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Kiran Aditham

Kiran joined Mediabistro in June 2009 and has been riling up ad agencies ever since as the editor of AgencySpy. Prior to joining Mediabistro, Kiran spent two years as a digital reporter for Crain's Creativity magazine and two years before that as managing editor of online marketing site Adotas.com. On the side, Kiran dabbles in music/film journalism and his work has appeared in Fangoria, Grooves, XLR8R, The New Times and sites like PrefixMag.com. He still continues his unenviable search to find someone else who shares equal love and admiration for horror films, tennis and the Golden Girls.

Agency/Prodco Would Just Rather Be Skateboarding

Today in agency self-promos, we bring this 90-second clip from New York-based shop Rooster, which pretty much makes it clear in the brief amount of time what its first love is (its co-founder/creative director, Gavin McInness, is the co-founder of Vice and the “godfather of hipsterdom” after all).

We’re seen some pretty self-indulgent agencies patting themselves on the back clips in the past, but at least this one makes us want to revisit the ’80s flick, Gleaming the Cube, or that modern doc, Dogtown and Z-Boys. It appeases our short attention span and takes us back to the days when we scraped elbows, knees and more. So, good on ya Rooster. The shop currently works with clients including Red Bull, Qualcomm and Nissan (you might remember its recent work for the last brand starring Ryan Lochte).

Most Popular Stories on AgencySpy from the Last 7 Days

Friday Morning Stir

-Chris Chalk, who most recently worked on Team Land Rover at WPP, has assumed the president/chief strategy officer for Cheil Worldwide Europe.

-CP+B has brought on BBH New York/Singapore alum Andy Grant as an ACD in its L.A. office.

-M&C Saatchi L.A. celebrates the new Australian Outback exhibit at the San Diego Zoo with a new campaign dubbed “Koalafornia” (above, see more here).

-Yahoo’s acquisition wishlist expands, this time with Tumblr. link

-Dunkin’ Donuts hops on the Vine. link

 

Here’s Jeff Goodby’s Memo Regarding Today’s Cuts

Numbers have not been revealed but all day, we’ve been hearing from multiple tipsters that anywhere from 50-100 staffers have been affected by reductions today at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. But from what those familiar with the matter tell us, the numbers skew to the lower side and are not in the realm of the Sprint cuts. Anyways, read the San Francisco agency’s co-founder Jeff Goodby‘s note that was just sent to staff verbatim:

“You’ve heard the financial reasons for reducing our staff.  I just want to talk a bit about the human side of it all.

Please be assured: No one takes this process lightly.

As we often say, advertising is all about people and accounts.  David Ogilvy wrote, ‘The assets go up and down in our elevator every day.’  It is so true.  We value our people, and our humanistic environment, more than anything.

Strangely, that’s why, when we lose business or have cuts in fee, it is important to react thoughtfully, but expeditiously.  Companies that don’t are not prepared for the future, and they don’t serve the people who are still on staff.  They endanger present and future jobs.

We are optimistic about our plan to move forward, in terms of serving present accounts and getting new ones, and will share details next week. But we are also thankful for and deeply appreciative of the contributions of people who are leaving.

We will do everything to find them new situations.  And if history is any indication, we will find ourselves welcoming some of them back in the future.

Thanks for your patience about all this.

JG”

Perhaps JD Beebe can create a follow-up to this?

Your Porsche Update, Part Deux: It’s Down to Two

Well, you asked for it, and we’re giving it to you. To follow up on our Porsche review post from yesterday, we’ve heard from very reliable sources that the pitch for the automaker’s North American creative account is indeed down to two: Chicago-based incumbent Cramer-Krasselt and, you guessed it, Minneapolis-based Olson. Consider us surprised as we thought everyone’s darling agency Droga5 would be in the mix, but not so. Anyhow, we’re hearing Porsche’s decision is imminent and that the brand is getting more digitally focused in terms of its creative efforts. The other two finalists as mentioned before were CP+B Miami and McKinney. We’ll keep you posted.

Yes, BBDO NY Is Making Some ‘Significant’ Cuts

The Spy line was spot-on once again as we’ve received confirmation that BBDO New York is indeed making some cuts this week that “are significant and across departments.” No numbers have been revealed (trust us, we inquired), but as your probably know, the agency’s longtime relationship with Gillette recently ended when parent company P&G passed over its shaving brand’s account to Grey a few weeks ago. No word if the “significant” reductions were directly related, but we’ll let you do the math. We’ve been told that the reductions are still happening, so we’ll let you know if we hear more.

Rosetta, Hess Part Ways

We’ve been hearing murmurs about this for a couple of weeks and now, sources familiar with the matter confirm that Toni Hess, who most recently served as partner/executive creative director at Rosetta, is no longer with the Publicis Groupe-owned agency. No word from those in the know if there are immediate plans to replace Hess, whose departure comes less than a month after Rosetta and CCO Gary Scheiner parted ways. Hess joined Rosetta nearly four years ago as partner/group creative director within the agency’s creative/customer experience group. Prior to her most recent gig, the New York-based Hess, who’s also taught at the Miami Ad School, spent several years as a GCD at both Draftfcb and JWT.

Thursday Morning Stir

-We’ve already mentioned the 2013 Grand Clio winners list. In case you didn’t attend last night’s show in NYC (you missed some nice interaction/ball-busting between host Eric Stonestreet and Rob Schwartz by the way), the Clio crew also handed out their first ever “Gravity Award” to Mayo Draftfcb Lima for inventing a billboard that converts condensation into potable water. See case study here.

-Since you rarely, if ever, see a Lucky Charms ad on the telly anymore, Saatchi & Saatchi, Calabash Animation and PatMan Studios are here to create some nostalgia via the viral mashup above.

-McGarryBowen London managing director Ida Rezvani is heading across the pond to assume the same role in said agency’s New York office. link

-Kevin Smith takes a stand against celeb crowdfunding (as do others, as you may have heard). link

-The “world’s first parrot search engine,” you say? link

-No worries, Netflix won’t be selling ads for its streaming site. link

Wednesday Odds and Ends

 

-This is what happens when Dos Equis hires actor/comedian Michael Ian Black to tweet about their Facebook app (above). See the rest unfold here.

-Holy crap. A 24-year-old Ogilvy China staffer has apparently died from “overwork.” link

-Seattle-based agency DNA has hired Wexley School for Girls alum Roxanne Tolnas as account director and Jenny Lee, formerly of The Hacker Group, as senior art director. link

-Director/VFX artist/animator Drew Lightfoot has joined Toronto-based Untitled Films for Canadian representation. Lightfoot is represented by Passion Pictures here in the States.

-L.A.-based digital agency Sensis has welcomed Polly Beale and Joe Hyde as creative director and director of technology, respectively.

-Campbell Mithun unit Compass Point Media has launched an ad agency trading desk called OdinRTB for retail and CPG clients. link

-Family-owned Massachusetts brand Late July Organic Snacks has tapped Twin Cities agency Haberman to handle its social marketing expansion and new 2013 campaign.

Ricque Moves On from Moxie

Yes, Carlos Ricque, VP/executive creative director at Moxie Interactive who worked out of the Zenith Media agency’s New York office, is indeed calling it quits. The agency elaborates, saying, “After three great years at Moxie in both Atlanta and New York, Carlos Ricque has decided to leave the Moxie New York office to pursue his video content creation dreams. He leaves on great terms with the agency.  The creative EVP has said that Carlos is one of the good guys in Creative.  Where Carlos goes, good work always follows.  He will be missed.”

It’s not such a stretch for Ricque to head into content creation as the creative has also moonlighted as a screenwriter over the years and won Best Picture back in 2005 at the roving 48 Hour Film Project. On the ad side, meanwhile, prior to Moxie, Ricque spent well over four years at Atlanta-based Fitzgerald+CO, where he last served as co-chief creative officer. During his career, Ricque has also served as a senior copywriter at BBDO and an ACD at what is now 22squared.

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