We’ve received confirmation that DigitasLBi has lost a couple of search marketing leads, mainly Jon Kagan and Brian Hemhauser, who served as associate director and manager/search marketing, respectively at the agency. Kagan, who spent nearly three years at what is now DigitasLBi, has joined up with a firm dubbed Results Digital as director of search/biddable media while Hemhauser has taken an unspecified role at WPP/GroupM-owned unit, MediaCom.
We’ve received confirmation that after spending the last three years as managing director of the JWT Inside’s New York office, Tonya Garrett has left the agency. We’ve been told that Garrett’s last day was actually Nov. 15 at Inside, which in case you didn’t know, is the JWT unit that aims to “advance employee engagement through comprehensive advertising, marketing and employee communications services.” Sources familiar tell us, though, that Garrett isn’t going too far as she’s transferring to another WPP company with the full support of JWT Inside management.
After serving on the account side for several years at the likes of Razorfish and iCrossing, Garrett joined JWT Inside in summer 2010 to lead the NY office alongside creative director Timothy Bruns, who parted ways with the agency back in August. We’ve been told that neither of their roles are being replaced at Inside and that their duties are being absorbed by existing staffers.
If you don’t already know the heartwarming story of Batkid, the latest Make-a-Wish Foundation initiative and one of the most elaborate projects the non-profit organization has undergone, it goes something like this: Five-year-old cancer survivor Miles Scott wished to be “Batkid,” Batman’s sidekick, so Make-a-Wish Foundation, with the help of thousands of volunteers, turned San Francisco into Gotham City for a day and staged a series of events and crime scenarios, culminating with Batkid rescuing Gotham and receiving a key to the city from Mayor Ed Lee (as well as thumbs up from past and present Batmans, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck).
As a side project,a group of hometown creatives decided to create a digital comic book telling Batkid’s story. There really couldn’t be a more appropriate format (aside from possibly a print comic book). Every panel in the comic was sourced from Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. “We just wanted to share the Batkid story, and we thought it would be nice to re-tell it from the perspective of those who helped make it happen, and that’s the people of San Francisco,” explains one of those involved, AKQA art director, John Ta. The site takes a series of shared moments and crafts them into a digital experience, resembling a comic book, that tells Batkid’s story in a fun, cute way. It’s well put-together, and easy to digest. Following the Batkid comic, visitors to the site are encouraged to donate to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Although they’re undoubtedly proud of the work and hopes it finds an audience, there’s really only one opinion Ta and Gavin care about. “Really, we just hope Miles thinks it’s cool,” Ta said. Since he’s now the star of his very own digital comic book, it’s hard to imagine that he wouldn’t. Check out the Batkid comic here, and donate to Make-a-Wish Foundation if you’re so inclined, so there can be more stories like Miles Scott‘s. Credits after the jump.
Making a city self-promo is hard enough without having to compete against a crack-smoking homicidal mayor who has become a big-bellied joke of a scandal around the world. Toronto-based john st.’s “More Than Ford” compilation video of all things pleasant in its hometown attempts to do just that for a Canadian city that has been the unfortunate butt of the news for too long. The project comes from a good place, but the execution is typical, and as a result, uninteresting.
I think there’s a way to do this, to help Toronto separate itself from Rob Ford, but doing so would require a more self-aware, confrontational approach. john st. repeatedly puts out quality work, but this spot feels much too clean for the circumstances. Every city has people doing cool gymnastics in parks and drinking coffee. What makes this interesting and specific to Toronto? Where is the voice? It’s out there, but it doesn’t sound like a benign, glossy magazine cover.
Credits and a brief disclaimer after the drug-free jump.
The Book of Silence will be available in stores November 25th, and Pereira & O’Dell teamed up with Laundry! Design & Animation to create a book trailer. (In case you weren’t aware, book trailers are now practically mandatory.) The trailer features an original track by Brazilian singer Otto, with percussionist Pupillo, and guitarist Andreas Kisser (of Sepultra); as well as narration by the legendary Gilberto Gil. The Book of Silence centers around the prophet Orunmila, who finds his divination tools have suddenly gone silent, and a young journalist in Sao Paulo. In the book “mythical kings, queens and warriors like Ogum, Shango, Oshosi and Iansan work alongside modern day mortals to rescue the 16 princes of fate in a surprising and original narrative of West African gods and goddesses worshiped in some regions of Brazil today.”
If you watched the trailer for The Book of Silence and thought, “Wow that looks like it could be a movie,” you’re not alone. A movie deal has already been negotiated “with The Alchemists’s Mauricio Motta, who bought the rights and the franchise in Brazil and the U.S.” It will be produced by Disruption Entertainment, the company behind Pacific Rim and The Bourne Trilogy.
Pereira will embark on a Brazilian book tour starting in Sao Paolo on November 25th, with dates in Brasilia and Rio on the 27th and 28th. Credits after the jump. continued…
Resumes are boring. Nobody likes to read them, especially not the people who may actually be able to hire you, even – and especially – if you use a cool font. But, making your resume stand out with a creative hook is a smart strategy to get some eyeballs looking at what you’ve done. Miruna Macri, who is an Art Director from Miami Ad School, and not, as you may be thinking, an alliterative character from the Harry Potter series, decided to turn her standard portfolio into a passfolio. It’s one of those ideas that makes you wonder how somebody didn’t think of it already. Instead of having visa stamps, Macri used the space to mark down her work experience. The other details are explained in the brief video above. Best of all, she “lost” 20 copies of the passfolio in offices of New York agencies. Very cool – French Amazon product page guy (Philippe Dubost, aka Phil Dub) has some competition.
Just a month after losing longtime creativePiers North to Spring Studios, Mother is watching three more veteran staffers move on as creative director, Rob Baird, Mother & former director of new business Krystle Loyland, and co-head of strategy Seth Gaffney are heading to Austin start up their own operation. In a statement regarding the departing trio, Mother NY founding partner, Andrew Dietchman, says, “Rob, Krystle, and Seth have made huge contributions over the years. That we’ve repaid their commitment to Mother by helping them arrive at a place where they have the confidence and skills to venture off on their own is a point of enormous pride for me and my partners. They will forever be part of our family and we’ll always support them in any way can.”
Baird had two stints at Mother during his career, rejoining the agency from TBWA\Chiat\Day NY in summer 2010 to lead creative on Dell, Stella Artois and Coca-Cola among others. As for Loyland, the exec spent six-and-a-half years at the agency, working with clients including Tanquery/Diageo and Google while Gaffney joined in his role at Mother in 2010 after serving on the account/strategy side at the likes of W+K and Deutsch. We’ve been told the trio’s new venture will be announced soon and will open in early 2014.
After spending the last three-and-a-half years at Arnold Worldwide, where she served as SVP/global director of communications planning out of the agency’s Boston hub, Amber Finlay has moved on to the client side to take on the director of communications planning position at Converse. Finlay joined Arnold in spring 2010 after spending three years at Naked Communications, where she worked as senior strategist/director of digital strategy for clients including J&J, Google and Citibank.
During her career, Finlay also had a brief stint as director of digital strategy at McGarryBowen and also helped launch the account planning department at Deep Focus, where she worked with clients including HBO and Converse parent company, Nike. As for Arnold, sources tell us that the agency is currently conducting a search for the right candidate to replace Finlay.
Update: Arnold just sent this statement: “Amber has taken a position at Converse. She leaves behind a robust and growing capability with excellent depth and leadership. We wish her well.”
You may have read about Victors & Spoils’ pro-bono (and, actually, fictional) campaign for broccoli in the New York Times, or possibly somewhere else around the Internet. The Havas-owned crowdsourcing agency, as you may know, have put together campaigns for Coca-Cola, Quiznos and General Mills over the years. So they know a thing or two about selling food products, although they normally deal with huge corporations selling hyper-processed foods rather than a vegetable. The interesting process they went through attempting to create a broccoli campaign is well-documented in video format over at The New York Times site and is well worth a gander.
Rhett and Link (Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal), whose IFC program Rhett & Link: Commercial Kings(in which they went around the country creating low budget ads for real, local companies) lasted one season, satirize the broccoli campaign in a new segment for their YouTube show, Good Mythical More. They created six fictional ads for the program. Unfortunately, while these ads themselves are pretty funny, the banter in between them drags the show out past the ten minute mark, and is significantly less worthwhile. So I’ve been a good sport and tracked down the start times for the six broccoli ads for you: 3:53, 4:42, 5:20, 6:09, 6:41, and 7:10.
The first of the broccoli spots plays on the superfood’s healthy aspect with the tagline “Be Old Longer,” since living longer essentially means being “old and crotchety” for a longer period of time. In the second spot, they channel a disgruntled father with the tagline “Broccoli: Quit your whining and eat it.” One of the funnier ads is the “vintage” spot, selling broccoli as “the only vegetable with an afro.” Strictly speaking, this isn’t true, since cauliflower could also be said to have an afro. But that’s just nitpicking. The next spot advises you to “eat it raw, because it smells like a fart when you cook it.” My personal favorite tells you to eat broccoli “if you don’t want to feel guilty when your mother dies,” ending with the tagline, “Broccoli: Your dead mom would have wanted you to.” Using guilt to advertise broccoli? Pretty genius. The last of the spots is probably the goofiest: it runs around the idea that broccoli looks like little trees, which would make you a giant. Rhett and Link both take bites out of a piece of broccoli, pretending to be giants eating a tree. Silly stuff, indeed.
You might wonder if a satire of an already tongue-in-cheek fictional campaign was really necessary, but it’s all in good fun. And we could all use some fun on a Monday. Credits after the jump. continued…
A little bit of staffing news for you this afternoon as TBWA\Chiat\Day NY has added to its creative department by welcoming Mother alums Erik Holmdahl and Beth Ryan, art director and copywriter, respectively, to the fold as CDs. The pair spent the last year, give or take, at Mother helping lead creative for Stella and Microsoft but spent the majority of their careers at BBH, with both working for over a half-decade at the latter agency on campaigns for the likes of Sprite, Axe and Google. Prior to BBH, Holmdahl worked at StrawberryFrog for a few years while Ryan put in the same amount of time at DDB Seattle.
The pair’s new boss and former BBH colleague, Matt Ian, who joined up with TBWA\C\D NY as creative chief from Deutsch LA this past summer, speaks highly (obviously) of the new hires, saying in a statement, “We hear the term ‘hybrid creative’ thrown around a lot, but I haven’t met too many who are genuinely ambidextrous. When I worked with them at BBH, I quickly came to realize that Beth and Erik are as strong digitally as they are with the traditional work. They think simply and inventively. They can give you an innovative idea for an app or a digital platform, and then turn around and hit a home run with a TV script.”
Along with the new CDs, Chiat NY has also brought on former Anomaly Toronto director of design Melatan Riden in a similar role as design director.
In August of 2012, we blurbed about four creative twentysomethings (Digitaria writer/designer Grant Spanier, account planner/former Campbell Mithun Lucky 13 intern Laura Fitzpatrick, former CM copywriter Vince Koci and filmmaker Jake Woodbridge) going on a brief roadtrip out west “in search of inspiration — risking life, limb and Dysentery in the name of creative enlightenment.” Well, nobody got Dysentery, but more than a year later, the travelers are looking for some Kickstarter funding to help turn their 15-day roadtrip footage into a fully-produced documentary. The total cost: $30,000.
The three-minute-and-twenty-second pitch video offers a sneak peek of the journey and quite a few talking heads. The questions seem to focus on the origin of creativity, mainly about whether the American West is the most creative region in the country. As a Northeasterner, my reflexive response requires me to disagree with that idea completely, but it can’t hurt to ask. In the name of (social) science, right?
And as someone who took a cross-country roadtrip with a video camera myself, I can understand the allure of driving out west. The West Coast may not be more creative than the East Coast, or the Midwest, or wherever you live, but there are different creative approaches and mindsets out there, and exploring whatever those differences may be is an impressive creative endeavor in its own right. I’m interested to see what their finished project turns up.
Last year, AgencySpy brought you coverage of graphic designer Jason Sadler, some guy who wanted to make selling himself out as crazy and overblown as possible.
He began his foray into the world of turning himself into a walking billboard for money with IWearYourShirt.com, a website where people could volunteer to wear sponsors; t-shirts around for a fee because they were really hard up or something. Next, Sadler decided to take his experiments into human commercialism to the next level with BuyMyLastName.com, a site that allowed him to auction off his last name for the entirety of 2013 for $45,500 to Headsets.com.
Now, evidently out of ideas, Jason HeadphonesDotCom will auction off his name once more for 2014 before taking his great-grandfather’s name until he dies or gets bored. What’s in it for brands? Well, check out this little nugget from the press release:
The company associates $250,000 in sales and just over $6 million of advertising impressions in less than two months directly to purchasing the rights to Jason’s last name. “The publicity impact was beyond belief. Our recognition factor jumped right away and still lasts now. Best $45k I have ever spent,” said Mike Faith, Headsets.com CEO.
So, there you have it, if you’re a brand on par with Headsets.com. The winning sponsor will also have their brand name appear on the cover of Jason’s new book (which you’ll find info about at, what else, SponsorMyBook.com), so really, you can’t go wrong. Bid at BuyMyLastName.com.
In honor of Robert Feuille, a copywriter who passed away from testicular cancer at the age of 28, Texas agency Sanders/Wingo, who we’re giving some extended love to in honor of the cause, have created The Beard League, a way to turn Movember into a creative competition while donating money to Feuille’s family.
During the month of November, 31 teams of beard-growing dudes will submit funny photos of themselves in the hopes that it will convince people to donate to their team. Why are there 31 teams when there are only 30 days in November? The answer is not yet clear, but each of the contestants is also documenting their growth process with daily photos of their facial hair.
Currently, Scott “The Hairy Outside” McAfree leads with $440 in donations according to The Bearderboard. Will that be enough to win him The Bearder’s Cup? It’s up to you, donators. And, as a bonus for giving, all who donate will be entered in a drawing to win The Beard League merchandise. If that doesn’t float your boat, know that you donation goes to the Feuille Family Scholarship Fund, which benefits Feuille’s three young children. A pretty cool take on no-shave November, no?
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Mitchell Caplan, but in it’s rather busy fall, Minneapolis-based agency Olson has appointed the former McCann/Digital Pulp exec as chief marketing officer. Caplan, if you recall, was appointed to a similar role at McCann in summer 2010, at the time reporting directly to McCann North America president Robert LePlae and was responsible for leading marketing strategy and business development for McCann NA. Following its win of the likes of Sharp and Supercuts, it’s been a busy couple of months for Olson, which will have Caplan split time between its offices in Minneapolis and New York and report to CEO, John Partilla.
During his career, Caplan also spent some time at Y&R North America/Y&R Brands in a similar CMO role, where he spent over three-and-a-half years. The new CMO succeeds Bob Molhoek, who has spent a decade’s worth of time at Olson and is now being bumped up to the newly created role of SVP/organic client growth. In a statement, Caplan says, ““This is a very exciting time to be joining Olson. When you look at the client list, the talent, the work and the momentum, you get a very clear picture that this is an agency that has become a major player in North America, while staying very true to the cultural values that makes the agency such an amazing place to work.”
We’ve received confirmation of tips we’ve received that both Claudia Richman and Chetan Bokariya, formerly SVP/regional operations director for San Francisco/Chicago and VP/architect, mobile technology, respectively, are no longer with DigitasLBi. From what we’ve been told, Richman actually departed a few weeks ago while Bokariya’s last day is today. The former is now working on her own consultancy after spending 15 months at Digitas. During her career, Richman had fairly lengthy senior-level stints at Tribal DDB and Energy BBDO. Bokariya, meanwhile spent a couple of years on the technical side at Publicis Groupe’s mobile unit, Phonevalley before joining DigitasLBi.
[Headphones on if your place of employment doesn’t like hearing the word “fuck” come flying out of your computer.]
The mere concept of advertising award shows is ridiculous. So, thankfully, one award show in particular isn’t afraid to bask in the silliness of grown men throwing tantrums at not getting a trophy for their spots about pool cleaner or whatever.
This spot for the Shots Awards (taking place November 28th in London, because Brits don’t believe in American Thanksgiving) from BETC London features Damon Collins (co-founder of Joint U.K.), Justin Tindall (ECD of Leo Burnett London) and James Hilton (of AKQA) and many more throwing quickly escalating hissy fits when their names aren’t called. If anything, this just makes me wonder: Would advertising in general be better if it was laden with curse words and people yelling?
With 14 categories and 14 winners (no prizes for participation or second place), Shots is building its brand as a show that disappoints. Even if you don’t win, you might as well go hoping that you’ll see some drunk exec turn over a table, right? Credits after the jump.
No memos this time around, but while sources tell us that Grey New York is still the agency partner of Radio Shack, the latter has had some financial woes that have now cost the former 45-100 staffers in its Big Apple hub. We’ve been told this equates to approximately four percent of the agency office. According to those in the know, there was an all-staff meeting earlier this afternoon letting Grey crew know the situation. Sources add that no one will be laid off until January but the agency just wanted to inform its staff (we hear 1,100 strong and counting) and tell them it’s working to place those affected across WPP. On a positive note, we hear that Grey NY has added 350 staffers this year (a few of which we’ve covered as you know) and is continuing to add to its digital team. Grey picked up the Radio Shack biz in spring 2012 following a six-month review. The electronics retailer previously worked with Sausalito, CA-based BSS&P.
Sources familiar with the matter confirm that Bud Caddell, who has spent the last two-plus years at Deutsch LA, where he initially joined at was dubbed at the time an “invention strategist,” has parted ways with the agency. We’ve been told by sources in the know that the split was amicable and has landed “a nice new gig.” No word yet on where he headed to, but Caddell joined Deutsch after helping launch social venture Common with Alex Bogusky and Rob Schuham. During his career, Caddell also spent time as a strategy director at Victors & Spoils and served for a while as a senior strategist at New York digital firm, Undercurrent. From what we hear, Caddell has headed back to Undercurrent, though in its Los Angeles office.
Here’s a little client-side news for the impending lunch hour. A phone call has confirmed that Kevin Mayer, who’s spent the last 18 months serving as VP/marketing at Volkswagen of American, is no longer with the automaker. We’re also hearing VW may have also parted ways with another marketing exec, but we’re still waiting on confirmation. As for Mayer, the now-former VW VP was based out of the brand’s D.C.-area hub in Herndon, VA.
During his career, the exec, who just picked up an Adweek Brand Genius Award in September, also held several senior-level positions on the marketing/strategy side at fellow automakers such as Hyundai, General Motors and Subaru while also working early on in his career on the account side at agencies including MARS and Grey.
After spending the last four years as group director/integrated content marketing at Coca-Cola, Kevin Keith has headed back to the agency side, joining up with JWT’s Atlanta office as director of planning. Keith has taken over for Michael Deszo as of this week and will report to the agency office’s president/CCO, Perry Fair. During his time on the client side, Keith led brand strategy and integrated marketing communications on both Coke and Sprite. Regarding his meeting with Fair and the JWT Atlanta crew, which works on clients including the U.S. Marine Corps, Shell, Transamerica and Quaker State, Keith says in a statement, ““I was introduced to Perry when he joined JWT Atlanta and have followed his accomplishments and work over the past two years. The extensive technology capabilities at JWT and the supporting infrastructure to propel creative ideas into business solutions for clients made the agency very attractive for me, and I’m excited to see what we can invent together.”
During his previous stints in ad land, Keith worked on the account side at the likes of Draftfcb, Lowe and Hal Riney & Partners.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
We’ve received confirmation that DigitasLBi has lost a couple of search marketing leads, mainly Jon Kagan and Brian Hemhauser, who served as associate director and manager/search marketing, respectively at the agency. Kagan, who spent nearly three years at what is now DigitasLBi, has joined up with a firm dubbed Results Digital as director of search/biddable media while Hemhauser has taken an unspecified role at WPP/GroupM-owned unit, MediaCom.
We’ve received confirmation that after spending the last three years as managing director of the JWT Inside’s New York office, 
After spending the last three-and-a-half years at Arnold Worldwide, where she served as SVP/global director of communications planning out of the agency’s Boston hub, 
A little bit of staffing news for you this afternoon as TBWA\Chiat\Day NY has added to its creative department by welcoming Mother alums 
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from 
We’ve received confirmation of tips we’ve received that both 
Sources familiar with the matter confirm that 
Here’s a little client-side news for the impending lunch hour. A phone call has confirmed that 
