Hasta La Creative!

ADC Behind The Cube: BBH’s Ari Weiss discusses “Good Shirts” from ADC Global Network on Vimeo.

Last week, we brought you news of ADC’s “Behind the Cube” video for Student Thesis Gold Cube winner Dani Wolf. This week, ADC has a new “Behind the Cube” installment, featuring BBH New York executive creative director Ari Weiss.

Weiss discusses UNICEF’s “Good Shirts” campaign — which sold t-shirts depicting an item of aid, priced at the amount it cost UNICEF to donate that item — and its unexpected success. As a driving force behind the campaign, Weiss believed “Good Shirts” would be the “conversation piece” of the campaign, building buzz and getting more people to donate. Instead, the idea really took off, and the t-shirts raised around half a million dollars — including the sale of a $300,000 shirt to an anonymous San Francisco buyer. It’s an interesting look at the process behind one of the more buzzworthy Gold Cube campaigns from last year, including a look at some of the excellent t-shirt designs, and an excellent reminder that sometimes even the creatives behind a campaign can be surprised by its results.

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Recently, Orlando-based Ikonik Studios filmmaker Luke Aker created a luxury car ad to sell his 1996 Nissan Maxima, as reported over at HappyPlace, and it’s pretty clever and hilarious.

Utilizing pitch-perfect voice-over, the ad begins by declaring that “the most iconic monuments seem to be those that stand the test of time.” It isn’t until about twenty seconds into video that the object of the ad is revealed: a used 1996 Nissan Maxima GLE. The ad then begins touting the vehicle’s features, bragging that the Maxima is “fully loaded with an engine, wheels, tires, and an automatic transmission: a thrilling combination that has lasted over a decade.” The Maxima can “guarantee that it will get you from point A to B — most of the time.” The video manages to be simultaneously a perfect satire of the typical, ridiculous luxury car ad and an ode to shitty used cars.

If you’re interested in purchasing the vehicle (and who wouldn’t be after a sales pitch like that?), it appears to still be available, as Aker’s Craigslist ad is still up. On Craigslist, Aker mentions a few extra features, such as “steering fluid that has been designed to leak out from underneath the car when it has been exhausted from the majestic work that it has done.” He’s asking for $900, or best offer. That’s right: this majestic ride that is “as smooth as a Pegasus’ backside” can be yours for under one grand. What a steal.

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Just over a year after taking on an expanded position as president of McCann Worldgroup Americas, adding to his existing role as president of Latin America, Africa and Middle East, Luca Lindner has now been elevated to the role of McCann Worldgroup president, proper. The nine-year McCann vet, as you may know, most recently served in a co-president role at Worldgroup alongside, with each leading their respective regions. Of course, Martinez left McCann to take on the role of global president of JWT, with the plan being to succeed the latter’s chairman/CEO Bob Jeffrey in 2015.  As a result, Lindner has been promoted to the newly created global role, overseeing all McCann Worldgroup operations and reporting to CEO, Harris Diamond. From what we’ve been told, there are no plans to replace Lindner’s former position at the agency.

Lindner, wh0 kicked off his ad career at TBWA\Paris, spent a handful of years as vice chairman of Leo Burnett EMEA and president of its Fiat Coordination Center.

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We reported back in June, that former KBS+ executive creative director DJ Pierce had turned his attention to his Global Glue Project after announcing his resignation from KBS+ in May. It appears that the Global Glue Project is beginning to take off, with a new website designed and developed in collaboration with Bajibot.

In case you were wondering, the Global Glue Project is “A documentary series of couples around the globe that share their challenges and the glue that keeps them sticking together.” The idea is to create 56 Glue films, with four already complete. The series hopes to function to preserve the relationship role models that are becoming harder and harder to find. Think of Global Glue Project as the antidote to the revolving door relationships depicted in celebrity gossip culture. They describe their mission as being to “capture and share the secrets of healthy long-term relationships through interviews with real couples of all kinds, without any discrimination of race, sexual orientation, or religious affiliation.” I’m sure we’ll get a lot of snark about the this one from commenters, but I think Global Glue Project fills a valuable need for committed couples who want to stick together.

The project emphasizes the difficulties inherent in long term commitment, something that is rarely discussed. With so many examples of the disposability of relationships, and even marriages (think Kim Kardashian), we really need something like Global Glue Project. If you’re interested, you can read about the first four couples on the website, and watch their documentaries. The most impressive has to be Helen and Sydney, who have been married 70 years, and overcame the stillbirth of their first child.

The Global Glue Project, having completed four of its films, is currently looking for funding to complete the remaining 52. If you’d like to help out, or just learn more about the project, head on over to their Kickstarter page. The project will only be funded if they meet their $50,000 goal by January 18th. Once the project is funded, Global Glue Project plans to send its backers “one Glue Film a week for a year, prior to its release on our website.” Check out the above video for an overview of Global Glue Project, and head on over to the site for the full videos. With any luck, there will be weekly updates in the near future.

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Wow, figured the encroaching holidays would be a slow time but just got official word that Rob Reilly, 10-year vet and partner/worldwide chief creative officer at Crispin Porter + Bogusky is leaving the agency to “pursue new ventures.” According to the Crispin camp, which also lost UX lead Matt Walsh recently, the creative department has been restructured as a result of Reilly’s departure, which will now all allow all of its camps including Boulder, L.A. Miami, London and Gothenburg to have “increased autonomy.”  The “restructuring,” which follows Reilly leaving along with his wife, 16-year CP+B vet and managing director/partner Laura Bowles, was concocted by Reilly, CEO Andrew Keller and CP+B chairman, Chuck Porter. From the announce,  executive director of creative development Evan Fry  (who rejoined CP+B over a year ago) and director of art & design Dave Swartz (the CD who we most recently noted in this Roman Coppola-directed Microsoft effort) will help guide the new creative structure while still reporting to Keller.

So, what does CP+B CEO Andrew Keller have to add? Well, in a statement, he says, “I am extraordinarily lucky to have Rob and Laura as friends and to have worked with them as partners through some of the most exciting and courageous times at CP+B. This structure really speaks to the immediate needs of our clients and our vision for meeting those needs. This is an incredibly exciting step in delivering outstanding creative work to our clients.”

During their career, both Reilly and Bowles led CP+B accounts including Domino’s, Burger King and more. As for Bowles, the MD moved up the charts during her career at CP+B from content supervisor to VP/account director to her most recent role as partner/managing director, working with other clients including Hotels.com and on new biz efforts. Sources say the parting was on good terms but we no word as to what Reilly and Bowles are up to next.

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We’ve received confirmation that Matt Walsh, who’s been with Crispin Porter + Bogusky for nearly eight years and last served as its EVP/executive experience director, has parted ways with the MDC-owned agency. CP+B says in a statement, “We are truly grateful for Matt’s many contributions leading our UX department and wish him the very best in all that we know he will accomplish going forward.”

During his time at the agency, Walsh led a team of nearly two-dozen experience designers and worked with past and present Crispin clients including VW, Domino’s, Old Navy, AmEx and Under Armour in the process. Prior to CP+B, Walsh worked on the Nike account as a senior interaction designer at R/GA, where he spent nearly three years in all. From what we’ve been told, CP+B is not planning on replacing him. Update: From what we’ve been told, Walsh is leaving CP+B to start his own experience design shop. No word on the name/details as of yet, but we’ll keep you posted.

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We’ve received confirmation that Melanie Santiago (nee Watt) has returned to her old stomping grounds at Atlanta-based Moxie Interactive, where she now serves as SVP/media strategy. Santiago initially spent three years at Moxie (or Moxie/Engauge if you will) as media director before splitting for the director of strategic marketing solutions position at Yahoo, where she remained for over a half-dozen years. One tipster sings the SVP’s praises, saying Santiago is “as good as it gets.” That’s a good enough statement for us at this point. Anyhow, prior to her first stint at Moxie, Santiago held media posts at the likes of SMG, MediaCom and Rodgers Townsend.

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Just days after announcing his resignation from Saatchi & Saatchi New York, Con Williamson has landed a new gig at Erwin Penland, where he takes on the role of chief creative officer and work with clients including Denny’s, an account the agency took over a few months ago. Initial word last week was that Williamson would be starting a new shop, but that is not to be obviously. The 15-year creative says in a statement regarding his move, “I immediately connected with [Erwin Penland president] Joe [Erwin[]when we met over a year ago and instantly related to Erwin Penland’s sense of purpose, its entrepreneurial drive and more than anything the team’s conviction. They aren’t just talking about ‘changing the game’ or ‘being digital,’ the agency is already doing these things. We want to shake things up together and I’m glad to have the opportunity to do it with amazing people from the leadership team down.”

Along with the hiring of Williamson, who also spent time at the likes of what was Euro RSCG as well as Fallon/Duffy and JWT during his 15-year creative career, Erwin Penland has also appointed fellow Saatchi NY alums John Cornette as SVP/ECD and John Dunleavy as managing director for the agency’s New York office;/director of account management for the entire agency.

(pictured l-r, Cornette, Erwin, Williamson and Dunleavy)

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We’ve just received confirmation from sources outside of Saatchi & Saatchi’s New York offices that CCO Con Williamson announced today his plans to leave the agency, reportedly to start a new shop. A toast in his honor was held at the NY agency earlier today.

Williamson joined Saatchi & Saatchi in 2010 after a CCO stint at the agency formerly known as Euro/RSCG NY. Over the past decade he’s also spent time at Fallon, JWT, and his own agency, Lodge212.

No word yet on who’ll be joining Williamson at his as-yet-unnamed new agency, but we’ve heard tips that a few other Saatchi NY colleagues announced their resignations today too. A more official announcement from Williamson and the agency is expected tomorrow. As always, we’ll keep you updated.

Also, as it’s Friday, we’ve embedded a Drake video below.

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Nonprofit collaborative thinkLA has a fun social media campaign promoting their Holiday Gala this Thursday, Dec. 5. The campaign features LA ad executives — like Joe Baratelli (featured above), EVP/CCO at RPA (well, actually, it’s all RPA at the moment)– sharing their favorite holiday memories in 15 second long videos. We’ve included a few of our favorites, but you can check out the rest here, or follow thinkLA on Facebook or Twitter. The videos are a quick, fun way to get in the holiday spirit, if that’s your sort of thing. And this is all being done for a good cause.

According to the parties involved, the LA advertising community and thinkLA put together the second largest T0ys for Tots drive in Southern California (around 1,000 toys). Toy collection bins are making the rounds at agencies this week, and will continue collecting toys until December 17th. But the biggest Toys for Tots push will come during the Holiday Gala this Thursday. So check out the holiday videos (Lisa Herdman and J. Barbush are featured after the jump), and if you’re in Southern California this Thursday head on over to the Holiday Gala with something to donate to Toys for Tots. We hear thinkLA throws a great party, so why wouldn’t you? continued…

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