Crispin Porter & Bogusky

CP+B has officially announced the hiring of Cameron Harris as a creative director in its L.A. office. We wonder why it took the agency so long considering the Aussie Kiwi native has already had a hand in creating the Old Navy “Best Tee Ever” infomercial starring Mr. T (now at 2.2 million YouTube views and counting).  Anyhow, Harris joined CP+B’s West Coast digs from Leo Burnett Sydney, where he spent two years and worked on the Canon and eBay accounts.

Prior to Leo, Harris had a three-year stint at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, where he served as a senior creative on projects for National Australia Bank and Carlton Dry (he even created Team Dry to handle the latter account). Now at CP+B, Harris is partnering with fellow CD Robin Fitzgerald on the aforementioned Old Navy business.

The Boulder bunch that is Crispin Porter + Bogusky has hired VML alum Matt Swanson as a creative. Swanson spent nearly two years as an ACD-turned-creative director at VML. CP+B would not officially comment on the matter, but sources familiar with the matter say that Swanson will join at the end of the months as a senior art director. Prior to VML, Swanson spent time as an art director at various agencies including JWT, Team Detroit and Campbell-Ewald.

We’ve been told that VP, director of video production is a newly created position at Crispin Porter + Bogusky and the agency needed look no further than within to fill the role. The Boulder-based operation has appointed Chad Hopenwasser to assume the aforementioned title, and though the new veep is based in New York City, he will work across CP+B’s six global offices and oversee video production.

Hopenwasser, who joined Crispin in 2006 from Grey NY and last served as VP, executive integrated producer, has worked most recently on the Kraft Mac & Cheese “Diamond Jubilee” work (along with the tweet-to TV project from last year) as well as Under Armour b-ball and VitaminWater.  In addition, the director of video production has been involved with campaigns for Burger King (including the Tony Stewart efforts) and Hulu.

We’ve received confirmation that Crispin Porter + Bogusky and ECD Tim Roper “mutually decided it was the right time” to part ways. From what sources familiar with the matter tell us, Roper is leaving to pursue his main passion these days, which is directing (he most recently wrote and helmed the Hulu/Will Arnett work including the Super Bowl spot). Roper spent 15 years at CP+B give or take, and among other things, served as a copywriter in the agency’s Miami office early on before moving up to creative director at the first incarnation of its L.A. branch in the early aughts.

During his later years at Crispin, Roper led creative for not only Hulu, but for agency clients ranging from Sprite to Volkswagen. Here’s an official comment from CP+B CEO Andrew Keller: “Tim Roper has been a great asset to our creative team during his time at CP+B. He has a number of other interests and we are in agreement that now is the perfect time for him to pursue them. We thank him for his contributions to the agency and wish him tremendous success moving forward.”

Well, guess the MDC-owned agency is weathering the tide as Crispin Porter + Bogusky has elevated Neil Riddell to VP. executive director of product innovation. Ridell has been with CP+B during its rise, working for 13 years at the MDC-owned agency as one of the founders of  the said agency’s product innovation group. You can expect Ridell to be involved with Green Garage and Twist.

CP+B CEO Andrew Keller says in a statement, “For a while now, we’ve been using product design and invention as a powerful component of brand building, by creating products, tools and toys to serve as marketing to further develop the brand story. We’ve also partnered to embed branding and marketing directly into the products of our clients. But probably most interestingly, we’ve been using our talents and passions to create brands from scratch with like-minded partners. Neil has led this vision in a truly exceptional way.

Neil is an entrepreneur and master strategist who is at his best getting his hands dirty, whether it be designing a typeface, modeling a product or helping to develop a brand’s voice and ethos.”

As you may know by now, Arby’s, minus any review, went ahead and handed its creative business to Crispin Porter + Bogusky. This ends a rather brief relationship with BBDO, which picked up the business for the fast-food chain just 15 months ago and put out ads such as this. Here’s a note we received from sources that BBDO NY CEO/president John Osborn sent to staff following the news of the loss:

“I received a call yesterday informing us that Arby’s is being moved to Crispin without a review.

We were awarded the Arby’s business in December 2010.  Since then, the brand has enjoyed five consecutive quarters of sales increases, and ended 2011 with its highest sales increase in 10 years!

We created work around a tagline, “Good Mood Food,” which achieved 60% awareness in just ten months and became even more recognizable than other competitors with higher spending.

What’s more, we made the sales register ring.

Which is why I am absolutely confident we will be back in the food service business…

In the meantime, keep your heads high.  We hope Arby’s can continue to show business growth.  And let’s do everything in our power to ensure a smooth transition.

We’ll bounce back.  This I know.

Ozzy”

Nearly two years after rejoining Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s Miami office soon after the shuttering of his agency Toy, Ari Merkin (pictured) is leaving the agency to reunite with his old Toy co-conspirators in a consulting role with CP+B parent company MDC Partners. In addition, director of integrated production Dave Rolfe, who had been with Crispin for nearly five years, is leaving the agency for a post at BBDO New York. Read the full statement from CP+B CEO Andrew Keller below:

“Ari Merkin is moving from CP+B and will be consulting with our holding company, MDC Partners where he will be reunited with his former partners from TOY, and current MDC executive management principals Anne Bologna and David Dabill. We are grateful for all Ari has contributed to CP+B and look forward to seeing him flourish in all of his future endeavors.

Additionally, Dave Rolfe is leaving CP+B to join BBDO, NY. We are truly appreciative for all of his meaningful contributions to CP+B. We will not be replacing his role as Director of Integrated Production, however, we will be announcing a new Director of Video Production in the next few weeks.  The Integrated Production Department has incredibly strong leadership within each group and we think this system accurately reflects the current needs of the agency and our clients. Tiffany Rolfe, Dave’s wife and an Executive Creative Director will be staying on at CP+B, continuing as a lead of our LA office, but will eventually be based out of New York with our Global Strategy Officer Suzanne Powers and others based in New York. We are pretty sure we will still be seeing quite a lot of Dave and we remain great friends.

Andrew Keller
CEO
CP+B”

Update: Rolfe is expected to make the move from Los Angeles and join up with BBDO NY as director of integrated production in March.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been over a year since Ted Williams, the homeless man with the “golden voice,” captured the collective heart of the internet. It’s also nice to see that CP+B and Kraft are still getting some mileage off of the Macaroni and Cheese spokesperson, including Williams in a Valentine’s Day social media campaign aptly titled “The Golden Voice of Love.” With Barry White and Issac Hayes both in the grave, could Williams ascend to the throne as America’s new voice of romance?

“The Golden Voice of Love” is basically the same exact thing as W+K’s award-winning “Responses” campaign for Old Spice. Tweets featuring the #voiceoflove hashtag will be eligible for a reading by Williams through Feb. 14, which will then be posted to Kraft Mac and Cheese’s YouTube page. The main distinction between “The Golden Voice of Love” and “Responses” is the former’s charitable twist. For each tweet featuring the #voiceoflove hashtag, Kraft will donate 100 boxes of Mac and Cheese (up to 100,000 total) to Feeding America, an organization that Williams says is “very near and dear to my heart.”

So, if Isaiah Mustafa ignored your tweets during “Responses,” here’s your second chance to get your social media witticisms read aloud by an Internet celebrity. And, this time around, your tweet is supporting a good cause. Learn more about Feeding America here.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky has promoted Steve Erich to managing director. You might remember Erich from four years ago when he was named a partner/group account director at the agency.  Anyhow, during his eight year stint at CP+B,which saw him crisscross the Atlantic to establish the agency’s European client services, Erich helped oversee accounts including American Express, Old Navy, MetLife and Kraft and also aided in the re-launch Burger King in the US.

Prior to Crispin, Erich worked on the account side at the likes of TBWA\Chiat\Day, what was then VitroRobertson as well as the Martin Agency. From what we’ve been told, the managing director post at CP+B’s HQ is “basically a new position.”

In case you haven’t already heard about the layoffs that hit CP+B, which we’ve been told affects “less than five percent” of the agency’s global workforce, here’s the full statement from CEO Andrew Keller:

“This has been a strong year for CP+B in a lot of ways.  We’ve expanded our operations in LA and in London and we’ve won some exciting new accounts.  It’s no secret, however, that the economics of this business are changing.  To continue as an industry leader, we are adjusting our operating model to be leaner and more flexible than ever. As we restructure towards our vision, we have made the difficult decision to lay off 43 of our 900+ employees. Our two main responsibilities are to our clients and to our employees. Being fiscally prudent and financially sound is critical to both.  Our industry is undergoing a dramatic reinvention, economically and in other ways, and we embrace the opportunity that comes with change.”

We’ve mentioned that this kind of staff shift was possibly going on at CP+B in recent months, but guess we can say it’s now finally official. We’ve been told that layoffs were made across departments.