Hasta La Creative!

San Francisco agency Heat is adding an office in New York, its first expansion since being acquired by Deloitte Digital in late February.

For now the New York outpost, which launches in June, will be run out of the agency’s San Francisco headquarters; a permanent location for the New York office will be announced later this year. To lead the new office, the agency is bringing on industry veteran Tim Maleeny as general manager and chief strategy officer and tasking him with injecting the agency’s culture into the Manhattan ad world.

Maleeny joins the agency from Havas New York, where he has served as managing partner and CSO for the past three years. Prior to joining Havas, he spent over three and a half years at Ogilvy & Mather as head of strategic planning. Before that he spent eight years as director of strategy for Puclicis & Hal Riney, following four as senior vice president, group account director with Hal Riney & Partners, during which time he worked with Heat’s principals, John Elder, Steve Stone and Mike Barrett.

“We have to bring our culture to New York as best we can but use a truly New York City-centric approach,” Barrett, who serves as Heat’s managing director, told Adweek. “I think the difference is the San Francisco ad environment feels like a more collaborative partnership which I think New York clients will like.”

“With West Coast agencies, it’s about creative first and it’s very idea driven. New York is more process oriented,” added Maleeny. 

“You could argue the last thing this industry needs is another new ad agency,” he said. “What it is yearning for is a new kind of agency.”

“As we go into New York, it’s not just Heat—it’s Heat plus Deloitte Digital,” added Elder,who serves as president of Heat.

Havas Worldwide New York launched a new spot for Keurig, highlighting the brand’s partnership with Hugh Jackman‘s Laughing Man coffee company.

Jackman tells the origin story of Laughing Man, the company he launched “to bring distinctive products to market while supporting individual producers and the growth of local communities” in the 60-second spot, “The Cup Half Full.” He explains how the company emerged after he and his wife met an Ethiopian coffee grower while traveling to the country and promised to help, before announcing that the coffee is now available in bastardized K-Cup form. The company donates all its profits to charity, so the partnership with Keurig could actually help spread some good, thus the focus on the product as “a cup of pure optimism.”

Given his enthusiasm for the endeavor, Jackman was quick to agree to appear in the series of ads. “Before we even had to ask, they said Hugh Jackman was on board,” Tim Maleeny, chief strategy officer at Havas, New York, told Adweek.

“This is really a marriage of three brands,” explained Havas account manager Laure Ayel. “It’s Hugh Jackman himself, Keurig and a virtually unknown brand in Laughing Man.”

As Adweek points out, the feel-good effort is a calculated move for Keurig, designed to steer the conversation away from the environmental impact of its disposable products. For Laughing Man, the partnership is a mixed bag, undoubtedly allowing the company to generate more revenue that will ultimately go toward charitable purposes while also muddying its idealistic business model with Keurig’s environmentally detrimental practices. The product, currently only available online, is slated for a retail release in the fall, accompanied by a larger media buy.

Credits:

Client: Keurig Green Mountain
Agency: Havas Worldwide, New York

Group ECD, Managing Director: Israel Garber
Group ECD, Managing Director: Jason Musante
ECD: Dustin Duke, Jon Wagner
CD: Donnell Johnson
ACD: Rhea Hanges
Head of Content, North America: Rich Rosenthal
Co-Head of Production, North America: Sylvain Tron
Executive Producer: Arlene Steinwald
Junior Producer: Wendy Luong
Digital Producer: Thao Le
Group Account Director: Laura Dartnall
Account Director: Laure Ayel
Account Supervisor: Lindsay Stanislau
Assistant Account Executive: Alex Zubak
Production Company: Tool
Director: Erich Joiner
Managing DirectorL Oliver Fuselier
Executive Producer: Lori Sonebraker
Producer: Joby Ochsner