McCann

Now that we’ve covered a couple of WPP units in Grey and JWT, let’s move on to another holding company, shall we? In this episode of “Cubes,” we tour the worldwide headquarters of IPG Mediabrands, the media holding company responsible for $34 billion in global revenue from advertising agencies such as Universal McCann. IPG’s work includes the Geico Gecko and Volkswagen’s pint-sized Darth Vader.

The IPG headquarters is home to a cutting-edge media lab full of Minority Report-esque marketing technology, and the office includes a high-tech workspace dubbed “the desk of the future” and a skyway stretching over 32nd Street that was once used by the Gimbels department story, the building’s previous tenant.

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Seven-year McCann vet Chavo D’Emilio has been bumped up to general creative director at the IPG-owned network’s Buenos Aires branch, which works with clients including GM, L’Oreal, MasterCard, Nestlé, Camel, Bimbo, Google and Cadbury. In addition to his regional duties, D’Emilio will continue playing a role with McCann’s World Creative Council. Prior to his new position, the senior creative spent the last four years as president of McCann’s TAG unit in Buenos Aires as well as creative director of McCann Miami. Before joining said agency, D’Emilio served as general creative director at Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, which of course gave us gems including the “Andes Teletransporter” in the ensuing years.

It sure didn’t take long for McCann Erickson to welcome Mike Parker to the fold. Just days after splitting from Tribal DDB San Francisco, the exec is officially taking on the role of chief digital innovation officer. Parker, who continues to work out of the Bay Area, will serve McCann’s North American operations in his new post. Regarding Parker, Hank Summy, McCann North America president, says in a statement, “His charge is to build specialist digital capabilities and talent into the very core of McCann, so that digital story-telling is integrated into everything we do, woven into the creation and execution of all brand ideas, and is an integral part of our environment.”

Along with Parker’s arrival as well as that of TBWA\Chiat\Day alum Jeremy Miller‘s, McCann has also brought on Thompson Reuters alum Alex Spinelli to serve as chief technology officer of Worldgroup.

Well, this pretty much flew under the radar but James Heughens recently left Organic Detroit after five years to take on the post of global client service director at McCann’s Motor City branch. From what we we’ve been told, Heughens (pictured) is working on the Chevy account, which of course is now being split in Detroit between McCann and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

During his five years at Organic, Heughens moved up from executive director of project management to SVP/general manager of the Omnicom agency’s Detroit and Chicago offices. Prior to Organic, Heughens spent nearly a decade at Sapient. His replacement at Organic, meanwhile, is seven-year vet Joe DiMeglio.

While we’re on the Organic tip, sources familiar with the matter tell us that the agency’s San Francisco office cut four non-billable staffers last Friday. So, there’s that.

Update: The McCann camp clarifies that Heughens is serving as global client service director of production operations for Commonwealth, which is the joint venture between Goodby and McCann that is focused on Chevy. So…pretty much what we said already.

Now that McCann’s added some swagger to its step following its GM co-win, the agency’s New York office as now welcomed Lynn Teo in the newly created post of chief experience officer. Teo, who has spent the last 18 months or so as head of user experience at AKQA, will lead McCann’s first-ever Experience Design department and will report to McCann Erickson North America president Hank Summy.

Prior to her gig at AKQA, Teo held dual roles at SapientNitro, directing teams in New York and London as creative director/director of experience design.

Sources familiar with the matter confirm that EVP/ECD Craig Markus and senior creative director Shalom Auslander (pictured) have resigned from McCann Erickson. The pair worked together at the agency for nearly a decade across a variety of accounts ranging from USA Today to packaged goods to Kohl’s (including the campaign starring J-Lo last year).

Markus, who has been with McCann for nearly 12 years and helped found the TAG Ideation unit during his tenure, will remain with the agency for another month or so to finish up work. Auslander, if you haven’t heard, has parlayed his agency copywriting career into becoming a full-time author, as he just released his debut novel, Hope: A Tragedy, earlier this year (check out a trailer Auslander created for his book here). No word yet, though, on whether either creative is heading to another agency, together or separately. We’ve been told their departure from McCann is “amicable.”

Sources familiar with the matter tell us that after three-and-a-half years within the IPG fold, Joe Benarroch is moving on. The exec first joined up with the agency holding company as VP, global corporate affairs at Mediabrands’ Universal McCann before eventually shifting over to McCann Worldgroup last fall to assume the title of SVP, global director, corporate affairs.

Prior to Mediabrands, Benarroch spent a year-plus handling strategic development at Discover Card for the financial services company’s national brand campaigns. Before heading to the client side, the exec had a five-year stint at Starcom MediaVest Group, where he managed strategic planning for the agency’s Luxottica Retail portfolio that included Ray-Ban, Sunglass Hut, LensCrafters and Pearle Vision.

From what sources are saying, Benarroch is now taking a position at Facebook, though we’re still waiting for official confirmation on this.

Update: Sources familiar with the matter confirm that Benarroch is now indeed a Facebook employee, though we’re still trying to gather what his title is.

In Jennifer Lopez‘s first commercial appearance since that whole FIAT fiasco and director Darren Aronofsky‘s first ad since graphically depicting the horror of meth addiction, the two Hollywood stars are joining forces in a lighthearted TV spot for Kohl’s department stores.

In this spot from McCann NY, Aronofsky seems to be finally giving a gift to those who assumed his film Black Swan would be about dance and not Natalie Portman going hilariously insane. The “Classic: Remixed” title is both referring to J. Lo’s clothing line’s twist on spring fashion staples as well as her own twist the Kiki Dee Band’s 1974 single, “I Got the Music in Me.” Add to that a supporting cast of male back up dancers, and you have what may be a look inside Aronofsky’s strong desire to direct a sequel to Save the Last Dance. Credits after the jump.

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After promoting Pat Lafferty to COO of McCann Erickson North America last fall, McCann Worldgroup has finally found leadership to succeed the exec in the Global Brand community he established in 2011. Taking over as joint leaders of the GBC will be McCann Worldgroup Europe president Gustavo Martinez, who replaced Brett Gosper a year ago, and Luca Lindner, president of Worldgroup ops in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Both execs will maintain their current roles while also assuming the title of president, Global Brands.

The Global Brand group consists of the leaders of McCann Worldgroup’s global accounts including L’Oreal, MasterCard, Nestle and Coca-Cola. The added responsibility should be familiar to Martinez, who previously held the dual roles of global new business director and head of the Global Brand Management division at Ogilvy. Brazil-based Lindner, meanwhile, is a Leo Burnet EMEA alum who joined McCann in 2005 as regional director of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Adam Ulvegärde and Robert Lund, the art director/copywriter duo, respectively, who have spent over four years at Swedish shop Forsman & Bodenfors working on accounts such as IKEA, Reebok and Swedish Radio, have left Scandinavia for New York to join McCann’s Big Apple branch as creative directors. Despite the move across the Atlantic, Ulvegärde and Lund  (right) won’t be straying too far from home turf as they’ll be working mainly on IKEA, which has awarded McCann plenty of business over the course of 2011.

The pair’s new boss and countryman Andreas Dahlqvist, who joined McCann as vice chairman/ECD just six months ago, says  of the new hires in a statement, “They point the way to the kind of advertising that we’d like to see more of. They are a fantastic addition to McCann New York and further proof that we are putting creative excellence and innovation back at the very core of our offering.”

By the way, does anyone have the result of that push-pin-related, intern-baiting contest from McCann NY?