Hasta La Creative!

McCann New York appointed Nir Refuah as executive creative technology director. In the position, he will focus on on developing technology-driven creative content and communications solutions for the agency.

Refuah joins McCann New York from MRM//McCann Romania, where he has served as chief innovation officer for the past three years. During his time there, he helped MRM//McCann become the top Romanian digital agency while working on the “Bucharest, Not Budapest” project and work for brands including KFC, Nespresso and MasterCard. Prior to that he spent five years as vice president, creative at McCann Digital in Tel Aviv, where he worked on the “Drugs Set Your Timeline” campaign for the Israel Anti-Drug Authority, as well as work for brands such as Huggies and Roots. That followed three years as head of interaction at Walla Communication.

“We have been big fans of Nir’s work for a long time,” said McCann New York co-CCO Sean Bryan. “From the Rom Bar campaigns to a much-followed Shepherd to a new take on pie charts, Nir has always found a way to bring the attention of the world to the brands and causes he works on. He is going to be a huge addition to our team here in NY.”

“We are going through a creative revolution that has disrupted the term ‘digital’ by making technology and innovation the initiators of storytelling,” added Refuah. “I’m humbled to join an agency that aced this year in doing such projects, and to get to work with huge creative talents like Sean Bryan, Tom Murphy, Eric Silver and Rob Reilly.”

Refuah’s appointment follows McCann New York bolstering its creative and production departments with a handful of new hires in March.

You may recall that the office also just won the Chick-Fil-A account…

McCann New York has a new campaign for Chex Mix that attempts to bring attention to the lesser-known flavor variations of General Mill’s popular snack.

The integrated broadcast and social media campaign is rolling out now on national cable and YouTube, and will soon have Tumblr and Vine components. In the 30-second TV spot (above) roommates try to one up each other with DIY combo packs. The first roommate combines cheddar and honey nut flavors, while the second makes a belt with traditional, bold, and peanut butter. A third roommate goes the extra mile, however, and has them both beat with an over-the-top setup. The spot concludes with looping GIFs of the individual flavors. The GIFs will be hosted on a new Chex Tumblr site, and feature into a Vine-based game show called “Wheel of Variety,” which will “will offer hungry social media snackers who retweet Chex Mix tweets the opportunity to spin the wheel for the chance to be introduced to a Chex Mix flavor.” Stick around for credits and a closer look at the GIF loop. continued…

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Jose Cuervo is introducing its new Cuervo Cinge — “Cuervo with a cinnamon sting”  – with a new animated spot by McCann NY and Elastic.

Directed by Andy Hall, “Get Stung” is pure eye-candy. The spot is well-animated, with a very appropriate red-tinted effect throughout (because cinnamon, get it?). There’s not a whole lot to the 30-second spot: scorpion walks into a bar, drinks tequila, sets bar on fire. But then there doesn’t have to be. Why the bartender serves tequila to a scorpion is never really explained, but suspension of disbelief, right?

As an introduction to a new product, the spot works well. If you like the idea of cinnamon-flavored tequila, this ad will make you excited to try it. If not, you can still appreciate the artistry that went into animating it. I’m rarely going to have something negative to say about a simple, well animated spot about liquor. I wasn’t crazy about the “Get Stung” tagline at first, but they make it work with the whole “sting of cinnamon” description and it serves its function as a way to help people remember the product.

It’s a departure from McCann’s “Have a Story” opus starring Kiefer Sutherland, and a welcome one. Perhaps the “be more interesting, be different…” approach typified by certain Dos Equis ads is finally on its way out. Hopefully this simple, elegantly animated approach from McCann spreads beyond their other work for Cuervo and starts a new trend in boozey advertising. Credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.