Well, a phone call confirms at the very least that Ian Chee, who’s spent the last three years give or take as director, co-head of strategy/planning at AKQA New York, is no longer with the agency. From what we’ve been told on the Spy line, Chee’s moved over to fellow NYC operation MRY (formerly Mr. Youth), which of course merged with LBi a few months ago, to serve as its head of planning. We’ve been told that Chee assumed his post at MRY this week, but as far as his old position at AKQA goes, no word yet if there are any immediate plans to replace him.

Prior to AKQA, Chee held senior strategic planning positions in both the Asia-Pacific region and New York at the likes of Leo Burnett, McCann (global lead on Intel and Pfizer) and Digitas (on Delta among other clients).

Update: MRY has confirmed that Chee has indeed joined the agency as chief strategy officer and will oversee all planning and strategic output across its U.S. offices (counting NYC, Atlanta, San Francisco and soon, L.A.). With Chee’s arrival, MRY has in turn promoted Matt Rednor, who’s been with the agency since 2010, from chief strategy/innovation officer to simply chief innovation officer.

Hmm, well this little memo purportedly written by AKQA chairman Tom Bedecarre seems to indicate that the WPP-owned agency’s San Francisco managing director Stuart Sproule is moving on from the Bay Area and heading to our home turf. We’re of course trying to verify the matter with said agency, but here’s what we got below, verbatim:

“Anchors Aweigh, my boys, Anchors Aweigh. Farewell to college joys, we sail at break of day, ‘ay ‘ay ‘ay…

After 12 years of loyal and dedicated service to AKQA, Stuart Sproule has made the reluctant decision to pursue a new career and life opportunity in New York City. Fulfilling a long-held desire to return to Madison Avenue where he started his advertising career at JWT, Stuart will be joining TBWA as President of their global Digital Arts Network, which includes a team of 700 digital specialists across 18 TBWA offices.

February 28th will be Stuart’s last day at AKQA and because he has been busy making plans to move his family to New York, he won’t be back in San Francisco for several weeks — at which time I will be hosting a farewell reception so that we can properly send off Stuart with our best wishes and thanks for his many contributions to AKQA.

Until we meet once more, Stuart, here’s wishing you a happy voyage — to your new — home!

Best regards,
Tom

–
Tom Bedecarre
Chairman”

Sproule, along with several others, was promoted by AKQA last year and took on the role of managing director, international operations & talent.

Update: It’s confirmed and Sproule joins Digital Arts Network on March 1 and will be based in New York. See statement after the jump.

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Well, we were perhaps onto something when we were sent a random image a couple of weeks ago featuring a mini-orchestra lounging in AKQA’s San Francisco office. We threw out the idea that there was some holiday tie-in to this (others had more dire theories) and as it turns out, the musicians in the pic are part of the Pacific Chamber Symphony and were playing the role of “Mobile Orchestra” as part of AKQA’s holiday effort. To experience it in full, you need to gather at least one friend and go here to get in the spirit of things with some “Carol of the Bells.”

We have no idea, but we received this image from a friend who tells us that the staffers at AKQA San Francisco, for whatever reason, were treated to a mini-symphony in their office space today. Is there some symbolism to be had, did someone have some big news to break or was this just something as innocent as a holiday performance? Feel free to fill us in, folks.

Update: Yep, innocuous as we thought. We’ve been told by those in the know that the orchestra was being recorded for a project that AKQA is working on (we’ll try to find out which one). We’d prefer the holiday symphony for staffers story, though.

If the name Rudi Anggono doesn’t ring a bell, let us tell you that the creative spent the last few months on the freelance tip in the Bay Area but a good portion of his time prior as a CD and ACD at AKQA San Francisco. You might remember Anggono from such campaigns as the one that helped console then-injured San Francisco Giants catcher, Buster Posey, or the effort for YouTube’s Politics channel. Anyhow, it appears that our lad has moved overseas, serving as pan-European creative director out of TBWA’s Paris office. During his career, Anggono served as an art director at the likes of Goodby, BSSP and CP+B, where he was involved with campaigns for Sprint, GE, Burger King and Rolling Rock.

We’ve been hearing from sources in the know that it’s “positive 100% confirmed” that Kristina Slade, creative director at AKQA San Francisco, has left the WPP-owned digital agency. Slade has spent nearly three years at AKQA SF, where she served as CD on Target among other things. Prior to her most recent gig, the creative spent a year at TBWA\Chiat\Day LA but, according to an AdAge interview from last year, left her ACD gig at the agency to “get more digital.” During her career, Slade also had seven-year gig at L.A. shop Ground Zero, which was merged with what is now WDCW three-and-a-half years ago. AKQA has yet to comment on the matter, but we’ll keep you posted.

Well, the A-B InBev camp hit the newswire late in the day to announce that they’ve chosen AKQA as digital agency of record for Budweiser, Bud Light and Stella Artois. As a result, AKQA will handle online and mobile programs, app development and work in tandem with each brew brand’s AOR including Anomaly (Budweiser), Translation (Bud Light) and Mother (Stella).

In a statement, A-B’s VP of U.S. marketing Paul Chibe says, “The importance of being able to connect with consumers digitally is at an all-time high, and AKQA has demonstrated they have the expertise and strategic insight needed to elevate our digital efforts to a new level. Our traditional marketing remains second-to-none, and our partnership with AKQA will ensure we have the world-class digital marketing to match.”

As you may have heard, this is the first time A-B InBev has selected a lead digital agency as previous digital efforts were overseen by the lead creative agency managing other partners on a per project basis. Yes, there was a pitch for the lead digital biz but we haven’t been told who else was in the running.

Sources familiar with the matter confirm that David Perez, who’s spent the last six months as creative recruiter at AKQA’s San Francisco office, is leaving the agency. Perez, who joined AKQA this past April after a five-year stint in the same position at Leo Burnett/Lapiz, is perhaps better known as @DavidOnDemand, the now-defunct handle he once assumed that garnered his 15 minutes of fame prior to Cannes 2010. AKQA would not comment on Perez’s departure, but from what we’ve been told by sources, the former Twitter serf/Chicago native has given notice and is heading into freelance territory. No timetable, though, has been set for his official departure from AKQA.

I’ve seen Screaming Mimi’s on Lafayette and always thought it was a terrifying costume shop. However, turns out I misjudged a store by its sign font, because Screaming Mimi’s is in fact a “vintage mecca.” And, it’s cool enough to collaborate with Target on their Halloween campaign.

Laura Wills, owner of the eclectic boutique, played stylist for Target’s 2012 costume look book. The resulting behind the scenes video–currently running on Target’s Halloween page built by AKQA-SF–is kind of endearing. Wills seems to truly believe in the magic of Halloween, and also appreciates the DIY nature of Target’s mix-and-match ensembles. The collection, “…allows people to create something absolutely original.”

But chances are, you’ll see 10 other people in the street wearing your same “80s karaoke singer” costume, and if you’re drunk enough you’ll take a photo with them or punch them in the face for copycatting. Either way, everyone is probably better off actually DIYing. Forgo a pointy hat or set of neon bracelets and be a pair of headphones! Be Psy and dance Gangnam Style everywhere. Oppa!

Over the last few days, we’ve received several tips that AKQA New York and its general manager David Bentley have parted ways. As usual, we were met with the old “no comment” from the agency, but another source just chimed in that Bentley’s out, effective immediately. The exec has spent nearly a decade within the AKQA network, serving as development/client services director across the European officer before landing in New York in 2009 to replace Jason Whiting as MD. One tipster laments/boasts that Bentley has “ done a fantastic job over the last 3 years redesigning, rebuilding and growing [the New York] office.” We’ll keep you posted once we find out more.