Hasta La Creative!

It appears that the Grey New York president/CCO Tor Myhren and crew have fully embraced the title of group creative director, which the agency surprisingly never used until the appointments of Leo Savage and Jeff Stamp to said role on the Gillette biz last week. Now, another pair has assumed the position of GCD, namely five-year Grey NY vet Sean Crane and Joe Mongognia, who arrives from Deutsch NY.

Prior to Deutsch, the latter spent several years as a senior art director at JWT New York, working with clients ranging from Halls to Domino’s to Sunsilk, and also had stints as an ACD and/or CD at Ogilvy Mather London/New York. Anyhow, wouldn’t you know it, we do happen have a memo handy from Myhren that just went out to staff a short while ago and offers some nice background on Grey NY’s newest GCDs as well as their remit. Peep it after the jump.

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A changing of the guards–well, at least positions–has taken place at Minneapolis-based digital agency space150 as CEO/chief creative officer Billy Jurewicz has now shifted into a founder/CEO role in order to, among other things, focus on the expansion of the agency’s offices in New York and Los Angeles. Jurewicz’s move is just one of a handful of title changes at space150 as 10-year vet Marc Jensen is moving from president/CTO to managing partner/CTO at the agency.

In addition, David Denham, who’s been with the agency since January and serves as chief strategy officer, will now president to his title. Finally, group creative director Brian Ritchie, who joined space150 18 months from fellow Twin Cities shop Colle+McVoy, will now step up to ECD. Regarding his own move, Jurewicz says in a statement, “As we look ahead ? at the marketplace we serve, the future needs of our clients’ business, and the talent we have under roof ? now was the right time to shift our leadership structure to ready us for future growth.”

The 100-strong space150 currently counts clients including AmEx, Target, American Eagle Outfitters and Buffalo Wild Wings.

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Well, this agency’s certainly keeping us busy today. We’ve received confirmation that Ewan Paterson, who’s spent over three years as chief creative officer at DDB Chicago, is leaving the agency. Paterson joined DDB Chicago in 2010 from CHI & Partners in London, where he served as executive creative director for five years. Regarding his reasons for leaving, the DDB Chicago camp says, “He will be moving back to London with his family. Ewan intends to take some time off and will remain available to us for the next several months as we make a transition to new creative leadership in Chicago.”

Paterson is no stranger to the DDB fold as he spent a decade in the agency network’s London office working with brands including VW and Sony. During his career, the creative exec also worked at BBH London, where he led campaigns for British Airways, Unilever and Vodafone.

As for his time at DDB and future plans, Paterson himself says, “Its been a fantastic three and half years and I’m proud of the agency’s transformation from the where it was in 2010. With six Cannes Lions over the last twelve months it’s evident that agency is becoming  stronger and more diversified creatively. I’ll miss the people who make up DDB Chicago hugely, but the stars have aligned for me and the my family to go home to London.  I intend to spend three to four months being a ‘dad’ for the first time-ever and then working on setting up my own agency.”

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We checked with Kevin Drew Davis himself last week on what his next gig would be after leaving DigitasLBi earlier this month, but didn’t get the full story. Well, now we know as it’s hit the newswires and trades up north that KDD has assumed the newly created position of chief creative officer at DDB Canada. So why the move, Kevin? “DDB Canada has been on my radar for some time,” he says in a statement, adding, “From the senior executive team to its creative leaders, everyone I’ve met has demonstrated an unwavering passion for their work. DDB’s culture is balanced with a tremendous amount of humility and integrity, which is a rare combination. For me, it’s all about the people that surround you.”

As noted, this is the first time a chief creative officer has been appointed to lead all of DDB Canada’s integrated creative departments, which span Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver. Davis will be based in the agency’s Toronto office. In case you forgot, Davis spent two years as ECD for both Digitas San Francisco and Chicago prior to joining DDB Canada and spent several years as global interactive CD at W+K among other notable stints.

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Sure, we’ve seen far more clever routes being taken by creatives in order to land an agency (we think this guy set the bar), but hey, we can always appreciate those taking more standard steps to sell themselves. Take for instance this enterprising Toronto guy/gal who among other things, boasts via Craigslist that he/she does one hell of an impression of characters from The Mighty Boosh, the U.K. comedy troupe that had a show on BBC years ago. Not sure if that will really help this digital copywriter’s cause, but hey, there’s this:

“Perks of working with me include:

-The submission of polished, timely work
-Full access to my knowledge of obscure rap music
-A delicious curry dish at every office potluck (it’s all I know how to cook)
– My impersonations of characters from The Mighty Boosh
-A two-week break from my Mighty Boosh impersonations at Christmas

Your duties will involve:

-Paying me every two weeks
-Occasionally supplying me with coffee
-Providing me with at least one healthcare benefit”

Not sure if this person’s looking locally, but if so, your move, Toronto agencies. Hey, we like the moxie.

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In April, Campbell Mithun selected the finalists of their annual Lucky 13 internship contest, which this year focused on fresh branding ideas for Twinkies. Now, two from that group, Ben Blaska and Brian Skalak, have been hired to work full-time in account positions and assist teams on KeyBank and various General Mills accounts.

“We always strive to hire our Lucky 13 interns at the end of the summer,” says Debbie Fischer, director of human resources at Campbell Mithun.  “This year Brian and Ben join us during an exciting time of organic growth.  Our other two interns, Jonathan and Harry, return to Syracuse and UNC Chapel Hill and we wish them well as they complete their degrees.”

The boys start work this coming Monday, August 12, and as you can see in the above video, they’re jazzed. I especially appreciate the hand-flailing at the end. For further amusement, you can see Ben, Brian, and fellow intern Jonathan Unger practicing ad-speak in Batman voices in the clip below.

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We’ve received confirmation that Lange Taylor, who’s spent the last nine years at what is now DigitasLBi, serving as SVP/managing director of the Atlanta office for the last three, has resigned from the agency–and apparently the ad world altogether. Here’s a quick statement from a spokesperson that somewhat clarifies things: “Lange Taylor has decided to explore professional opportunities outside of DigitasLBi. While it is possible that Lange may reunite with agencyland in the future, whatever direction his passion brings him, we wish him our collective best.”

No word yet on his next venture or who’ll take over his duties in the interim as of yet. If you recall, Taylor’s role changed somewhat last fall when he was tapped to head up a new, Atlanta-based Publicis Groupe unit called Agency:D7, which we’ve been told is still in operation. We’ll hopefully find out who’s taking over on his dual roles soon enough.

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Yes, before you even ask, we do have the memo, which, somewhat surprisingly, reveals that the title of group creative director hasn’t been used at the agency before. As has been the norm, a memo to staff from president/CCO Tor Myhren landed in our tips box and this time, says most importantly that Leo Savage and Jeff Stamp, creative directors on the Gillette biz, have indeed been promoted to GCDs. Savage has spent the last 18 months, give or take, as a creative director at Grey, while Stamp joined the agency after working at the likes of Campfire and Possible. Anyhow, we’ll let Tor take it away after the jump and provide details on the pair and the new position.

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Details are hazy on this one thus far, but sources in the know tell us that Gareth Goodall, who’s spent less than a year as head of planning at Saatchi & Saatchi New York, is indeed leaving the agency. As of now, no word yet on where he’s headed to or when is last day is at Saatchi, but Goodall joined the agency last fall after spending seven years at Fallon London. He last served as joint managing director/chief strategy officer at the latter agency. During his career, the exec also spent several years as a planner at Ogilvy & Mather. We’ll let you know if and when we hear more.

Update: Well, we’ve received confirmation that Goodall is in fact joining Anomaly as chief strategy officer. No official start date as of yet, but from what we’ve been told, it’s “not too long now.” As for the status of Aisea Laungaue and Ian Daly, who were promoted to heads of planning at Anomaly NY in February, we’ve been told that Laungaue has since left the agency, but Daly remains and will likely report to Goodall.

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We’ve received confirmation that Jonathan Mackler, who’s spent the last five years at TBWA\Chiat\Day as a creative director, has parted ways with the agency. According to sources in the know, Mackler’s actual last day at the Omnicom-owned agency’s New York office was last Wednesday. During his time at Chiat NY as well as its sister network Being, Mackler, whose roots are in art direction, worked on several campaigns for various clients including Skittles, Wheat Thins and Jameson. No word yet on what’s next for Mackler, who’s also worked at the likes of BBDO, W+K and Martin Agency during his career, but we’ll update when we know more.

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