It's spring! Right about now, you should be thinking about quitting your job and getting a little Sex And The City, yeah? It's time for No Wukkas - the job hunt. The Minneapolis edition.

1. Unknown - Account Manager, MN
Growing mission-driven experiential marketing agency has an opportunity for a full-time Account Manager. Qualified candidates will have 3-5 years experience in an Event Marketing related position. Individuals must also have superior time-management skills and a keen eye for detail. The ability to develop and manage a budget is also essential.

Get more details here.

2. Campbell Mithun - Media Planner, MN
You will be responsible for:
- You enjoy the opportunity to develop analysis, documentation, and rationale for media plan recommendations that will meet pre-determined objectives.
- You excel at executing media plans promptly and thoroughly while providing on-going maintenance of approved media plans.
- You effectively use agency systems and procedures to monitor client expenditures.
- You have a knack for presenting media work to appropriate client and agency personnel.
- You are a pro at effectively representing agency and clients with media representatives.

Get more details here.

3. Carmichael Lynch - Account Manager, MN

Heads up! You must have 5+ year of experience! You have to be able to lead teams, be insightful, blah, blah, blah.

Get more details here.

4. Periscope - Senior Designer, Packaging, MN

The marketing agency was recently tapped by Regal Boats, one of the largest independent boat builders in the U.S., to provide a full slate of marketing services.

They are looking for a senior designer with a passion for all forms of design, especially packaging. You should have 5+ years' experience working on projects that range from boutique to hardworking packaging to traditional print formats.

Get more details here.

5. Colle + McVoy (who has many open spots) - Account Supervisor, MN

- Build and nurture strong client relationships that are honest, fun and built on a mutual respect for one another
- Instigate and champion great ideas internally and externally
- Be the "glue" or key integrator for all advertising and marketing functions, including strategic and creative development, creative contact management and integrated marketing activities
- Lead strategic development of marketing communication plans to grow the client's business strategy and positioning

Get more details here.

6. Yamamoto Moss Mackenzie - Unnamed Job, MN

From their website:

"There are always jobs at Yamamoto Moss Mackenzie. We're looking for people who are smarter, tougher, more ambitious and more creative than we are. You should be so good the end up taking our jobs away from us. That's capitalism and we'll deal with it."

Okay. Yeah. A little college-y at the end there with that realism shot out to capitalistic societies, but you know... couldn't hurt to fire over your resume.

Get more details on the agency here.

Martin Williams press is on full steam. Choo-choo! WE HEAR THAT... today, the shop is laying off least 9 people with some staffers saying the total will go up to 15. Question is - who is doing the firing? We know that high level staff is out of office. Please... did they leave this to the HR lady to do? Crap. Craptastic.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice..." We actually chatted with some high level folks at MW and we wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, that we were getting full disclosure. Silly us. Silly cow.

We're going to do a No Wukkas post before EOD for those who got the shit end of the stick today.

Campbell Mithun is like, is like... um, Mariah Carey. You know, just when you think she can't get any more zonked on her own fame (surprise weddings, strange press releases, weird beauty rituals), out she comes with a hit album. In today's Minneapolis Tribune, we get to take a look inside a stalwart of The Twin Cities scene and all the changes taking place to bring the shop back to its high flying origins.

Recent changes at Campbell Mithun include new CEO, Steve Wehrenberg; account wins such as National City Bank, and an expected bump in media billings ($750 million this year, following three consecutive years of between $650 million and $700 million). AdAge has them up 2.6& in 2007 in their Agency Report. The Star has them up 3%. Either way, they're turning a few more dollars beating out other Minneapolis based agencies in revenue such as Carmichael Lynch (-1.5%), Fallon (-26.5%), and Martin Williams (7.4% but still ranked below Mithun).

In the article, the shop makes it clear they are going back to basics.
Jonathon Hoffman, CM's president and chief creative officer, returned to the agency in 2004 after 15 years at Leo Burnett Worldwide of Chicago. Hoffamn told the paper that CM was going back to ethos of founder Ray Mithun: "a big, pioneering brand idea that communicates the point of the product and its value, driving increased sales and profits."

Wait. Isn't that the whole point of advertising? Shouldn't everyone be looking to do that at the base level? Yeah. Ray was onto something, but how did Campbell Mithun come to be anyway? Glad you asked...

Campbell Mithun was founded by Ralph Campbell who had been dismissed from BBDO after he refused to relocate to New York. Campbell, nearing the age of 50, teamed up with the then 24 year old Raymond Mithun who had worked beneath him as a copywriter. Their first three accounts were Andersen Corporation, Land O'Lakes, and Northwestern National Bank. Not bad, right? The shop did what all small shops do - hustle. Campbell Mithun survived the great depression and the war years with flying colors. Campbell died in the fall of 1949 during the halftime festivities of an Iowa-Minnesota football game. Nonetheless, the shop surged on and became well known for its highly creative work and determination to pitch, as well as win big accounts.

Mithun was getting old and so, he encouraged his staff to become invested in the company, so they would carry on being an independent force in the industry. It didn't take. Mithun sold all of his stock back to the company in 1972, and retired in 1978. One year later, management sold out to New York-based Ted Bates. Bates was later bought by the legendarily reckless Saatchi boys.

CM was merged with another Saatchi holding, The William Esty Company, to create the most powerful Midwestern agency at the time. The New York-based William Esty Company held many automotive accounts in Detroit, Michigan. In 1988, the new company had combined billings of $740.8 million and offices in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Toronto, and Windsor, Canada. Hot shit.

In 1992, Campbell Mithun Etsy acquired Goodwin, Dannenbaum, Littman & Wingfield - an independent advertising agency based in Texas. CME was then merged with and London-based KHBB to form a new international advertising agency network. CME-KHBB Advertising, Inc., with combined billings of $1.2 billion, was listed as the 17th largest ad agency in the world. The agency's offices were located not only in the United States, but throughout Europe and Asia. The idea behind the merger, according to Saatchi & Saatchi management, was to create a network of small offices located in major cities around the world.

When Saatchi blew, so did CME. The 50% of interest in the shop was put up for sale and purchased by The Interpublic Group of Companies in 1995 for $40M.

[source, source, source]

Lewis Hamilton, last year's 2nd place finisher in the F1 circuit in his debut season, is slated to sign a deal to become a "global brand ambassador" for Reebok.

It is expected to be worth about $20 million a year -- not bad scratch for a guy who has been on the world racing scene for only a year.

Hamilton, a sporting megastar in the UK, will join football stars (or "soccer" for the heathens in the crowd) Thierry Henry and Andrei Shevchenko as fellow global ambassadors on the Adidas-owned company.

Traditionally, McLaren does not allow its drivers to seek deals outside its own pool of sponsors, which in addition to Vodafone includes Hilton, Hugo Boss, Santander and Tag Heuer. (I'm sure they'll have to work out a deal for a huge patch on the driver's firesuit.)

However, despite having only one year's track experience in F1, Hamilton is one of sport's most marketable stars, prompting McLaren to make an exception.

Domino's at the beginning of the year vows to freeze the price of their items through the end of the year -- because they have guaranteed fixed costs on all the ingredients. So guess what happens?

Hell yeah... they raised prices on average $2 a pizza as of last week.

All due to the "growing food crisis" on-going on a global basis -- so it is not always the ad agencies who fuck it up for the brands -- sometimes they are fully capable of doing it themselves.

In a poll conducted for Marketing Magazine by Joshua G2, McDonald's comes out as the most hated brand in the UK.

Of course, regardless of whether a brand has inspired great love or a full-on fatwa, it has at least elicited a definite response from consumers, meaning that not only are they aware of its existence but have strong feelings toward it, neither of which is necessarily a bad thing. (following the mantra "Any publicity is good publicity")

The aptly named Jill McDonald, McDonald's chief marketing officer for Northern Europe, admits that McDonald's is a polarising brand. Despite this, according to the chain, 70% of the UK population say they will eat at one of its restaurants at least once over a 12-month period. (some might argue that "McDick's" has better offerings than typical British cuisine -- discuss amongst yourselves...)

On the flipside an unprecedented number of technology brands appear in the most-loved list, with Nokia taking top spot, iPod third and social networking site Facebook making its debut in fifth.

You can find more here.

Ogilvy has expanded its relationship with Motorola, and has been named lead global creative agency of record for the company's Mobile Devices business.

Ogilvy currently handles Asia Pacific, India and Latin America. The new arrangements will tack on Europe, Middle East and Africa as well as North America, which were previously handled by a variety of creative partners. Shelly Lazarus, Chairman and CEO of Ogilvy Worldwide said:

"We are thrilled to once again have the Motorola brand under our roof. We have accomplished great things together with Motorola and anticipate many more to come."

The stapline "HELLOMOTO" will remain.

More on the news that Martin Williams has lost the Cellular South account from a good reliable source.

It's true. Cellular South has kicked MW to the curb and hired its third agency in about18 months. As we mentioned, the client is totes difficult and comes with a skittish CMO who is under enormous pressure to compete with the big boys and y'know how that goes. Forget strategy! Saynora agency!

Meanwhile, Martin Williams will be working on the account for Cargill, which has asked the shop to extend their US corporate brand campaign into Europe. To be fair, we failed to mention some of the agency's other clients including agribusiness, Syngenta, three divisions of Pfizer Animal Health, Marvin Windows and Doors (MW has had the one for 28 years).

Aiight? Alright.

R/GA's chairman Robert Greenberg has been thanked along with
influential entertainers for their contributions to New York's entertainment industry by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Weird right? Bob along with the actor Jesse L. Martin (who is on Law & Order) and Rachael Ray.

In other odd and tangentially related news, another Robert Greenberg who is the CEO of Skechers, has his identity stolen by a man in Racine named Lance Coleman. Last month, Coleman pleaded guilty to calling computer company Dell and telling them that Skechers was relocating to an address. Coleman provided Skechers' tax identification number and ordered computers and televisions worth about $44,000 to an address that matched Coleman's apartment. Really, really? That's how your going to go out?

At some point, maybe quite often actually, you've asked yourself how it is possible that the fricking moron, that dude who wouldn't be able to figure out how to tighten his jock strap is your boss. How does that shit happen?

Billionaire Carl Icahn has a theory, which Portfolio nicely recounted from his Carl's talk last year at the World Business Forum in New York:

When you were at Indiana University or Penn State or wherever the hell you went - did you join a fraternity or sorority? The president is not necessarily the smartest person in the room, but he/she is nice. The opposite sex likes them. They're always cheering the house on and being the buddy.

Once you enter the real world of business, this person advances. They don't take risks or challenge the status quo. They may never have a great idea, but the boss likes him/her, because there is no threat coming from that quarter. He/She does his work, but they are no rock star. No, genius. He/She plays by the rules. He/She shows up and smiles at the holiday party. Soon enough, he/she has smiled, drank and good time Charlie'd their way into the number two spot. The board likes him/her. Next thing you know, he's the C.E.O or the ECD or the VP of Strategic Planning.

Of course, he/she assigns a #2 who is not that bright, but you know... affable.

"And eventually, we're going to have all morons running our companies. We might not be that far off from that right now."

Doremus New York managing director Howard Sherman has taken on the additional global role of president, which is a brand new position at the firm reported Adweek.

Before landing at Doremus, he worked at Howard Merrell & Partners in where he was president and chief operating officer. Sherman has been leading the overlooked agency to several wins this year including Cigna Corp., Adecco, URS and BearingPoint. Doremus New York was up 8.6% from 2006 to 2007 according to AdAge's 2008 Agency Report.

Hi. Did you know that The Clio Awards are owned by VNU Nielsen? We asked a few people and they were ignorant of this big biz fact. Call us slow, yeah? VNUNielsen is the same company that also owns Adweek. Don't worry. No Phillip K. Dick rants here. Instead, so we're all informed, here is a simple list of VNU's advertising related holdings:

- ACNielsen, marketing research firm
- AGB Nielsen Media Research, television audience measurement firm, a joint venture with AGB Group
- Adweek weekly advertising industry publication
- Brandweek weekly marketing industry publication
- Claritas, provider of intelligent marketing information and target marketing services
- Clio Awards, Advertising and Design festival and award show
- Homescan & Spectra, provides consumer-centric marketing and sales solutions for the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry
- IMS, media planning and analysis software for industry and proprietary research
- Mediaweek weekly media (Television, radio, print and outdoor advertising) industry publication
- Nielsen Media Research, Mobile, Soundscan, etc.

See the full list of VNU's holdings here.

Publicis' Leo Burnett Worldwide is about to purchase its second Chinese firm, which has remained unnamed. Last year, the agency bought marketing firm Yong Yang as a first step to gaining a toe-hold in the $21B market.

Chairman Tom Bernardin told Reuters that:

"You might see one next week. I have a big expansion plan in China. This market and Russia to me are two markets with immediate, big opportunity for growth."

Want to makes some guesses? How about Zi Corporation, a mobile discovery and advertising solutions, whose revenue is up 15% and debts way down this quarter? How about outdoor advertising firm VisionChina Media Inc.? Hmm... Chinese web portal Sohu.com? It's a side step, but the company is huge in the online gaming sector. Their revenue jumped 156% to $84.8 million recently. Who knows?

Publicis is reviewing the agency operations in London as its starts a consultation with the current staff that could lead to shitcanning some staff. It is expected to lead to at least ten people will get the axe if it comes down to it -- which means it probably will come to that conclusion.

The London-based senior suits are meeting with Publicis Groupe worldwide chief executive Richard Pinder next week to discuss the situation. Pinder says there maybe some layoffs but adds that some of the jobs may be relocated abroad.

All of this comes after Publicis retained the $200 million below the line HP account in the EMEA region after a marathon six-way pitch. They lost the advertising account they had held onto for 12 years back in January 2006.

Apparently Publicis promised HP that they'd re-jig the account to make some savings & "streamlining of costs" (read: people reporting to the unemployment line) in order to retain it.

Publicis London suffered a series of losses last year including Asda, MFI and The Post Office, which was a third of its billing. It led to the departure of then chief executive Grant Duncan and UK chairman Tim Lindsay. It later appointed former Vodafone marketer Neil Simpson as chief executive.

Adweek is wondering if T.A.G., San Francisco's campaign for Microsoft's Halo 3 will win a Clio. Raise your hand if you know the answer? Du-uh. As the magazine points out the spot has won all the majors including International Andy Awards, the Art Directors Club Awards and, most recently, best of show at The One Show. It deserves it. Don't get me wrong. Adweek seemed unsure for some reason so they sat down Tony Granger (who we know lots of you strongly dislike), Chairman for the Clio Television/Cinema/Digital, to find out. His "effusive" thoughts include:

"I certainly had that voice screaming in my head, 'I wish I had done it!'"

Granger goes on to say that the judges were "really tough on the work." Other yawn worthy highlights (really, why was this piece even penned?) include jury member Bruce Henderson, group creative director at Ogilvy & Mather in New York, saying such wise words as:

"I think there was probably a bit more attention paid this year to the degree to which things were created for the context in which they would be viewed," he says. "After all, it's television, cinema and digital. It's really important to consider the context."

One would bloody well hope so, Bruce! One would hope.

Evan Fry, VP creative director at Crispin in Boulder, said:

"It's pretty clear that students are getting it, potentially more than some agencies."

Well that's a bright spot. The kids still want in! Hot. Okay, no more picking on this piece, but really... talk about taking up brain space.