AKQA

After a one-year stint at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Sergio Mugnaini is moving on to a fellow Bay Area branch, namely AKQA, where he will assume a creative director post. Mugnaini’s primary focus will be on AKQA SF’s Audi of America account. The creative is no stranger to the automaker’s biz as he worked on efforts such as “Robots” for the automaker while at AlmapBBDO, where he spent the majority of his career (seven years, give or take). During his career, Mugnaini has also worked at the likes of Ogilvy and JWT.

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Over the last few hours, we’ve received several tips that AKQA’s director of search marketing Scott Linzer, who is based out of the digital agency’s San Francisco office, is no longer there. Linzer has been with AKQA for over four years and has worked overseen the global search practice across the agency’s client portfolio including Clorox, Coca-Cola, Ticketmaster, HSBC, and PetSmart. Spies are telling us that Linzer’s departure could be due to AKQA losing a portion of the Coca-Cola biz–specifically paid search/SEM in January. which wound up at iCrossing.

Prior to AKQA, Linzer worked in a similar role at McCann for a year on the Microsoft business and had a two-plus year stint at, you guessed it iCrossing. Calls to Linzer are being met with voicemail, but we’ll verify and let you know.

Update: AKQA has confirmed that Linzer is leaving at month’s end as part of agency “restructuring.” AKQA adds that it’s ramping up staff in San Francisco.

Update 2: Here’s another note from AKQA that clarifies Linzer’s departure:

“Scott Linzer has left AKQA after a number of years of employment. To clarify initial speculation, Scott’s departure is in no way related to our relationship with Coca-Cola.  He has been a valued member of our team, helping to grow AKQA’s Media, Search & Analytics practice more than 50% year-over-year. We appreciate all his contributions and wish him luck as he enters the next phase of his career.”

 

Sources familiar with the matter confirm that AKQA will succeed R/GA in as lead digital partner for Verizon Wireless. We’ve been told that the parties have been notified as of this afternoon. R/GA and Moxie Interactive also participated in the review that began at the end of January for the “nation’s largest wireless carrier.” Due to the transition of such a massive account, we’ve been told it will be a few months until AKQA actually takes over on the Verizon digital biz, which will include mobile, e-commerce and in-store once the ink is dried. When pressed, AKQA would not offer comment on the matter.

Well, it certainly didn’t take long for AKQA to build a presence in the City of Light, as the agency has announced that it’s now officially opened its doors in Paris with Nike France as its founding client. The new office, which will be based in central Paris’s Latin Quarter and is the eighth in the AKQA network if you’re keeping score, will be led by European managing director Guy Wieynk, creative director Peter Lund and ACDs Nicolai Smith and Julien Veillon. The staff count currently stands at 10, though AKQA hopes to add another 40 in Paris by year’s end.

 

 

To follow up on our post last week regarding an apparent shift in C0ca-Cola’s agency partnerships, specifically in the search arena, we have now received confirmation from the soft drink giant itself that iCrossing has picked up the brand’s North American paid search marketing/SEM business. The Hearst-owned digital agency, which won the NA SEM business from AKQA, is now adding to its list of Coke assignments that already include global SEO, which iCrossing has handled for approximately five years.

As was mentioned last week, AKQA is not being shut out as the agency still has global assignments for SEM in Latin America and Canada according to the Coca-Cola camp. We’ve been told there was a review for the North American SEM account (that may have also included 360i), but further details weren’t provided.

Don’t worry, AKQA is still very much in the Coca-Cola mix from what we know, but over the past few days, several tinkers, tailors, soldiers and spies have been telling us that the agency lost out on the paid search part of the account. When pressed for comment, the digital agency said, “In respect for our long-term relationship with Coca-Cola, we are going to decline any comment in regards to our relationship.”

We’re hearing that the paid search portion was run out of AKQA’s New York office, but after a recent review, potential baton-grabbers could be iCrossing or 360i. From what we’ve been told, there is still a search relationship between Coke and AKQA, but the details are hazy when it comes to AOR status. We’ll keep you posted as the story develops.

 

Well, it looks like AKQA is happy with Pierre Lipton‘s handiwork as it’s promoted the man to executive creative director of its San Francisco office, making him only one of two U.S. ECDs at AKQA (the other happens to be Brendan Dibona, who’s housed in the D.C. office). Lipton originally joined AKQA from BBDO New York in the summer of 2010 as GCD on Xbox, subsequently leading campaigns included Halo Reach and recruiting creatives like these to the team. As AKQA San Francisco ECD, Lipton will now oversee the entire creative department that works with clients including the aforementioned Xbox, YouTube, Audi of America, Visa and Target.

During his two-and-a-half year stint as SVP/CD at BBDO NY, Lipton worked on campaigns for HBO (True Blood and Big Love work comes to mind) as well as AT&T. The new AKQA SF creative lead will continue reporting to the agency’s CCO Rei Inamoto and a  result of his promotion, will join AKQA’s Creative Council, which we assume is a perk.

Sources familiar with the matter are telling us that AKQA is planning to expand its global network, which currently includes seven offices from San Francisco to Shanghai, by opening up a Paris location some time next year. No word yet on whether the city of lights/love/romance, etc. will house an eighth official AKQA office or just an outpost like the agency has in San Salvador which serves as a development center.

While AKQA’s D.C. office lost a notable creative director recently, the digital agency’s New York office has added one as Jason McCann has moved back down from Toronto to the Big Apple to serve as CD. McCann spent the last eight years at TAXI, most recently serving as VP/co-ECD in Toronto on campaigns for Telus and MINI Canada, the latter of which earned a few Cannes Cyber Lions along the way.

As mentioned, McCann’s no stranger to the New York area as he spent two of his years at TAXI in its local office as ECD, digital on New York Life and Blue Shield of California among others. In fact, while working with his former employer, McCann served as ECD, digital for all six of TAXI’s North American agencies during his tenure. No word yet on if he’s working on specific accounts at AKQA NY, which currently works with the likes of Kraft. Update: McCann is working across accounts and officially started on Nov. 21.

In an effort to bring awareness to its new Politics channel, YouTube tapped AKQA’s San Francisco office to create the above promotional clip that will be aired as pre-roll during the online video giant’s debate/primary coverage. As the AKQA spot emphasizes, YouTube Politics’ coverage of debates, etc., will allow for viewers to form a video dialogue with candidates. Get those Rick Perry/Herman Cain questions prepared, stat!