s Top Ten Campaigns of the decade with BMW Films and HBO Voyeur. He’s worked with clients including BMW, Amazon, Starbucks, HBO, AT&T, Chrysler, Jeep, Pepsi and Glenlivet Whisky.

“David’s body of work over the years is testament to his belief in platform creativity—drawing upon data, technology and emerging media to deliver brand stories,” said Campbell Mithun CEO Rob Buchner.

Carter was equally optimistic about the move, stating, “You only have to read a headline or two each day to see how quickly the agency and media worlds are changing. The combination of Campbell Mithun’s legacy of big, brand ideas and its commitment to new media thinking and strategy is the perfect fit for me. I couldn’t be more excited.” Carter reported for duty at Campbell Mithun today, representing the agency’s “latest investment in talent since Rob Buchner took the helm in mid-2013.” Other recent moves at Campbell Mithun include Steve Adrndt‘s promotion to COO and the hiring of Denis Budniewski as director of account leadership and growth back in September.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Self-proclaimed “ideas man” Floyd Hayes had a big 2013, between founding World’s Fastest Agency and the Guerilla Marketing School, and there’s no reason to expect that 2014 will be any different.

Midtown-Manhattan hotel YOTEL called in Floyd Hayes to dress up the place during renovation. So Hayes designed an interactive LEGO wall, functioning simultaneously as a disguise for the in-transition room behind it and a cool place for guests to have fun playing around with LEGOs. That sure beats a ‘Pardon our appearance…” sign. The LEGO wall stretches across “the space age lounge area on FOUR…covers thirty feet, with a base layer of deep blue bricks.” On top of the blue base are “hundreds of LEGO bricks in an array of colors and sizes.” Guests can challenge their imagination, adding their own creations to the wall, or they can sit on one of the bright purple cushions in the room and appreciate the LEGO installation, as well as the other art in the room. That sounds like a lot of fun. Even better, visitors who choose to participate in the interactive exhibit can snap photos of their creations, tag it with the hashtag #MyLegoMasterpiece on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, and enter for a chance to win free stays at YOTEL. The LEGO wall will remain at YOTEL until March, at which time the new Club Lounge behind it will be revealed, which almost seems too bad.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

After receiving a few tips about this but no official word back, it appears to finally be so as Walt Connelly  has now joined up with TBWA\Chiat\Day New York as global CD. Most recently, the creative vet served as global executive creative director at Havas Worldwide last summer on the agency’s Merck Consumer Care business, a position he just assumed last summer. During his career, Connelly has served as ECD at the likes of McCann, JWT (on on Microsoft, Kimberly-Clark, HSBC, etc.) and Ogilvy (on IBM). When we’re done tapping feet, twiddling thumbs and the like awaiting Chiat’s word on specifics, we’ll keep you posted.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A line from the 1992 classic Ice Cube song “It Was A Good Day” imagines a Goodyear blimp flying with the message “Ice Cube ‘s A Pimp.” Donovan Strain of Murk Avenue did the world a service by putting in the detective work to discover the date of Ice Cube’s “Good Day”: January 20th, 1992. Now, some other stand-up guys want to make Goodyear fly a “Ice Cube’s A Pimp” blimp for real this January 20th, for what some have dubbed “National Good Day Day.”

Obviously, it would take some convincing to get Goodyear in on this, so a handful of creatives (Jon Barco, Andy Dao, Bryan Denman, and Michael Lopez)  set up a crowdfunding site, with all proceeds going to A Place Called Home — a charity serving “South Central children and teens 8 to 21 years old with love, safety, enrichment, training, and opportunities through educational programs, counseling, and mentorships.” It’s a great charity, and one that deals specifically with helping the citizens of South Central L.A., making it the perfect match for the project.

The guys involved describe themselves as “just a couple of dudes who are fans of Ice Cube, Goodyear, and A Place Called Home.” If you take issue with the word “pimp” floating around in the L.A. sky, they have an answer for you: “The original definition of the word is pretty watered down via slang / culture / TV etc. If you listen to the song. The intent is clear.”

So hopefully Goodyear takes notice, helps everyone remember that January 20th is a “Good Day” and raises money for A Place Called Home. If you’d like to help make this happen (and why wouldn’t you?), head over to the Good Day Blimp crowdfunding site and make a donation. If you give enough, and Goodyear goes through with the project, you could be the proud owner of a Good Day Blimp poster. Let’s all make January 20th a good day.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Less than two weeks after we first reported that Suzanne Michaels left DigitasLBi and was potentially assuming an executive creative director role at Critical Mass, the latter agency has now made it official.  Michaels has indeed joined Omnicom-owned Critical Mass as part of the agency’s  “larger investment in developing talent and creative excellence.” Michaels now joins a leadership team that also includes Amanda Levy, a seven-year CM vet who has now been bumped up general manager (but will continue in her role as SVP/client partner for Nissan and Infiniti North America) and Lisa Penelton, a Razorfish alum who joins CM as  VP/marketing science. Together, the trio will oversee business and operations across CM’s Chicago and L.A. office.

Regarding her new gig, Michaels (pictured right, with Levy), who officially left DigitasLBi on Jan. 6 after four-and-a-half years, says in a statement,  “Agencies everywhere are at a precipice, thinking about who they are and what they want to be. With its expertise in business strategy, user experience and design, Critical Mass is poised to fill a very compelling white space. We can be the partner who helps brands do more than just advertise to people, and become a chosen part of their lives through software, products, and experiences.”

One can say that it’s been a fairly busy start to the year for Critical Mass, which along with its latest leadership appointments, welcomed Huge alums Conor Brady and Chris Hayes as global CCO and CMO, respectively, and is merging its London ops with Agency Republic, effective Jan. 18.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In case you don’t know the name Chris Masse, he was employee #1 at San Francisco-based shop DOJO, originally joining as art director in 2009 before moving up the ranks to creative director at the agency. Well, now it appears that he’s on the freelance circuit as a CD/AD, working on several campaigns for Logitech, LG and Activision among other DOJO clients. Prior to joining DOJO, Masse worked in a similar role at the likes of Fancy with the former’s agency founders, Geoff Edwards and Mauro Alencar.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Well, we were not only invited to a Havas Worldwide conference call to take place in a few, but now we guess we know what it’s about. We just received what appears to be a legit .pdf that proclaims the holding company’s global CEO David Jones is leaving the agency to launch a new tech startup in the next month and will be replaced by Yannick Bolloré. Along with the global CEO move, Havas WW co-president Andrew Benett is being promoted to CEO of the ad network and will report to Bolloré. According to the .pdf, the leadership changes take place effective immediately.

In his exit statement, Jones says, “If I were going to stay in the industry it would be at Havas, but I have always had a burning desire to be an entrepreneur and this is too exciting an opportunity to not seize. Those people who know me know my two passions in business are social media and social responsibility and this new venture combines the two. I want to thank the Bolloré Group and Vincent Bolloré in particular for his support and mentorshipover the last eight years and wish Yannick every success.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Danny Nathan, a former director of creative strategy at Poke New York, has teamed up with his girlfriend, Joni Goldblach to create a website aimed at offering established couples ideas to keep date night interesting.

Date Night Is… was born from the couple’s own relationship: they realized that their dating routine had become a little too comfortable, and that the other couples they knew felt the same way about their own dating routines. So, Danny and Joni brainstormed some ideas and set out to create a product/service intended to help couples find fun, interesting ideas for dates that they otherwise might not have considered.

Local businesses offer up discounts for services in an attempt to attract users. Date Night Is… seems to have a lot in common with howaboutwe…, which also offers options for existing couples, with a similar emphasis on Groupon-style deals from local businesses. Perhaps solely targeting established couples will give Date Night Is… a leg up with that demographic. Even if it’s not that original, it’s an intriguing new option, especially for those couples who really feel stuck in a rut when it comes to date ideas, or those who would just love to score a bargain date night.

If this sounds like something you and your significant other would be interested in, you can head on over to Date Night Is… and sign up for free. Because another night at home watching Netflix just isn’t going to cut it.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We received the sad news that last week, DDB Chicago creative director Brad Morgan lost his battle with cancer. Morgan had been with the agency for a quarter-century and helped lead creative on accounts ranging from Anheuser-Busch and McDonald’s to Frito-Lays and Mars. Here’s a note to staff from DDB Chi SVP/ECD Mark Gross, who mentions among other things mentions arguably Morgan’s most notable accomplishment at the agency, verbatim:

“Brad Morgan was a highly respected art director, who worked at ad agency DDB Chicago for over 25 years. It was an outstanding career filled with numerous highlights and accomplishments. Brad was a talented, skilled artist and a stellar art director with a keen sense of style and taste. As Creative Director, Brad became a beloved and respected leader. His positive attitude was infectious and uplifting, and his passion for advertising unequaled. He was a tireless worker, who always took pride in everything he did. No matter how tough things got, Brad worked through it with a warm smile on his face.

Brad worked on numerous accounts throughout his career. His most notable accomplishment was the invention of Chester Cheetah – an iconic character still being used today. Brad was also responsible for creating many of the most memorable and revered Super Bowl Ads for Budweiser and Bud Light.

The only thing more impressive than Brad’s list of talents was his fun, warm, genuine, caring personality. He was a true gentleman, a good friend, a caring soul and just an all around terrific guy to be around. Anyone who worked with Brad would tell you how special of person he really was.

Brad Morgan, thank you for everything you gave us and for being the terrific person that you were. You will be sorely missed.  We all raise a Jack and Coke in your honor and say God bless you – farewell dear friend.”

 

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Critical Mass is off to a busy start in the new year as the Omnicom/DAS digital agency has not only merged its London operations with Agency Republic, but has brought on Conor Brady and Chris Hayes as chief creative officer and chief marketing officer, respectively.Hayes and Brady (pictured l-r above), you may recall, most recently worked at Huge but parted ways with the IPG-owned, Brooklyn-based agency last month. As for the U.K. Critical Mass leadership team, Matt Kwiecinski and Alistair Campbell will lead the combined UK team as managing director and ECD, respectively, with the latter joining the newly created Creative Council, led by Brady. Susanne Jones, former managing director of Critical Mass London, moves into a new strategic role as SVP/client partner for what sources tell us is Citi, one of the agency’s largest global clients.

On another note, to address the tipsterati who sent us a note about it, we did receive confirmation that 18-year Critical Mass vet Darren Delichte, who served as SVP/ECD out of the Calgary office, is no longer with the agency and actually parted ways a few months ago.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.