Hasta La Creative!

“You think things are gonna stay the same, then one day, boom, 25 million hits in two days.”

The Tyrannosaurus Rex is real. And we have ruined his life by teasing him, en masse and without shame, over his useless little arms. “I became a laughingstock,” our friend laments. (To be fair, we thought he was extinct, but maybe that’s a callous excuse.) “I lost the lust for life that I had. I just couldn’t go out anymore.” 

This unexpected heartbreaker of an ad goes on to explore the depths of T-Rex’s debilitating depression. He stares dejectedly out the window and spends all his time in bed. Sports don’t help, and basic homemaking is just too difficult. His pillows are covered in deep slashes, like the shredded portrait of the bereft prince in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. 

read more

Sources have confirmed today that Publicis Groupe’s Razorfish recently went through a round of layoffs across its North American offices that started late last month and carried through to the first weeks of July.

An agency spokesperson declined to comment on this development, but others confirmed that the downsizing did occur and that it ultimately affected less than 1 percent of global staff. Given that the company currently employs several thousand in dozens of offices around the world, it’s difficult to determine how many individuals were let go. But the overall total was almost certainly in the low three digits with offices in the East, West and Central regions of North America affected in turn.

Sources tell us that this move did not reflect a “restructuring” or any significant operational changes and that it did not include any major shifts in Razorfish’s North American leadership. At this time, it cannot be tied to any specific pieces of business but rather reflects what at least one party described as “[ongoing] difficulties with Razorfish” that caused North America to lag behind other regions in terms of organic growth.

The primary reason for the round of changes that started last month, then, was a combination of the failure to meet unspecified revenue goals for North America and the after-effects of Publicis Groupe’s December 2015 global re-organization.

In this week’s Q2 earnings report (full text here), holding company CEO Maurice Levy told investors that 2016 has been and will continue to be a challenging year, predicting that 2017 would be far better financially for the holding company. The reason for this trend is a combination of various deals that have yet to deliver in terms of revenue due to a combination of international markets’ reactions to the Brexit vote, a series of account losses and “clients canceling and postponing campaigns last year.”

Levy’s predictions for a better 2017 are predicated, at least in part, on wins like the recent Walmart consolidation, which he and others hope will counter losses like P&G’s shift from Publicis to Omnicom for its North American media business and Walmart’s decision to end its relationship with Starcom MediaVest earlier this year.

The CEO said, “The third quarter will be the most affected by contracts lost last year. Organic growth will be weak in the third quarter, but it won’t be a negative number.”

In terms of Razorfish, the organization is still adjusting to the large-scale restructuring that included the creation of the Publicis.Sapient hub as well as the late 2015 death of CEO Tom Adamski. Sapient Inside, a project in which every Publicis agency will establish an in-house team of consultants, is still in its early stages. As Levy has stated repeatedly, the ultimate goal is to break down silos in order to better facilitate collaboration between the data-heavy Sapient organization and Publicis’ varied creative/digital shops, Razorfish included.

Moving forward, expect to see Publicis.Sapient groups (DigitasLBi, Razorfish, etc.) that once pitched against each other to work together in the interest of winning new business. The outcomes of several ongoing reviews will also play a role in determining how the next 6-12 months unfold for the Razorfish organization.

In the meantime, the network continues to release projects, like this week’s Patron/Amazon Echo collaboration, that showcase its digital capabilities.

San Francisco digital experience design shop Extractable announced the addition of Gordon McNee, who will lead creative for the agency as vice president, creative director.

The 17-year digital and brand design veteran arrives from San Francisco digital shop Propane Studio, where he spent nearly a year as a creative director. Prior to joining Propane Studio, McNee served in various contract and freelance associate creative director, lead designer and art director roles for agencies including Duncan/Channon, R/GA, 72andSunny, Code & Theory and AKQA. Beginning in 2004, McNee spent nearly seven years as a creative director with Razorfish. Over the course of his career he has worked with such high profile clients as Google, Visa, Samsung, Microsoft and Intel.

“Gordon’s design sensibilities along with his digital DNA makes him the perfect fit to lead visual design for our clients at Extractable,” said Extractable founder and CEO Craig McLaughlin. “Beyond digital brand experiences, we are focused on using digital experiences to transform the very essence of our clients’ businesses in healthcare, financial services and B2B technology. With Gordon’s addition on our executive leadership team, and his love of emerging media and visual design the table is set for us to really do what we plan to do.”

As if to emphasize the distance between today’s ad industry and that depicted on an oddly nostalgic TV show, Razorfish just announced the hiring of its first chief intelligence officer.

To further prove that point, Samih Fadli has no agency experience: he comes from the ad tech business.

MediaPost tells us, via the press release:

“Fadli will lead Razorfish Global’s Data Intelligence Practice and rapidly expand the organization’s marketing intelligence and data sciences practices. He will also lead the global deployment of the Nexus Operating System (OS), which is designed to simplify the omnichannel experience by integrating customer data and interactions across all major touchpoints at enterprise scale.”

Prior to taking the Razorfish gig, Fahli was SVP of global engineering at Gravity4, an ad tech company with a problematic CEO who just got sued for gender discrimination.

Insert topical pop culture reference via the “Mad Men integrated” tumblr here.

Razorfish will announce more cuts to its global staff today.

Following March’s dismissal of 20-30 North American employees and another round of cuts in July that involved what tipsters told us was a total of approximately 100 individuals, an agency spokesperson confirmed that more staffers have been let go today. The internal announcement, according to a reader, will happen right around the time this post goes live. Here’s the official statement:

In an effort to shape our organization to align with our clients’ progressing needs, we have made a workforce reduction. The adjustment impacts less than 2% of our global headcount and will reinforce Razorfish’s ability to enable business transformation, which has been a primary source of our growth. Razorfish brings intelligence together with technology, media and creative to drive our clients’ business forward. We remain focused on delivering best-in-class work for our clients and are looking forward to playing a major role in the recently announced Razorfish Global Network.

Neither PR nor readers gave us more details on the cuts, and based on the agency’s own Wikipedia page (which is apparently “written like an advertisement“), that 2 percent amounts to approximately 40 staffers at locations not specified in the quote above.

As a reminder, news from the Razorfish team hasn’t all been negative. The agency hired Michael Chamberlain, formerly of BBDO, to run its San Francisco office less than a month ago, and recent employee reviews note its “really positive working atmosphere.”

No updates on clients, campaigns, or the reason for this adjustment.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In case you haven’t seen it already this morning, The Publicis Groupe officially rewarded Maurice Levy for his failure today by extending the current chief executive’s role until (approximately) The Avengers 3.

Despite the fact that Levy assured The Guardian that he would “not be seeking a new term” in the halcyon days of 2010 and that other reports had him set to leave next year, it seems that Levy will stick around at least until the approval of all accounts at the end of 2016 — and that he will leave in early 2017.

Obviously, “No clear successor has been appointed to replace Levy.”

Two former candidates will definitely not be replacing him, though.

(more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Does Ogilvy & Mather have the best online presence of any advertising agency in the world? Yes, according to a new site that ranks shops based on the size of their social audiences.

Created and maintained by Pivotstack, a tech company that creates software specifically for marketing agencies, the “Top 50 Ad Agencies” list takes into account the number of likes and followers an agency has on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as the traffic to an agency’s website, as ranked by analytics firm Alexa.

The leaderboard, so far, is a bit of a surprise.

Design consulting group Ideo is at No. 2, with Wieden + Kennedy taking the bronze. The first historically pure-play digital shop on the list is Razorfish, clocking in at sixth.

The list also includes media planning and buying agencies like Mindshare, along with public relations shops like Edelman. There’s even a holding company: MDC Partners.

The first 100 agencies were drawn from other lists of top shops and the personal knowledge of Pivotstack staff, although the site includes a callout inviting agencies to contact Pivotstack to be added.

Some digital brand names, like AKQA and Huge, are notably absent from the list. But the current version is just a first draft that “might not have hit some of the bigger ones,” Michael Koehler, director of sales and marketing at Pivotstack, tells AdFreak. “It’s nothing personal against them, and they’ll probably be added in the next few months.”

The social media numbers for each agency are currently entered manually, but Pivotstack also hopes to automate the update process in coming months. (For example, Ogilvy’s Facebook score on the list is currently only 205,000, whereas its Facebook page has grown to 215,000 likes).

The website bills the list as a “fun project” aimed at measuring how well an agency is doing at managing its online presence, hinting how that might speak to their ability to manage a client’s. It’s also—perhaps moreso—a clever way for the company to draw attention to itself among its target customers. (It rarely hurts to appeal to vanity or envy in the advertising business).

What about the age-old “cobbler’s shoes” argument that agencies might be neglecting their own presences in favor of servicing their clients? Koehler says an agency’s online presence is “just a reflection of how well a shop is run” and demonstrates one facet of their abilities. “By no means,” he says, “is this supposed to be the definitive list of best agencies in the world.”

Via Design Taxi.

Today we learned, via press release, that agency veteran Natalie Lam has landed at Razorfish New York as Executive Creative Director.

Lam most recently served as ECD at McCann Erickson, which hired her away from OgilvyOne Shanghai; earlier in her career, she earned attention from McCann for working on the Nike+ account at R/GA. She also recently held the jury chair spot at the Art Directors Club.

Patrick Frend, president of Razorfish’s eastern division, writes:
“We are fortunate enough to work with clients who understand the value of creativity and the pivotal role digital plays in business transformation. Natalie brings a global perspective and a passion for her craft that can take these experiences and our clients to the next level.”
Lam led IKEA at Erickson; at her new gig she will handle clients like Mercedes and UNIQLO.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Christian Juhl, former president of Razorfish, has been named global CEO of London-based digital agency Essence.

Never heard of them? They have additional offices in New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Singapore, and their release names them the world’s largest independent buyer of digital media. Their media AOR relationships include Google and eBay, among others.

Juhl, who is the agency’s first new CEO (founding partner/global CEO Matt Isaacs, who founded Essence in London in 2005, will now be executive chairman), left his role as president of Razorfish’s Western region for Essence in October 2013. He previously served as head of the agency’s North American operations, and he will remain in San Francisco for the new role.

Isaacs isn’t the only founder switching roles: chief strategist Andrew Shebbeare‘s new title will be founding partner/global innovation

director and CIO Andy Bonsall will serve as executive consultant. Both will relocate to London.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Over the weekend you may have heard of some newfound uncertainty regarding the world’s soon-to-be-biggest agency: the bastard child of Publicis and Omnicom.

Let’s review the reports, shall we?

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.