Dentsu

Who would’ve thunk we’d have two Dentsu items back-to-back in one day, but before you release the hounds, let us tell you that the agency’s U.S. network has a new chief creative officer in Brian McDermott, who, conveniently enough, happened to serve as MD/ECD at Dentsu-owned McGarryBowen. During his time at McGB, McDermott worked on accounts including Chase, Marriott and Sharp and prior to joining said agency, he worked at familiar agencies including BBDO, McCann Erickson and Y&R. Now as CCO, McDermott will take on accounts including that of an aforementioned automaker from Japan.

As a side note, we’ve been told by those who know that McDermott was also a guitarist in McCann NY’s Advertising-Week-Battle-of- the Band-winning band, “More F**king Cowbell”.

 

 

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We’ve received confirmation that Valerie Heine, Dentsu’s EVP/group account director on Toyota, is parting ways with the agency…for the time being. Heine is gearing up for a fall return to the agency, but for the summer, she is taking a sabbatical for personal reasons. A search is currently underway for her seemingly temporary replacement. Heine has served as EVP/GAD for four years at Dentsu, where she’s been a part of the senior executive team and is basically running the Toyota corporate account.

The exec has some history with the Japanese automaker, having spent nine years as VP, director for Lexus while at Saatchi & Saatchi’s Team One unit.  The 30-year ad vet has also logged in time at BBDO and Arnold Worldwide.

We’ve heard from sources that Dentsu America CEO Will Travis was let go by the agency this week. No specifics were given, but his departure comes just two weeks after creative director Paul Laffy left the agency. If you remember, Travis recently went on a 3,500-mile bike race through the Andes and documented his adventures for AgencySpy.

The now-former chief exec spent the last year-plus as CEO and nearly two-and-a-half years in total at Dentsu. Prior to that, he was at ATTIK for just about a decade. Well, I guess now we know why our proposed drinks meetup never came to fruition.

We’ve received confirmation that Paul Laffy is no longer with Dentsu America. Laffy had been a lead creative director at the agency for approximately four years. He arrived from Ogilvy (after being recruited by then-Dentsu America EVP/CCO Mike Wilson), where he was a senior art director. Prior to that, Laffy spent six years at Mullen as AD/senior AD.

Word from spies is that Laffy’s departure, which happened just recently, was due to his issues with working on the Toyota account. Just last month, Dentsu NY happened to launch a new corporate campaign for the automaker that featured its Sienna minivan.

After leaving the ad game for a year to ride his motorcycle cross-country and learn how to tattoo, Vladimir Leveque, whose resume includes stints at Young & Rubicam, UniWorld Group and Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners (Media Kitchen), has returned to the agency world to take on a VP, group media director post at Dentsu.

Leveque’s goal: “Keeping it simple and smart.” Before leaving to find himself, Leveque picked up a Media Plan of the Year Award in 2008 and in ’07, won a 40 Under 40 Marketing Excellence Award, which honors the top forty leading African American marketers. Back at Dentsu, Leveque will oversee media across all accounts, including Canon.

Though he is returning to the ad biz, he won’t lose touch with the road as he continues to ride his bike and regularly contributes to Full Throttle Magazine. Read an, um, enlightening Q+A to find out what makes the man tick.

With breaking news dribbling in like molasses this week, it’s refreshing to get a human interest story that concerns someone within the industry. Will Travis loves his extreme sports it appears and having spent his first full year as CEO of Dentsu America, the exec is celebrating by taking part in what is known as the Dakar Rally, a 3,500-mile race through the Andes that begins and ends in Buenos Aires.

Travis’s mode of hi-speed transportation will be a BMW 1200 GS Adventure motorcycle, that will hopefully serve him and his Raw Hyde team well through the 12-day trek, where contestants bike through dunes, deserts and mountains at a pace of 300 miles a day. We sure as hell wouldn’t do it, so good on you Will. As for background, Travis has been with Dentsu for two-and-a-half  years, is a board member of Promax BDA and spent over 10 years at ATTIK, where he ultimately ended up as president. You can follow his Dakar Rally exploits here.

Hey, look at Dentsu all of a sudden. A week after bringing on associate creative director Clayton Crocker, the Tokyo-based agency continues ramping up the creative staff in its New York office with the hire of Matthew Bottkol (pictured) and Todd Eisner as ACD/CW and ACD/AD, respectively.

The creative duo, whose blog Unemployment Haiku Weekly we reported on in early 2009, have stints at Draftfcb and Cossette inked on their resumes with a portfolio that includes work for clients such as Diet Coke, Samsung, Kraft Foods and Oreo.

More: “Dentsu Parts With CCO/EVP Mike Wilson”

It seems like ages since we’ve heard a peep out of Dentsu America, but today the agency announced that it’s added to its creative department in New York with the hire of ACD Clayton Crocker.

Crocker, who seems to fit the mold with the hip glasses, tattoos and introspective look, arrives from Berlin Cameron United, where he was an ACD on Amazon, Belvedere and Comcast among other clients. Previous to that, the Brooklyn-based creative and soccer enthusiast was an art director at Syrup for clients like Gwen Stefani and Dior and also spent a couple of years as a senior designer at IPG-owned shop Huge earlier in his career.

More: “Dentsu Parts With CCO/EVP Mike Wilson”

Dentsu America have parted ways with CCO/EVP Mike Wilson, an agency representative confirmed today. According to sources familiar with the matter, Wilson was fired due to divisions between himself and some members of the creative, account management and media teams. The agency flatly denies that he was fired.

The agency statement goods:

“Mike Wilson has departed the agency amicably after serving 2 1/2 years as Chief Creative Officer, based on a mutual decision to pursue different directions. We thank him for his positive contributions to the agency.”

Paul Laffy and Bruno Corbo have been made co-lead creative directors. This just happened Friday. Wilson joined the agency in November, 2006, and was “[r]esponsible for growth and quality creative output of DentsuAmerica North American. Also managed Interactive, planning and Production Departments,” and was a “Member of Executive Management and Finance Committees” according to his LinkedIn profile.

We’ve been unable to reach Wilson, and the agency did not provide his information. Mike, e-mail us at agencyspy at mediabistro dot com.

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More: “Dentsu Scenario Confounds”