AKQA

As of today, a certain shop has restricted employees' use of the inter Webs by blocking a few sites that require high volumes of bandwidth. The move is being pushed as a money saving strategy that in reality probably will do just that, despite leaving employees without access to content that is arguable valuable to their work.

We're told employees of this shop's offices can say goodbye to: YouTube, BBC, iPlayer, Spotify, Channel4, SkyPlayer and Google Videos — each of which will eat bandwidth like a whale sucking krill.

First off, let's not worry about which shop is doing this. The question I'd like to pose is: does having access to these sites improve your ability to know what's happening out there or does it make it harder to do your work? Probably both, but let's pick a side, shall we?

More: "Brand Loss Eckos Thru the Web"

Just over a year ago we reported that AQKA's New York office let go of about 50 employees. But their cousins in San Francisco are doing great, according to a BizJournal article on the transition from traditional to digital advertising. Apparently, no one else near Haight was available for comment. And now, the fluffy good news:

"AKQA, which also has offices in Washington, D.C., New York, London, Amsterdam and Shanghai, has seen revenue growing in 'double digits,' said CEO Tom Bedecarre. Company revenue is roughly $125 million a year."

So, you guys are like, going to hire some people right?

"AKQA, however, plans to expand its employee headcount by 80 people — or 10 percent — in 2009. The company has hired 40 people since January and expects to hire another 40 by the end of the year, Bedecarre said.

"The San Francisco office has 20 open positions for jobs including strategy, creative, technology and client service."

What other good news can you share?

"'We're still benefiting from the positive trend of clients shifting dollars to digital marketing,' Bedecarre said."

Apparently Organic has like 60 job openings too.

Via BizJournals

More: "AKQA Brings Back JFK for Greenpeace Ad"

You know the drill... Each year, Adweek assigns a grade to advertising agencies of note. It's kind of like Bloomberg's grading system for the New York Public Schools. This year, the magazine cut their list from 10 agencies to just 8. They arrived at their final mark by considering several factors: "global revenue percentage gain (taking into account the size of the shop), revenue/staff ratio and how well a shop did at accelerating revenue growth faster than staff expansion." The shops were also graded on their management practices, creativity, strategy and their use of social networks, mobile and smart use of technology tools. Here's the final report card:

AKQA: B+

TRIBAL DDB: B-

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AKQA is now the AOR for The New York City Ballet (NYCB). The agency will be responsible for social media stuff, a website re-design and a new ticketing system. Let us hope that they listen to famous choreographer, George Balanchine: "In ballet a complicated story is impossible to tell... we can't dance synonyms." In other words, because it's the multi-dimensional, beautiful, classic art form, doesn't mean it has to be complicated in an attempt to keep up with the times. Don't pull some over wrought Nike Women's stuff, yeah?

More: Bryan Fuhr Makes Meaningful Differences in Digital Space

They dun it — shirked the PC "happy holidays" line and went straight for the Christmas gold. Check out the video above, AKQA's holiday card thingamajig. Jingle Bells!

More: "Thunder:tech's Holiday Card"

The New York Times magazine gathered some industry professionals together to talk a little digital advertising. Included were: Benjamin Palmer, C.E.O. of the Barbarian Group.
Lars Bastholm, chief creative officer at AKQA and Robert Rasmussen, executive creative director of the Nike account at R/GA... Oh wait. The venerable paper seems to have missed Rasmussen's jump to BBH. Anyway, these three guys got together for a little bit of a digi-wank.

The web version is five pages comes with headings such as "Facebook Overalls" and "The Death Of The Massive Money Machine." A tad much, but clearly this one if for the laymen. In all honesty, these guys have some salient points. They address the things we all know about the internet, emerging media, etc. They are selling that digi business like their lives depend on it. Well, someone has to do it.

What's most interesting is that Bastholm mentions Nike a few times, a client of AKQA's and Rasmussen doesn't say a word despite having been the executive creative director on the Nike account at R/GA.

Bastholm also said: "Well, we do have a ton of different new media and new ways to use them. But before we get there, I would suggest that first, you take a step backward and ask yourself, How do I make my brand relevant?"

It's the same old question. Somethings in advertising never change.

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Oooh! AKQA's Halloween part looked like it was fun! See all the photos here. Belated posting, but still fun.

More: JWT's Halloween Party

AKQA has brought John F. Kennedy back to life in a spot that's nearly as creepy as Crispin's reanimation of Orville Redenbacher.

The shudder factor aside, the message is that we need change now if we're going to make the switch to renewable energy. In Greenpeace's words, the spot "challenges world leaders to tackle climate change by embracing renewable energy and setting efficiency standards."

JFK's Message:

"Will we look into the eyes of our children and confess that we had the opportunity but lacked the courage, that we had the technology but lacked the vision?"

Well, in the context of the actual speech during which JFK posed that question, no we won't. Why? Because we've already made it to the moon. And back. More than once.

For us this is a stretch (albeit a nice effort) on AKQA's part to turn JFK into a puppet for the sake of their client, Greenpeace. His mouth doesn't look right, his voice doesn't sound right, and it isn't right to twist a great man's words for even the most idealistic purposes (ed's note: Amsterdam based The Ambassadors procured the CGI effects). More on this, after the jump.

More: "AKQA's Many Bodies"

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As AKQA's latest strategy/planning hire, Bryan Fuhr is described by his peers as intensely smart, positive, and at times polarizing.

"People either love him or hate him," a former colleague remarked. "But (no one) is liked by everyone."

Fuhr started at AKQA in June of this year, where he bears the director of strategy title. He replaces Craig Walmsley, who married another AKQAer, Katie Harris (now Walmsley). After marrying, the pair moved back to AKQA London where they first met.

In his new role, Fuhr and other planners (Matt Oschner and Jessica Drapiza) are working to get their ideas right before going after the next big get. But his career is more than just a job — it's an altruistic attempt at clearing noise out of the digital space. It's also penance for a mistake he made six years ago.

More after the jump.

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As we hoped, more information on the AKQA situation we reported yesterday has come to light.

We told you about a creative director at the agency who walked out when some of his team was let go. Well, the mystery addie is Jerome Austria.

He'll be setting his laptop up at Wieden + Kennedy NY as a CD. We just hope that with all that solidarity flowing, Austria didn't forget his Lion when he walked out of AKQA.

The move apparently had something to do with ECD Lars Bastholm, "who reportedly is horrible at managing people and does nothing but send cool web links and take credit for work he had no part of."

More after the jump...a lot more.

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