Hasta La Creative!

Who knew Grey’s global CEO Jim Heekin could be comedy gold?

Well, none other than his creative partner, Tor Myhren, who, when not making ads for DirecTV, Febreze and Gillette, spoofs pops stars and their videos.

First came “Nothing Compares to 2,” Myhren’s Sinead O’Connor-like plea to get all of Grey’s creatives on the second floor. Then he and friends dressed like Hall & Oates to skewer nasty anonymous comments on blogs with “Agency Spies.” Now, the Weird Al of chief creative officers has channeled Abba to comically celebrate Heekin’s 10th anniversary at Grey.

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Set to the tune of the ridiculously infectious “Fernando,” the video includes digs about everything from his boss’ baldness and “hairy hands” to his gold bracelets and bicep curls. There’s even a jag about Adweek—a nod to positive press that’s delivered with a twist.

“Jim Heekin” is Myhren’s biggest production to date, with costume changes, backup dancers and even a singing partner, Ivy Mitchell, who in her day job works for Suresh Nair, Grey’s strategic planning chief. Oh, and as in “Agency Spies,” the normally bald Myhren dons another shoulder-length fright wig, this time to ape the hirsuit guys in Abba.

Keep ’em coming, Tor, and thanks for the laughs.

Grey New York has introduced yet another Rob Lowe in its ongoing campaign for DirecTV.

Following on the heels of “Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe,” which apparently drew some criticism from shy bladder sufferers, the agency has returned with the self-explanatory “Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe.” The formula is the same as in previous spots, with Rob Lowe introducing himself as a DirecTV customer before a more unfortunate version of himself, who also happens to be a cable customer, comes along for comparison. In the new spot Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe watches ping-pong on a small screen and attempts to open a jar of mayonnaise. Like previous ads, it ends with Lowe saying “Don’t be like this me.”

While it may be that the series is running out of steam, “Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe” just seems like the weakest of the bunch so far. Whereas “Super Creepy Rob Lowe” and “Painfully Awkward Rob Lowe” found convincing ways of tying Lowe’s alter egos to the inferior quality of cable, “Scrawny Arms Rob Lowe” feels like an empty gimmick. Let’s hope Grey can up the ante with the inevitable follow-up and recapture the potential of this campaign. (more…)

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Wunderman isn’t the only New York agency to name a new chief creative officer today. This morning, principals at Grey NY announced the hiring of Andreas Dahlqvist.

Dahlqvist, who founded DDB Stockholm in 2004 and served as ECD/managing partner there for several years, most recently held the titles of vice chairman, McCann New York and deputy global CCO for brands within the larger McCann organization, which he joined in 2011.

He also served as global CCO at the GM-focused Commonwealth//McCann, and his name appears atop all of that agency’s latest campaigns. His most memorable AgencySpy appearance to date occurred as part of the dress-alike project “Partnerganger,” which may or may not have been inspired by the Ogilvy tumblr “Work Twinsies.”

The release tells us that the new CCO, who has won “every major creative award,” will oversee Grey’s entire 500-strong creative department. President/Worldwide CCO Tor Myhren writes:

“Few people in this industry have done what Andreas has…started his own agency from scratch and built it into the best digital agency on the planet.”

Dahlqvist will report to/work closely with Myrhen and North American CEO Michael Houston.

Memo from those two after the jump.

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Grey, New York teamed up with production company Supply&Demand and director David Holm in its new global campaign for Marriott Hotels & Resorts, shot in Instanbul, Turkey.

Supply&Demand sent Holm to Instanbul early, to allow a week of scouting prior to awarding the job and Holm’s scouting session ended up providing much of the inspiration for the 60-second spot.

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Grey has a new digital campaign for 3M Company brand Nexcare introducing unexpected product tester Nexcare Nana.

“Will It Or Won’t It” is a series of three 30-second videos that follow the fearless Nexcare Nana as she conducts extreme product tests displaying Nexcare’s ability to stay on and keep out dirt, water, and germs. In “Nana vs. Dirt,” the highlight of the series (featured above), a dump truck dumps a pile of dirt on Nana, who emerges to reveal that her Nexcare bandage is not only still on but also free of dirt. In the other spots, Nexcare Nana takes on a water hose and a dumpster. Each ends with a “No grandmas were hurt in the making of this video” disclaimer. The campaign also includes a “Tough as Nana” consumer engagement program celebrating the Nexcare Nana persona and allowing consumers to “nominate the special people in their lives that are as daring, tough and resilient as Nexcare Nana” for a chance to win “one of three trips inspired by Nexcare Nana’s pursuit of adventure including swimming with sharks, skydiving or a racecar driving experience.” Stick around for “Nana vs. Water” and credits following the jump. continued…

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Grey Group CEO/chairman Jim Heekin just announced a big leadership change at the agency this afternoon. Of course, we do have the memo, but the gist of it is that Tim Mellors, who’s history with Grey dates back to 1998 and who’s served worldwide creative director at the agency since 2007, is parting ways while Grey NY president/CCO Tor Myhren will assume the role of worldwide CCO of the agency network along with maintaining his management post in the Big Apple.

Anyways, Heekin’s memo, which includes memories of Mellors during his lengthy stay at Grey, is below. Read on:

“I wanted to share the news with you that Tim Mellors, Vice Chairman and Worldwide Creative Director of Grey Group, and the founder of our Grey Global Creative Council, has decided to leave while he’s on top since the word “retirement” is not in his vocabulary.

In 2007, I charged Tim with the critical mission of raising Grey’s creative quality and profile around the world.  What he has accomplished is the stuff of legend, surpassing everyone’s wildest expectations, and mostly, our own.  Under his creative leadership, together we have built Grey into a vital, stimulating, confident, winning agency which is respected and increasingly feared by others.

Tim has been a unique, and inspirational, evangelist for Famously Effective work.  He has identified and recruited world-class talent and mentored rising stars from Beijing to Rio.  Ever the free spirit, he’s done it with passion, joy and humor.

Tim came into the Grey orbit in 1998 when we bought his successful agency, Mellors Reay, in London.  After a sabbatical in 2003, we coaxed him back a year later as President and Chief Creative Officer of Grey North America, based in New York, before assuming his global responsibilities.
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Earlier in his career, he set London on fire at Saatchi & Saatchi, creating breakthrough work for British Airways, launching the Independent newspaper and catapulting Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives into power.  Along the way, he worked at Publicis, GGT, FCB London, DDB and Lintas, amassing 15 Lions, 5 D&AD Pencils, the Grand Prix at the European Advertising Festival and serving on every major worldwide award jury.

While rising to the pinnacle of our business, Tim has managed to be a magazine journalist, a commercial film director, a BBC TV host, a trained psychotherapist, renowned photographer, painter and poet and it’s only Wednesday.

One thing is sure, we will never see his like again.  Please join me in thanking Tim for his vast contributions to Grey and wishing him much happiness as he conquers new worlds.

Importantly, I am very pleased to announce that Tor Myhren will assume the role of Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of Grey, leading the Grey Global Creative Council, in addition to his management role at Grey New York.

Tor has played a pivotal role in the ongoing success story of our flagship, Grey New York.  We have transformed our talent ranks, creative product, digital prowess and new business fortunes, achieving our sixth record year of financial and creative performance in 2013. In his new role, he will have the opportunity to evolve this culture of innovation across our global footprint.

A natural leader and team builder with an intuitive feel for work that captures pop culture imagination on a global scale, I’m confident he will build on the momentum we have achieved and help make us the undisputed leader in our industry.

Please give him your congratulations and full support as we take the next big leap.
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Regards,

GREYgroup | Famously effective since 1917
Jim Heekin, Chairman & CEO”

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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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And now, your silly aside of the day courtesy of, yes, another memo from Grey New York, which our tips box has been adequately filled with over the last couple of years. The latest opus comes from Grey NY president/CCO Tor Myhren, who decided to bless his staffers on this, the hottest of weeks in the Big Apple, by letting them wear shorts all this week. Why? Well, agency staffers helped find candidates for the apparent “hiring spree” Grey’s on (we’re assuming the newly won Gillette biz has plenty to do with it). Anyways, consider us jealous once we dare step outside and roast. Read on if you’d like, though we did redact a couple of the names just to be fair.

“I’m fighting against every fiber of my being as I write this. But it’s hot out there. Like, really hot. And as [redacted] has pointed out, you guys did a great job helping us fill the ridiculous amount of new hires we needed over the past few months. So it is with absolutely zero pleasure that I announce you can all wear shorts for the rest of the week. Run home now and change, [redacted], because this is the day you’ve been waiting for.

Michael and I agree this offer is only good for the rest of this week, so enjoy it people. You’ve earned it.

Love,
Tor.

P.S. In two hours I’m strategically off to LA for the rest of the week and won’t have to witness this atrocity. So in my head, it never really happened.”

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Grey New York wants to tell you that “It’s Never Not a Good Time for a Refreshing Mike’s.” Excuse the double negative (what about “It’s Always a Good Time…?), but to draw your attention away from the grammatical errors, they included some very, very random celebrity cameos from actor Martin Landau and rapper Coolio. The 30-second spots include some random rhyming that leads to a series of non-sequitors, hence the random celebrities. Random is the only way to describe this campaign.

Before watching these spots, I hadn’t thought of Landau and Coolio in years. Both are stored away firmly in the Club for G-List Celebrities Who Will Never Be Famous Again. In Landau’s defense, he’s 84 and had a memorable run of “Entourage” a few years back (not to mention his Oscar-winning turn as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood). Coolio is Coolio. They both picked up paychecks in return for a loss of dignity. That’s advertising for you. Check out the Coolio spot and credits after the jump.

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Marriott and Grey New York are getting that much closer as the brand has now awarded PR duties to the agency, thus expanding a relationship that began last September when the latter succeeded McGarryBowen as AOR for the hotel/resorts brand. No word yet, though, if president/CCO Tor Myhren and now-COO Michael Houston sent a short and sweet memo to staff like last time in regards to this latest win.

Instead, for now, we have this statement from Marriott VP of global brand PR John Wolf, who says, “We chose Grey for its expertise in integrated consumer brand marketing that will help us amplify the innovations Marriott is bringing to market to appeal to Gen X and Gen Y travelers. We were impressed by Grey’s passion, creativity and best-in-class PR practices to maximize the buzz factor across business and lifestyle media.”

We’re checking to see if there was a review for this. While we’re on the subject of Grey, we’re hearing from sources that the agency is still one of the finalists in the Gillette creative pitch and a decision is expected to made by this coming Monday. Update: There was no review for the Marriott PR biz; the appointment just grew out of Grey and the hotel brand’s existing ad relationship. Burson Marsteller, meanwhile, continues to handle corporate PR for Marriott.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.