BBDO

It’s been a busy week for BBDO as the agency follows up the Hewlett-Packard PC account win (a bounce-back, we suppose, following the Bank of America loss) with the news that Gill Duff has been appointed as the new president and CEO of its Atlanta office. BBDO told staff in the ATL branch this morning about the arrival of Duff, who has spent the last three years as global business director at DDB Worldwide, to be exact.

The new Atlanta chief exec succeeds Chris Hall, who left the agency at the beginning of the year for “personal reasons.” As for Duff, his new role will have him oversee a BBDO office that houses 250+ staffers and counts clients including AT&T, Bayer, Florida Department of Citrus and the Georgia Lottery. Before his stint at DDB, Duff spent nearly five years as CEO of Publicis New York. This actually marks the exec’s second tour of duty at BBDO, his first being a year-long stint at SVP/senior account director on FedEx account at the network’s New York office.

Duff will officially assume his new post at BBDO Atlanta on May 21.

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Mark Zuckerberg & Co. have nabbed yet another senior creative from the agency world by the name of Arturo Aranda. The creative (left) has spent the last 12 years or so within the BBDO network, initially at what was then Atmosphere BBDO and then the last three at BBDO New York proper, where he’s served as interactive CD and finally SVP/senior CD on accounts including AT&T.

If you need a refresher on some recent Aranda-led efforts, you might remember the “Mountaintop” Valentine’s Day work or the Will Arnett-starring “You’ve Got a Case” campaign for the aforementioned telecom giant from last year. No word yet on what Aranda’s exact position is at Facebook, but perhaps he’ll find a kindred spirit at the company in fellow former senior agency creative Chris Gomersall, who left Moxie barely two months ago to take up a creative strategist role with Zuck and the gang. We’ve been told Aranda’s last day at BBDO NY was last Friday.

READ FIRST: Be sure to open the above video in full-screen mode before viewing.

From the South African BBDO network and Frieze Films’ Rob Malpage comes a new 3D spot for Mercedes Benz. “Dark Horse” advertises Mercedes’ Night View Assist feature, which allows drivers to avoid colliding into wild stallions who get a kick out of playing chicken with luxury automobiles.

Now, I don’t know much about the wildlife of South Africa, but in most parts of the U.S., the odds of encountering a berserk suicidal horse are somewhat low. But, the video is quite startling, and it seems like the movie-goers in the above video seem to hold themselves together quite a lot better than I did upon my first viewing. This is an awards cut of the spot, so what say you, dear readers? Is this worthy of some acclaim?

Sources familiar with the matter confirm that after just over a year as SVP, director of creative operations at BBDO New York, Anne Saulnier is no longer at the agency. Saulnier joined BBDO from Publicis & Hal Riney, where she spent nearly 15 years in a similar role. Tipsters say she was let go, adding, “The creative department is completely surprised and can’t figure out why — they’re all saying, ‘But she was good.’”

During her career, Saulnier has worked on the account/management side at the likes of W+K, N.W. Ayer and DDB.

After spending the last six months freelancing, Tim Pontarelli has jumped back into full-time agency work and joined up with Energy BBDO as SVP, group creative director on the agency’s Frito-Lay portfolio (which includes Lay’s, Lay’s Kettle Cooked, Sun Chips, etc.).

Prior to his latest agency gig, Pontarelli practically spent his entire career–20 years, give or take–at fellow Chicago-based institution Leo Burnett, where he worked his way up from a copywriter writing “on hold” messages for United Airlines to ECD on the agency’s Hallmark account. Along the way, Pontarelli worked on creative for past and present Leo clients including Delta, Kellogg’s, Miller Lite and Heinz. His SVP, group creative director post at Energy BBDO is a newly created one at the agency.

 

Let’s shake the morning rust off with a little overseas news, shall we? BBDO’s Parisian branch known as CLM BBDO has some new creative heads in tow, namely executive creative director Matthieu Elkaim as well as creative directors Benjamin Marchal and Olivier Lefebvre.

Elkaim has made his way around the Omnicom network during his 12-year career, which kicked off at TBWA\Paris, where he worked on efforts for AIDES among other clients before moving to DDB’s Parisian operation. At the latter agency, he served as European creative director for Lipton. Marchal and Lefebvre also spent time at DDB before joining up with CLMBBDO. The pair has worked on accounts including l’Equipe, Greenpeace, Audi, France Football, Voyages-sncf.com and Lipton as well over the years.

Yes, we will be in attendance, albeit briefly at SXSWi, and here’s a little addition to the clusterfuck from Proximity called, yes, Proxybot. As you will see in the video above, Troy Hitch, who has served as an EVP/ECD at Proximity BBDO for the last two years, gives us an explanation that tries to dispel the myth that agency creatives don’t get interactive and digital media. So, as a result, the agency is launching Proxybot, which is a Twitter-controlled robot that will stream SXSWi ramblings, news feeds and inanities night and day, day or night. There’s also a Twitter contest involved and all, so join in here and here.

BBDO has officially launched its first standalone agency in Pakistan. The office, which will be based in the nation’s second largest city, Lahore, will be led by general manager Aamir Allibhoy and executive creative director Madeeha Noor. Allibhoy has worked within the BBDO network for nearly a decade, working at Impact BBDO on the account side in Saudi Arabia and Dubai, while Noor previously served as a creative director at Ogilvy & Mather Pakistan.

While a standalone, BBDO’s Pakistani office will join forces with longtime affiliate Manhattan International, which is based in the country’s largest city and financial hub, Karachi. BBDO Pakistan, which by our count marks the seventh office in the agency’s APAC network, already counts a major client in Pepsi, which awarded the Lahore operation its “Flavours” business that includes 7UP, Mountain Dew and Sting. No word on what the approximate staff count is at BBDO’s newest office, since the agency makes it a point not to release such information.

BBDO has declined to comment and no one answered when we called, but tipsters have been telling us today that Proximity Chicago has folded into Energy BBDO. As you can see, folks like Claudia Richman, SVP, solutions director who previously listed her agency gig at Proximity, has changed her LinkedIn to Energy BBDO. So has Andrew Kasprzycki, who has spent the last four years at the agency as EVP/MD, digital. If you want further proof that they worked at Proximity, look no further than here. Anyhow, we hope to have more clarification on the matter shortly.

Guess a return trip to BBDO didn’t stick as we’ve received confirmation that Misha Louy, who left his old stomping grounds in the agency’s New York office for a brief spell at Droga5 last April, has once again left his old haunt during the return trip.

From what we’ve been told, Louy will be leaving BBDO NY at the end of the month to become a partner at a small production company/record label called Decon. Prior to BBDO, Louy served for three years on the production side at Merkley + Partners during his career.