Firstborn

Denstu-owned, New York-based digital shop Firstborn has tapped Eugene Chung to serve as its first director of strategy. In a sense, Firstborn hired from within as Chung has spent the last two years as strategic development director at Dentsu Network West. Chung’s new role will call for him to build a strategy team, develop long-term business growth strategies, help in new biz efforts…you know, the usual.

Prior to working at Dentsu, Chung had two tours of duty as both a strategist and integration manager at McGarryBowen and spent a year as an account exec/planner at BBH. Outside the agency world, he serves as director of social media for nonprofit, literacy/education org Pencils of Promise, which has worked with the likes of AKQA in the past.

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Less than a year after nabbing digital duties for Dorel Industries’ Cannondale brand, New York digital shop Firstborn has been tapped to handle more digital work for the former company’s bike roster, specifically that of Mongoose. A review for the 37-year-old bicycle brand’s digital business kicked off back in September 2011 and included multiple agencies according to the parties involved. Firstborn’s assignment now as Mongoose’s digital partner includes strategy and website experience. Initial work from FB for the brand is expected to break online this spring. Along with Mongoose and Cannondale, other Dorel bicycle units include GT and Schwinn.

As we try to provide some sort of breather from the holiday onslaught, let us tell you that Aussie native Toby Marlow has joined up with Dentsu-owned, NYC-based digital shop Firstborn as senior producer. Marlow, who moved to NY in 2009 after spending two years as digital producer at what’s now Arnold Furnace in Sydney, will manage creative projects for the Sony make.believe business that Firstborn picked up a few months ago.

Firstborn also brought on Leo Seely as producer on SoBe and Wrigley among other accounts. The U.K. native’s previous work experience includes production stints at B-Reel (on Stella Artois, IKEA, etc) and at Work Club.

 

We never intend to post two items about the same agency in one day (sorry, it happens, and you can crucify us later), but this seems fairly notable. Anyhow, after a formal review held this summer, Firstborn has been tapped to manage creative assignments for Sony America’s make.believe corporate brand message. From what we’ve been told, this is a completely new assignment that will task the New York digital shop with emphasizing the “Sony United” message via digital marketing for the U.S. and select markets in Europe using digital, mobile, social and OOH components. We haven’t been told who else was involved in the summer review, but initial make.believe work from Firstborn will launch in late November.

In case you didn’t know, Dentsu-owned, NYC-based digital shop Firstborn moved its offices from the Westside confines of Hell’s Kitchen to the bustling downtown neighborhood of TriBeCa. Yes, the clip, with all its hijinks and pulsating electro-pop soundtrack, makes it seems that the transition went rather smoothly (and also shows the difference in space between the two offices). But in any case, packing and unpacking is a bitch. Nice new digs, though.

Firstborn has added a pair of CDs and a copywriter to its creative department as the Dentsu-owned, NYC-based digital shop. Joining up as creative directors are Adam Rubin and Roxana Zegan, who arrive from Groupon and Tribal DDB, respectively. Rubin spent the last two years at Groupon as creative manager but brings agency experience to the table as he worked as a copywriter at Leo Burnett on the McDonald’s, Kellogg’s and P&G business beforehand. Zegan (pictured), meanwhile, was most recently global CD on Tribal NY’s (now-defunct) Reebok account. Prior to Tribal, she spent a few months at Digital Kitchen and had senior AD/creative lead stints at both CP+B and Sid Lee.

As for Firstborn’s new copywriter hire, that would be Cameron Templeton, who spent just about the last year as a CW at Ogilvy, where he worked on campaigns for Sara Lee, Siemens and British Airways

There’s not a whole lot to say about this new video from NY digital shop Firstborn other than that we like it. If you’re the kind of agency that specializes in developing technology that hinges on user engagement, why not have your reel feature your own employees interacting with your products? Throw in a cute dog, and you have the kind of office that young tech developers drool over working at.

Firstborn president Dan LaCivita tells us, “It’s all about our developers and technologists…giving a little peak into their world…making things a bit more human…and just fun. I think it also gives a little peak into what it’s like to work here as well…so it’s something created for our client and potential hires…but also just for ourselves as something to have some fun with.” Nice work, guys.

With another PepsiCo brand just added to its client roster, NY digital agency Firstborn has unveiled a new studio reel that showcases some of its most recent work–oh and look, there’s even a shot of one of those Twilight guys included. The idea is to make ideas harder, better, faster, stronger we think. Now that we’ve gotten to know the staff a bit, here’s a brief snippet as to what the Dentsu-owned operation has been up to.

FB president Dan LaCivita tells us why they created this clip: “We wanted to put together a new reel (which we are going to be adding to in the next month after some new launches as well) to showcase some new projects but also start telling the story about how we see content creation (whether its live action video, 2D / 3D animation, motion graphics etc) as a way to tell stories cross platform. So it’s not just producing video for TV or for the web. Its having an in-house group that concepts with our whole team from the beginning and works to create content that is a part of a larger multi-channel program we roll out for our clients. The content we create lives on the web, across mobile devices and ultimately TV.”

Hey, at least it gave us a minute’s worth of distraction from the day.

Nearly three months after tapping DDB Chicago to handle creative for Sierra Mist, PepsiCo has named NY’s own Firstborn as the lead digital agency for its soda brand. FB won out after a multiple agency review that kicked off in April and as a result, the digital shop expands its ties with PepsiCo as it has also served as lead digital agency for the mega-corp’s SoBe brand since 2009.

As lead digital agency for Sierra Mist–err, make that Sierra Mist Natural now–, Firstborn will handle digital creative, strategy and production, you know, what usually comes with the territory. Expect initial work for the brand to launch this summer.

 

New York-based, Dentsu-owned digital shop Firstborn has elevated two of its tenured staffers to new posts, including Francis Turmel to chief technology officer and EP Crystinue Cho to SVP, executive director. Turmel is a five-year FB vet who most recently served as director of technology and also put time in as director of interactive development. With his new, fancy CTO title, Turmel will among other things oversee all programming and front/back-end development at FB while also helping lead the agency’s R&D practice.

As for Cho, the new executive director arrived at Firstborn in 2008 from the now-decomposing MySpace, where she was a creative producer/services manager for two years. In her new post, meanwhile, Cho will play a more active role in Firstborn’s new business efforts and continue managing existing client relationships including Wrigley, SoBe and Aflac.