Hasta La Creative!

We’ll try to make this quick, but yes, Droga5 NY confirms that Daniel Gonda will be joining the agency, effective July 1, as group account director. The inquisitive-looking Gonda has spent nearly the last three years as VP/management director at Saatchi & Saatchi’s New York hub. Prior to said Publicis Groupe-owned agency, the exec had fairly lengthy, familiar stints on the account side at the likes of JWT, Euro RSCG and TAXI. Gonda’s hiring comes on the heels of Droga5 nabbing TBWA\Chiat\Day NY alum Robert Valdes as its head of interactive production. We’re checking to see what the former’s position exactly entails at camp Droga. Should have an update shortly. Update: Gonda will be overseeing Droga5′s Coke Zero and Newcastle Brown Ale accounts.

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Well, they’ve been broadcasting it via their newly created Facebook page for just a few days now, but yes, Liron Reznik and Jonas Hallberg, who founded NYC-based shop Skinny, which eventually merged with Vitro back in the fall of 2011, have left and formed a new shop called Shiver. The pair, who remain based in New York, founded Skinny in 2007 after having stints at what is now KBS+, where Reznik served as co-director of brand strategy and Hallbering holding the title of partner/brand experience director. From what sources familiar with the matter tell us, there are no plans to replace the duo at MDC-owned Vitro’s NY operation, where they last served as chief creative officers of said office.

No clear-cut answer as to where Reznik and Hallberg are going with this new endeavor, but perhaps this brief mission statement on the Shiver site might provide some hint. During their six years at Skinny/Vitro, meanwhile, the pair oversaw creative for the likes of Lexus (including the well-received “Dark Ride”), Vodafone and Jose Cuervo.

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We’ve received a couple of tips today that 12-year Momentum vet Laura Loughlin, who shifted over a few months ago to the IPG agency’s two-year-old unit Momentum Entertainment Group to serve as its general manager, is “transitioning out of the agency.”

Well, according to sources familiar with the matter, that’s not the case. From what we’ve been told and what tipsters have also mentioned, Loughlin is indeed moving from her homebase in NYC to Momentum’s West Coast operations. But, the GM is not leaving MEG, as sources say that Loughlin will maintain her current position and that she is “still very much a member of the team and [fully] active with the company.” Those in know add that this move is due more to a need for a change of scenery versus any structural/role shift.

Loughlin, if you recall, was succeeded as managing director of Momentum’s New York office by Richard Black back in March after spending three years in the role. Prior to her MD role at Momentum proper, Loughlin served as director of the agency’s live events unit.

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Well, this is news to us, but Carl Warner, who’s spent the last several years in Atlanta, first at JWT then briefly at Engauge, has returned to his old stomping grounds at Dallas-based The Richards Group, where he now serves as creative group head. We’ve been told this is actually Warner’s third stint at Richards, where he initially started in the ’80s as an art director.

Most recently, as mentioned, Warner had a seven-month stint at Engauge after spending nearly six years at JWT ATL, where he last served as co-president/ECD before the latter agency parted ways with him in summer 2011. No word yet on what Warner’s current title exactly entails or what accounts he’s “head” of, but last we heard from Richards Group, of course, was when the Texas stalwart put out the Ram “God Made a Farmer” Super Bowl spot this year.

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It looks like MRY is on a senior-level staffing streak of sorts. Less than three weeks after bringing on AKQA alum Ian Chee as chief strategy officer and simultaneously promoting Matt Rednor to chief innovation officer, the NYC-based shop formerly known as Mr. Youth has appointed David Berkowitz as its first-ever CMO. Berkowitz joins MRY after spending seven-and-a-half years at Dentsu-owned agency, 360i, where he last served as VP of emerging media and worked with brands including Kraft, H&R Block and Bravo.

Regarding the hiring of Berkowitz, who has also moonlighted as an online marketing columnist for the likes of Mediapost during his career, MRY CEO Matt Britton says in a statement, ““David has a proven track record of seeing what’s just around the corner and creatively applying it for the world’s leading brands for more than a decade; in addition to being a riveting thought leader with a standout industry pedigree, there is no doubt that he will raise the bar for our team and our client partners.”

Current client partners at MRY, which of course merged with LBi this year, include Coca-Cola, Symantec and Neutrogena.

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We’ve received confirmation that Havas Discovery, a network with a handful of offices ranging from Baltimore to Toronto, has parted ways with managing director Chris Oliver, who had served head of the agency’s CRM practice for three years. Oliver was based out of the Baltimore office of Discovery, which serves as the data, analytics, digital and CRM arm of the holding company that has worked with past and present clients including Chase, Sonic and Liberty Mutual.

Prior to his most recent gig, Oliver spent several years as a client partner at what was EHS 4D and worked as account director at TBWA\Tequila for nearly five years before that. No word yet on a replacement for Oliver at Havas Discovery, which recently promoted current president Paul Marobella to a larger role as group president, a title that now calls for him to also oversee ops at experiential agency Havas Impact and brand agency, Palm + Havas.

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Well, after some cuts here and a shuttering there, we finally have some positive news to report in 2013 about iCrossing, mainly that the Hearst-owned digital agency has promoted six-year vet Brian Powley to global president. Powley, who initially joined iCrossing in 2007 to manage the agency’s San Francisco office before taking on the role of chief client officer and subsequently president of its North American operations. Powley takes over for president/CEO Don Scales, who’s leaving iCrossing after seven years at the helm.

Prior to his joining iCrossing, which currently counts 18 global offices and clients including Beam, Coca-Cola, Pep Boys and FedEx (but no DirecTV?), Powley held managing director positions on the West Coast at both MRM and what was then Modem Media.

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Well, isn’t that something. Less than a week after sources familiar with the matter told us that the Campbell Ewald executive team “remains in place” following the agency winning Cadillac account management duties, AdAge today echoes what many tipsters were saying prior to the win, that chairman/CEO Bill Ludwig is out. Since June 6, we’ve been hearing on the Spy Line that Ludwig (and possibly one other member of the executive team) was literally shown the door days prior to CE securing its portion of said automaker’s account. AdAge, though, merely reports that Ludwig has “stepped down.”

Ludwig, who still toplines CE’s leadership section on its site, has been with the Detroit stalwart for the duration of his 30-year ad career, starting as a copywriter before moving up the ranks to chief creative/strategy officer to his most recent position at the top of the agency’s food chain. We’ll try to get some comment from Campbell Ewald if possible and will update if and when we can.

Update: The same sources familiar with CE that we talked to last week tell us that “nothing’s changed” since last week, so yeah, consider us confused.

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After spending just nine months as group creative director at Darien, CT-based Colangelo Synergy Marketing, where he worked with brands including Trojan and Guinness, Canice Neary has headed back into freelancing. We’ve reached out to the man himself for comment, but from what sources tell us, Neary, who’s currently based in New York, is heading back to his native turf in Chicago. The creative vet of course was the man who quietly took over the creative reins at the now-defunct Element 79 once Dennis Ryan left for the CCO gig at Olson in 2011, but subsequently left after just a year at the helm. Neary spent 11 years in all at Element 79, which was folded into DDB Chicago last fall.

During his career, the copywriter by trade has had full-time gigs at the likes of Lowe and W+K and has freelanced for several shops including 72andSunny and VSA.

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Better than any of their campaigns with colored blocks and folky music, Venables Bell & Partner’s latest spot for Google Fiber exemplifies the coming-together of technology, passion, and creativity.

Last summer, Google Fiber was introduced to Kansas City. In the year that followed, Google wanted to “see how high speed Internet could impact lives.” At Children’s Mercy Hospital, they met Nick LeGrande, a 13-year-old baseball player who has been diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a life-threatening blood disorder. His mom said he’s only cried once during the subsequent ordeal, when his doctor said he couldn’t play baseball.

Last night, Google Fiber technology (and the generosity of the company itself),  gave Nick the chance to get back in the game. He threw the first pitch at an Oakland A’s game, even though his illness prevents him from being around crowds and he’s 1,800 miles away from the stadium. With help from a Google-Fiber enhanced, Deeplocal-built telerobotic pitching machine, Nick’s movements were translated to Oakland as he felt the field in Kansas City via live camera. He stood on a specially-made indoor baseball stadium, with real sod and clay. The crowd cheered in real life and online. I cried.

Here’s hoping VB+P continues in this innovative, benevolent direction. If Google Fiber means making dreams like this come true, then we need it all across America. In the meantime, our thoughts are with Nick.

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