Via the tips line, we received what appears to be a memo from Doner top dog Rob Strasberg that goes a little something like this:

“Great news! We’ve landed a big, colorful fish from San Francisco – Chad Ackerly.
Not only a super talent but a super good guy, Chad comes to Doner with tons of experience doing great work for all types of clients – not to mention a stellar new biz track record.
I’m super pumped and stoked and jazzed (not really sure about jazzed – but my toes are tapping) for him to start at the start of June.

Check out some of his work and his bio.

http://cargocollective.com/chadackley/

http://cargocollective.com/chadackley/Bio
Rob

–

Rob Strasberg
Co-CEO/ Chief Creative Officer”

We’re trying to get official confirmation from the MDC-owned, Southfield, MI-based agency, but in the meantime, Strasberg might want to get the spelling of his new hire’s name right as it’s actually Chad Ackley (yeah, we know, calling the kettle black, blah blah). Anyhow, Ackley has spent the last decade at DDB San Francisco, where he primarily served as group creative director  on several campaigns for various Clorox Company brands such as Tilex, Pine-Sol and, yes, Clorox. Ackley started out as an art director at DDB SF but was soon elevated to one of the first creative director roles at the agency. Prior to his time at DDB, Ackley spent nearly a decade as well at Leo Burnett. We’ll update if and when we find out what his new title is. 

We’ve just received confirmation that Joe Cianciotto, who’s spent well over nine years at DDB and works out of the New York office, has been appointed to the newly created position of chief digital officer at the agency. Along with his new CDO title, which he will take on effective immediately, Cianciotto will also maintain his position as executive creative director, a role he’s held at DDB for the last six years (he also served as director of digital integration for the last three). During his career, the senior creative also spent over six years at Publicis, where he last served as an ACD. Cianciotto will continue to work out of DDB’s NYC office.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which famously flies from The Netherlands to the Nether Lands™, is giving regular schmucks like you and me a chance to float around in outer space for a while. What this has to do with flying to different locations on Earth is unclear, but KLM along with agencies RAPP and Tribal DDB Amsterdam probably figured, “Hey, Axe is giving away a trip to outer space. We should do that too.” And do that too they are.

Of course, a campaign doesn’t begin and end with just giving away tickets to space. As every advertising veteran knows, the difficult part is determining  who actually gets the tickets. Ever the pragmatists, KLM have decided that this makes the most logical sense: They are launching a balloon with space tickets inside of it from Area 51 on April 22, with viewers of a live stream predicting at what altitude the balloon will pop. Should you guess correctly, you get the space tickets.

Should advertising ever be lauded for any one attribute, it should be its practicality. Credits after the jump.

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Don’t worry, tipsters who seemed to be panicked and inquired through the box with multiple exclamation points, Tribal DDB is still very much aligned with DDB–though the DDB part has now been eliminated from the former’s name. Now, as you can see in the logo, it’s now Tribal Worldwide. We’ve been told by sources that the name was changed last Friday to “clarify Tribal’s role and positioning” within the DDB Worldwide network. We’ve been told that work for clients including McDonald’s and KLM will not be affected as a result.

Will Hammond‘s Omnicom tour continues as the senior creative, who most recently served as global CD on the Visa business while at TBWA/Chiat/Day L.A., has now joined up with fellow with DDB West as ECD on Wells Fargo. Hammond had spent three-and-a-half years at Chiat L.A. after working for approximately the same amount of time at Goodby as an ACD.

Along with the hiring of Hammond, who will be based in DDB’s L.A. office, said agency has lured Vincent Higgins (pictured) to the West Coast to serve as executive director, user experience. Higgis is in somewhat familiar territory as he’s spent the last two years serving as experience design director at Tribal DDB New York. During his career, Higgins was a founding partner at NYC-based development/graphic design firm Bluefuse and has led UX efforts at Foundry9.

We’ve received word from those in the know that Jim Marcus, who last served as “SVP/director of communication “innovation” at the Chicago branch of the Omnicom-owned agency, has been axed. Marcus, who also moonlighted as a “high-powered sex toy” professor and a member of one of my fave industrial bands back in the day, led creative–mostly on the digital front–for clients such as McDonald’s.

To address another issue regarding DDB, we’ve been told by sources familiar with the matter that Die Warzau alum Marcus was one of a handful of Chicago office layoffs. While tipsters allege that there were more than 30 cuts, we hear otherwise, with sources saying it did affect five staffers.

How rich is “Yeah, that kind of rich?” According to DDB NY’s new spots for the New York Lottery, the answer is: rich enough to buy laughs.

“Invasion” (above) shows a guy pranking his friend with an elaborate alien takeover just to snap an embarrassing photo of his reaction. Apparently wealth hasn’t gone to this guy’s head, since he only cares about posting humiliating pictures of his boys online.

“Writer’s Room” (below) is the better of the two spots and tells the story of a regular guy who buys a team of writers captained by Andy Richter, so they can feed him quality jokes through an earpiece. I don’t think Andy Richter would be my first choice for my comedic squad, but he does beat Paul Shaffer. As the punchlines add up, pay attention to the quick cuts at the end. The protagonist even cracks people up at a funeral, which is one of those small touches that’s offensive enough to be funnier than most PC commercials allow.

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We’ve received confirmation from an agency source that Lisa Bennett, who has spent the last 10 years at DDB and has most recently served as chief creative offier of what is now DDB West (the SF and LA offices, essentially), will be leaving her post by the end of Q1 of this year. From what we’ve been told, Bennett “…will continue to serve as chairman of the DDB North American Creative Council. In addition, she will work as EVP, North America, reporting directly to Mark O’Brien, president of DDB North America, where she will assist with new business and creative across North America and globally, as needed.”

Our DDB source adds that the Omnicom-owned agency network is planning to find a new CCO for DDB West, which has worked with clients including ConAgra, Johnson & Johnson, Wells Fargo as well as several Clorox brands. As for Bennett, the exec joined DDB’s San Francisco office as managing partner/CCO in 2003 from Leo Burnett, where she spent 15 years of her career.

From one reunion to another, Reebok has decided to shift gears and join forces once again with DDB, which has been tapped to serve as the sportswear/footwear giant’s new global agency of record. DDB grabs the baton once again from McGarryBowen, which has handled the account for the last year but originally took on Reebok assignments in 2004-2009 before the brand decided to move creative over to DDB.

In a statement, Reebok global head of brand marketing Yan Martin says, “We’re excited to bring DDB back as our lead creative agency. [DDB Worldwide CCO] Amir [Kassaei] and his team understand the mission of Reebok brand. We look forward to collaborating with DDB to deliver our unique territory, powerful message and focused dedication to fitness to consumers around the world.”

DDB New York will lead the Reebok account, which will entail the usual digital, social and advertising campaigns. Media, meanwhile, will continue to be handled by Carat. First work, though, from DDB won’t will commence until the official Reebok handover in 2014.

Let’s get the party started with a little bit of news from up north. Following an “extensive” review that kicked off in late July, the Dairy Farmers of Canada have handed over their cheese mass ad duties to DDB, specifically the agency network’s Toronto office. DDB Toronto was among six agencies that participated in the review (still haven’t heard back on who else), but it was the Omnicom-owned shop that tickled DFC pink.

In a statement regarding the Dairy Farmers’ decision, Ian McDonald, the org’s national director, marketing and nutrition, says, ““We established great chemistry and rapport with DDB Canada throughout the review process and were impressed by their strong strategic thinking. The amount of effort put forth in understanding our business and challenges, helped us to see a new positioning for Canadian Cheese.”

Yes, there are cheeseheads beyond Green Bay and with this win, DDB Toronto will get cracking on an existing spring 2013 campaign as well as an all-new Canadian cheese effort set to debut next fall. Along with the cheese win, DDB Canada also counts the Strategic Milk Alliance (ok, it’s not the Avengers) as another recent dairy client win. Prior to DDB, the Dairy Farmers of Canada worked with Taxi on ad efforts.