Over the last 24 hours, we’ve had a few seemingly panicked tips coming in regarding the status of Havas Chicago’s relationship with clients including spirits giant Beam such as ones like this: “We have just been told we lost Jim Beam. Only was told because of Sauza debacle. But Beam loss is big, it was our second [biggest] account.”

Well, once again, slow down for a sec. We’ve been told by sources in the know that Havas Chicago’s contract with Beam brands Sauza (you can read all about the recent ad controversy here) and Hornitos runs until 2014, and next year, the spirits brand has decided to focus on the Hispanic market and is therefore planning on moving its business for its aforementioned pair of tequila brands to a Hispanic agency. Still, Havas Chicago continues to work on Beam’s vodka brands including Pucker and Effen.

As for mall boutique chain Claire’s, which awarded AOR duties to what was then Euro RSCG Chicago last August, our sources tell us that the brand has built up its own marketing department in recent months and is taking most of the work in-house. Havas Chicago, though, will continue to work with Claire’s on a project basis according to those in the know. No word yet, though, if the Beam and Claire’s moves will result in any immediate cuts.

We’ve received confirmation that Carl Rogers has assumed the role of executive creative director at what is now Havas Discovery, the digital/analytics/CRM arm of Havas Worldwide. Last we recall, Rogers parted ways with Grey New York, where he last served as VP/creative on the Pantene business, a year ago. Unlike what tipsters are saying, though, Rogers joining Havas Discovery was not the handiwork of the agency’s Chicago CCO, Jason Peterson, but rather Paul Marobella, president of Havas Discovery.From what we’re hearing, British native Rogers is working across offices ranging from Chicago to Baltimore.

During his career, the creative has also served as copywriter/CD at the likes of Critical Mass, StrawberryFrog and Dentsu Amsterdam.

At the end of last week, we received a couple of notes in the tips box claiming that people at Havas Chicago (formerly Euro RSCG Chicago, of course) were “freaking out” because fast-food chain Sonic apparently pulled its account from the agency. Well, let’s clarify things to hopefully alleviate some of the panic.

We reached out to the Havas Chi camp and those in the know tell us that both the agency’s CRM account and piece of digital business for Sonic (which are handled out of the Havas Discovery unit) remains intact. What Havas Chicago is losing its in-store work for the brand, which the agency’s handled for nearly two years and includes POS, menus and packaging. Sonic, which is perhaps not so coincidentally is prepping a PR agency review, is actually moving in-store work in-house.

We’re getting word that the New York office of the agency formerly known as Euro RSCG has parted ways with two senior-level creatives, namely executive creative director Rahul Sabnis and CD George Simpson. When inquiring about both parties, we were told their name is no longer in the computer at Havas Worldwide. From what we’re hearing, longtime Euro–sorry, Havas–client Reckitt Benckiser, which appointed said agency as its global AOR over six years ago, is looking to “shake things up,” hence the release of Sabnis and Simpson.

Sabnis has spent the last five years at Havas, joining initially as creative director before eventually assuming the title of integrated ECD. Prior to Havas, Sabnis worked as an ACD at Digitas. Simpson, meanwhile, spent six-and-a-half years at Havas, working as ACD/copywriter before moving up to his most recent position. During his career, Simpson worked at the likes of Digitas and KBSP division, dotglu.

Nearly six months after first announcing that it’s rebranding the Euro RSCG Worldwide network as Havas Worldwide, the latter holding company has finally cemented the transition by changing the name of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, North America to Havas PR North America. As a result, obviously, the Euro RSCG brand that consists of 316 offices in 75 countries and includes units such as 4D, Discovery and Life, is no longer and said units have been rechristened Havas Worldwide Digital, Havas Discovery and Havas Life, respectively.

In a statement, Havas Worldwide CEO David Jones says, “A decade ago, we set ourselves apart by being the first major communications holding company placing digital at the core of all our creative agencies. I think we’re once again pioneering through the integration of creative, media and digital. Today with the rebranding we’re making a small change, but it’s one we want to use as a catalyst for driving big change through Havas and the broader industry.”

Despite the rebranding, the existing leadership at Havas Worldwide, which also houses agencies such as Arnold and Victors & Spoils under its umbrella, will remain intact.

After spending the last four-and-a-half years as integrated creative director at New York shop DeVito/Verdi, Tyler DeAngelo has headed to Chicago to assume the newly created ECD position at Euro RSCG. As ECD, DeAngelo, who also moonlights as an instructor at Miami Ad School’s Brooklyn location, will lead creative for a client roster that includes Cracker Barrel, Hefty, Playstation, Reynolds and Sears.

Prior to DeVito/Verdi, DeAngelo spent a few years as partner/creative director at a digital production company called Modern Publicity and had a two-year stint as a creative at Grey NY. Perhaps most interesting, though, are his non-advertising activities including his pet project “Fifth Avenue Frogger,” which is DeAngelo’s updated take on the classic game Frogger. George Costanza would be proud.

Guess it’s that kind of day. While we haven’t received official word on any approximate numbers or departments affected, a spokesperson for EuroRSCG Chicago confirms that the agency did have to let go of some folks. Tipsters are saying that mid/senior level staff were among those affected, but we haven’t received confirmation on this. What we do have for now is this statement below, which makes it seem that things are on the up and up for the most part. This latest round of news comes just a few months after Euro Chi cut five percent of staff due to Sprint (we’ve been told that the account loss didn’t play a role in this latest round).

“Euro RSCG Chicago continues to do well and is winning new business. In the next few weeks, we’ll be announcing two new business wins and two senior hires. While we’ve always been digitally focused, we’re evolving the way the agency works to be even more digitally driven. As a result, we have let go of some employees and hired others that are best suited for our new business.”

We’re expecting to find out about the “wins” and “hires” within the next week. Stay tuned.

If for no other reason, let’s at least enjoy the tune “When I’m Small” from indie duo Phantogram, who provide the soundtrack for this video from Euro RSCG Chicago that heralds the start of Bike to Work Week in the Windy City. It’s been a while since we’ve visited our old stomping grounds, but at least we get a decent glimpse as various Euro folks explain why they prefer two wheels to four and make us wish we were playing outside.

Yeesh, guess it’s one of those days. Something’s amiss at Denver-based Factory Design Labs as Blake Ebel, who resigned from his co-chief creative officer post at Euro RSCG Chicago in the summer of 2010 to join up with the former shop in the same role, is no longer on its agency leadership list. Ebel, if you recall, spent six years at Euro Chi and had a brief stint as co-CCO alongside Steffan Postaer, who  also left the agency himself just six months later. During his career, Ebel has also worked as a VP, creative director at Y&R as well as senior art director at JWT.

It appears the Sprint loss last December is still having its effect on Euro RSCG, particularly the Chicago office, which handled direct, mobile and email marketing efforts among other things for the wireless carrier until it handed its whole ad business to Digitas and Leo Burnett–aka, Team Sprint. Within the last half-hour, we’ve received several tips and IMs from folks who either were directly affected or were hearing secondhand. Here’s one tip: “Just got laid off with about 15-20 other people at Euro Chicago. All creatives.”  Euro RSCG Chi has yet to comment on the matter, but we’ll do our best to make sure they do.

Update: Sources familiar with the matter have shed some light on things, telling us that “…the loss of Sprint required [Euro RSCG] to reduce staff by about five percent  – overall they’re down around 10 people. Creatives were part of the five percent.” Our sources add, that Euro was “able to shift more than 30 off of Sprint and on to existing agency business,” which includes Playstation, Claire’s, Beam and Hefty.