180

Four years after first serving as city host for the Los Angeles installment of Portfolio Night, which in essence is a speed-recruiting/networking event for young art directors, copywriters and designers, 180LA is back in the mix yet again. In the 2008 version, the agency fulfilled its promise that whoever presented the best portfolio that evening would be offered a full-time gig immediately (this is guy they chose).

In the video above, 180LA ECD William Gelner explains that with the economic downturn in the ensuing years after their first Portfolio Night collab, such an opportunity won’t come so easy nowadays. But he does have a solution, which reminds us somewhat of the intern-firing ploy pulled by San Francisco shop Mortar. Anyhow, the 180-hosted Portfolio Night 10 Los Angeles takes place on May 23. Get ticket info here.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

180 has made some changes to its global management structure as the agency network has now tapped Michael Allen, who has spent the last five years as managing partner/president of its Los Angeles office, to take on the big gig of global CEO. Allen joined 180 from sister Omnicom operation TBWA\Chiat\Day LA at the beginning of 2007, helping the former  grow from a staff of four to an 85-strong operation that counts clients including Adidas, Sony Electronics, Boost Mobile and Mitsubishi.

Despite Allen’s move up the ladder, 180 founder Chris Mendola will remain on board and lead the agency as chairman. Allen, meanwhile, will continue overseeing day-to-day in LA while also handling the responsibilities that come with his new appointment. Along with Mendola and Allen, 180′s global management team includes Amsterdam president Kevin Dundas, Amsterdam ECD Al Moseley, as well as LA ECD William Gelner and head of production, Peter Cline.

 

Just when we thought we were done with the annual Movember coverage, along comes this image in the tips box, which appears to show 180 LA partner/ECD William Gelner (wait, is that him?) sans pants and doing his best Walter White/Breaking Bad parody. We’ll give it up to Gelner for showing some cojones, literally and figuratively, all while raising over $10,000 for the Movember movement. Anyhow, good on all of you who raised some scratch for the month of men’s health, even if you’re just in your skivvies.

Two months after they first teased their deep-sea endeavor called “Project Shiphunt,” Sony, Intel and 180 LA have unveiled “Shipwreck Alley,” the first of two web films to be released this summer (the second arrives on July 13) that promotes the efforts of five Michigan students who are using Sony Vaio laptops to find a shipwreck within, yes, Lake Huron’s Shipwreck Alley. If only our school field trips were like this.

The young whippersnappers’ adventures are being captured by @radical.media director Paul Bozymowski, who says in a statement, “Over the course of just a few weeks, I saw a profound transformation in the students who participated in this project. I think this is not only a testament to the environment that was created for the students, but also a testament to engaging with technology through immersive project based learning.” From the looks of it, we’d just feel claustrophobic and get seasick. Anyhow, you can follow the project here and totally distract yourself and try to earn a million bucks by playing the Google Earth-based “Oceans of Treasure” game that ties into the “Shiphunt” effort. Credits after the jump…

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There’s nothing like D.J. introducing her pops, Danny Tanner, to bring back memories of those Friday nights we’d be rushing back on our bikes to watch ABC’s TGIF lineup in the late 80′s (props to you, Balki). Besides dating myself a bit, that young chap you see clapping for Bob Saget is none other than Derek Richmond, who was named director of integrated production at 180LA this week.

While we’re pretty sure his stirring Full House moment had plenty to do with his ad career, Richmond has some agency background on his resume, working as director of digital production at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners–where he spent over four years–and was a key part of the team that developed the “Now Network” rebranding effort for Sprint. Now at 180LA, Richmond will work alongside Peter Cline, head of production and managing partner. But can the new hire tell us what the hell happened to Dave Coulier?

After spending close to four years at W+K Amsterdam, Jonas Vail is heading over to 180′s Dutch digs to serve as planning director. While at W+K, Vail led planning efforts for EA Sports including its FIFA franchise and developed BASF’s global rebranding campaign (he says BASF “Good Chemistry” and FIFA 10 “How Big Can a Football Get” efforts are among his proudest work).

Though he’s been nestled in Amsterdam for the past several years, Vail has plenty of stateside experience, having served as an account planner at FCB then spending the next five-and-half years as a senior account planner at Goodby before heading to Europe to work at Saatchi & Saatchi London. So why the move now to 180? One of the reasons, Vail says, is the chance to work again with the agency’s CEO Kevin Dundas, who he was colleagues with at two other agencies and whose leadership he has “always admired and respected.” Vail adds, “We work too many ridiculous hours in this industry, so why not be surrounded by people you genuinely like, are inspired by, and respect? I hope to be that for people here as well.”

Yes, there have been sightings of 180 co-founder Chris Mendola in New York City, but that doesn’t mean the exec is setting up shop there. Mendola’s family is from Connecticut, actually, and he moved there to be closer to them. 180 LA/Amsterdam, which counts clients including Sony Electronics, currently has no accounts headquartered in NYC. In a statement, Mendola says, “f we happen to generate business opportunities in New York or any other major city around the world, we would look at expansion to manage those clients. No launch plans for NY at this point.”

Mendola, who started up 180 back 1998 and served as an account director at Chiat\Day New York and W+K Portland/Amsterdam beforehand, adds, “I will continue to oversee all of 180 (Amsterdam and LA) with my partners, splitting my time between offices.”

Drawing inspiration from the world’s first online test drive, in which the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport was awarded its first Guinness World Record for the longest distance driven by a vehicle operated online, 180LA took the automaker’s Outlander and Outlander Sport to Alberta Canada’s Ghost Lake to showcase the tech wares of said vehicles and break as many world records possible within 24 hours.

Driven by stuntman Garvin Cross, the SUV and CUV broke five world records: Greatest distance driven by a vehicle in reverse on snow in 30 seconds, shortest braking distance by a vehicle on ice, most vehicle figure eights on ice in two minutes, fastest vehicle slalom relay on ice and fastest driven square lap, which all in all dubbed Mitsubishi the most awarded family of all-wheel drive vehicles in its class, so the automaker claims.

Digital marketing includes homepage takeovers, online banners as well as a strong social media push all leading consumers to their website to find out more.

Check out the “See How We Did It” video and full credits after the jump.

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It’s been a little while since we’ve heard a peep from the 180 LA camp, but the agency has now announced that it’s brought on a new head of strategy, Frank Striefler, who will assume the newly created post after spending the last year as a principal at Omnicom consultancy, Wolff Olins.

Previous to WO, Striefler spent a handful of years at TBWA, where he split his time between Chiat\Day LA and \Media Arts Lab as director of media arts planning and worked with clients including Pepsi, Visa and Infiniti. Regarding his gig at 180, Striefler sounds happy enough with his new employer, saying in a statement, “180 has a history of doing what its name implies: making a 180 degree shift from the tried, tested and obvious and going in the opposite direction.”

Early on his career, Striefler worked on the client side as a marketing exec at Nike Germany, EA and Wrangler before eventually joining Berlin Cameron United.

Creative team Ben Hartman and Neil Durber are joining 180 Amsterdam as senior copywriter and senior art director respectively, with their work primarily focused on the agency’s DHL account, acquired in January.

Hartman and Durber spent time at Leo Burnett, DMB&B, and BBH before moving to RKCR where they won awards for their work on Virgin Trains and Visit London. Joining them at 180 Amsterdam is former McCann Erickson Senior Copywriter David Chalu, who previously had done stints at BBH and Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper. All three appointments follow the hiring of Creative Director Galen Graham in September.

With renewed focus on the DHL account, ECD Al Mosley says, “Ben and Neil haven’t just got experience and talent, they’re also entrepreneurial. And David brings something totally different to the department. We expect big things from the next twelve months, so to have added exceptional creative skills to our armoury can only be a good thing.”