Lost in all the hullabaloo of Suzanne Powers‘ departure from CP+B and appointment as EVP/chief strategy officer at McCann is what’s happening on the former’s end in the wake of the move. Our bad. As you may have read, CP+B is restructuring its planning department (or COG department as they call it), axing the global strategy officer position formerly held by Powers to start with. According to CP+B camp, under the new structure, the COG departments in each of the agency’s offices will report to an executive planning director designated for said office. CP+B is kicking things off by promoting Jason De Turris and Benny Thomas to EPDs for Boulder and L.A., with Miami and Europe appointments to be announced at a later date.

In addition, CP+B has launched a new initiative called Mixed Reality Lab, which will be led by nine-year agency vet  Wojtek Szumowski, who currently holds the title of EVP/group director of cognitive and cultural studies. What is Mixed Reality Lab? Well, according to CP+B’s rather poetic description, it’s “designed to continue to question convention, to prototype, experiment and examine the relationships between humans, technology and brands.”

Regarding the planning revamp as a whole, CP+B CEO Andrew Keller says in a statement, “At CP+B, we are constantly reassessing our structure, ensuring that we are meeting and exceeding our clients’ needs in every capacity, and streamlining and redefining as we see fit. This new structure really speaks to where we are as an agency, and the innovation and global strategic insights that we offer our clients are best delivered in this redesign.”

Now that the dust has settled around the overplayed Windows smartphone wedding commercial directed by Roman Coppola, there’s a void in Windows-bashing-Apple negative campaign ad territory. Well, with some help from CP+B, the brand is back to tackle a new comparative subject: tablets.

There are actually two new spots, first covered over at Mashable, both taking not-so-subtle digs at iPad products. The spot above even goes as far as to use Siri against Apple – in short, iPads can’t do as much as Windows 8 tablets. But you can play chopsticks on an iPad for whatever that’s worth. And if you watch the commercial, it’s apparently not worth much. You have to respect the brash stance Windows is taking here. They are clearly playing catch-up in the publicity game, and going after Apple in such a direct fashion could be the right way to make up the distance. And the best part is, since both companies are so rich, suing each other over copyright infringement and/or libel won’t even make a difference. Ding, ding. Time for the next round to begin. You can watch the more informational attack ad after the jump.

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Another day, another new title created at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, which finally confirms what we first reported a couple of weeks ago, that Brian Skahan has indeed returned to the fold His new title? Well, as you can see above, it’s something called XCD, which we’ve been told pertains to a creative director who “is in charge specifically of complex digital projects.”  Essentially, Skahan will serve as a digital jack-of-all-trades at the agency, rotating from client to client whenever a major digital project or digital platform is in the works.

As previously mentioned, Skahan’s first tour-of-duty at CP+B lasted approximately three-and-a-half years, during which time he served as VP/creative technology director and led development teams for clients including Microsoft, AmEx, Guitar Hero (RIP) and Domino’s. Besides his work with the Boulder-based bunch, Skahan spent two years as managing director/CTO at the agency formerly known as Publicis Modem, working with clients including P&G Oral Care and Citi for last year’s Olympics.

Yeah, we got this news just before noon EST, but thanks to meetings and what not, we were kinda hampered. But, whatever the case, let us tell you if you haven’t heard already that CP+B and longtime client Domino’s continue their efforts to promote ultimate transparency for the brand to the masses with “Domino’s Live.” Salt Lake City is the pizza chain’s venue of choice for this pilot program, and with the aid of five installed cameras, we get quite the glimpse into the what happens when pizza chains stop being nice and start getting real. Ok, maybe it’s not that dramatic, nor as high-tension or unintentionally hilarious as something like Food Network’s Restaurant Stakeout and its host with horrible grammar, but you can check out the goings on here. Consider this effort one that brings your Domino’s web-based “Pizza Tracker” to life, if you will, though we’re not sure which viewing experience is more exciting at this point.

Son of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now director, Francis-Ford Coppola, Roman Coppola was on a bit of a winning streak after co-writing Wes Anderson films The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom. However, after directing the near-universally panned Charlie Sheen vehicle, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, Roman lost a healthy portion of the goodwill he had racked up. As The A.V. Club put it, the film “it isn’t a movie so much as a feature-length perfume commercial for a Charlie Sheen signature cologne with gorgeous packaging and absolutely nothing inside.” So, yeah. It was pretty bad.

Seeking solace from tomato-throwing critics, Roman did what all directors attempting to recover from a stinker do: Join forces with CP+B for a Microsoft TV spot. Here, we see Roman channeling his own life experiences to sell Windows Phones. Sure, says Roman metaphorically through this spot, there are haters are either side of the aisle. But you can’t have the naysayers keep you down, you know? Yes, some people like Apple phones and some people like Samsung phones, just like some people like good movies and some people like other good movies. But, just because your movie isn’t “good” or your phone isn’t “good” either, doesn’t mean to have to be part of the fighting. As Jay-Z once said, “Get that dirt off your shoulder.” Most assuredly, Roman was playing this track on set throughout the production of this ad.

Embrace Roman Coppola, and embrace Nokia Windows phones. Credits after the jump.

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It’s been a busy week on the staffing front at CP+B. Just days after announcing a slew of creative hires in its L.A. office, the Boulder-based agency brings us the news that it’s welcomed back Heather Lefevre, who you might remember from this clip, to serve as group planning director in its Miami office. Lefevre initially worked at Crispin from fall 2007-2008 as a senior cognitive anthropologist (can never get enough of that title) and was part of the multiple award-winning teams that worked on Whopper Freakout and Whopper Sacrifice.

During her career, she’s also held planning positions at the likes of what was then StrawberryFrog Amsterdam as well as DDB Amsterdam, The Martin Agency and Mullen. Lefevre’s not the only one reuniting with CP+B, though, as the agency has also welcomed back Greg O’Neal to serve as account director on Bing. O’Neal’s first tour of duty at CP+B lasted two years and during his career, the account vet worked at the likes of Razorfish and BBH.

Sources familiar with the matter confirm that Brian Skahan, who has spent nearly two years serving as EVP/CTO/managing director of what was Publicis Modem and is now Publicis Kaplan Thaler, is heading back to his old stomping grounds at Crispin Porter +Bogusky. During his three-and-a-half year stint at the Boulder-based agency, Skahan served as VP/creative technology director and led development teams for clients including Microsoft and Domino’s.

CP+B would not officially comment on the matter, but from what we’re hearing, Skahan is just one of a handful of staffers who are boomeranging back to the agency. We’ll try to get title, start date, but in terms of the latter, we’re hearing that Skahan will assume his new role at CP+B within the next couple of weeks. Prior to CP+B, the tech exec worked at Digital Pulp. We’re certain that we’ll have more updates soon.

After spending the last 15 months in Boulder at CP+B, where he last served as VP/executive creative director on accounts including Kraft Mac ‘n Cheese and Grey Poupon, Tom Markham is leaving the agency. From what sources tell us, Markham’s family wants to be in NYC, which is familiar territory for the senior creative as he spent two years working out of Lowe and Partners’ Big Apple office as global digital CD prior to joining Crispin. Markham’s departure seems to be an amicable one, as CP+B sends this statement: “”We truly appreciate all of Tom Markham’s contributions to CP+B. We will miss him and remain great friends.”

According to those in the know, there are no immediate plans to replace Markham, who has also served as head of digital/digital CD at Lowe Sydney during his career. His last day at CP+B was yesterday.

We’ve received confirmation from those in the know that Paul Sincoff, who’s spent nearly two years copywriting at Mekanism on campaigns such as this one for Method, has headed to Boulder and officially started this week as an associate creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. If you recall, Sincoff was the man behind the “Ad Agency in My Mind” site during a brief stint at SVP/ACD on JetBlue among other accounts while at Mullen back in 2011. During his career, Sincoff spent a handful of years at TBWA\Chiat\Day and one as an interactive copywriter at TBWA\Tequila on a variety of past and present accounts from Playstation to Visa.

Along with Sincoff’s hire, CP+B has also promoted Ryan Nikolaidis, the man who helped lead work on the Jell-O “Jiggle It” app, to the rather unique title of associate director of physical computing.

To finish up what we started yesterday, we have what appears to be some images from CP+B’s actual creative test, which looks like it’s geared towards art directors sent by sources in the know. We will leave out certain parts considering sensitive client issues, but you can have a gist of what this test from the agency, which just picked up fall work for XBOX, entails. As mentioned previously, we’ve been told that there were no cuts as a result, though, and the “name your favorite dessert” question was non-existent.

Check out more after the jump.

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