Mullen

Once again, our tipsters were spot on as we’ve received an internal note sent from Mullen chief creative officer Mark Wenneker to staff today regarding rumors about the Boston-based agency opening up shop in San Francisco. Well, as Wenneker says, it’s no longer rumor. We’ve been hearing about the Bay Area expansion since Friday, and from what we know, that instead of just being referred to as an office per se, the Mullen camp is calling it a “talent hub.” The agency is currently finalizing space and recruiting said “talent” for the new SF “hub,” which we’ve been told should hopefully be operational at the beginning of next month. Anyhow, check out Wenneker’s full memo, which should clarify matters, after the jump.

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Call it a trifecta for Boston-based Mullen if you will as the agency has followed up its recent U.S. Cellular and National Geographic Channel wins by picking of global creative duties for top-shelf vodka brand Grey Goose following a review. As a result, Mullen takes over for @Radical, which has handled the global biz since 2007 but will still partner with the Bacardi brand on initiatives including the TV show, Iconoclasts.

Regarding the selection of Mullen, Lyle Tick yes, former agency guy Lyle Tick and now senior global category director, vodka for Bacardi Global Brands, says in a statement, “We welcome Mullen into the Grey Goose vodka family. The passion the Mullen team demonstrated for the brand, its strategic insight, creativity and collaborative culture really shined through to set them apart. We look forward to writing the next chapter of this great brand with them to share our amazing story with consumers.”

Mullen’s global assignment for Grey Goose gets underway on April 1 (R/GA still handles global digital duties). Bacardi would not disclose the other agencies that competed in the review.

We’ve received confirmation that Mullen chief digital officer Mauro Cavalletti has turned in his resignation after less than a year in order to deal with “serious family health issues” back in his native Brazil. The Mullen camp tells us that “everyone here was sad to hear the news. He’s a great guy.”

If you recall, Cavalletti and Perry Fair joined Mullen as co-CDOs last April, with the former arriving from R/GA San Francisco (where he was ECD  for three years) and the latter from an ECD gig at Grey New York. Fair of course left Mullen at the end of last year for the CCO gig at JWT Atlanta/Houston/Dallas. As of now, it appears that Mullen is not planning to immediately replace Cavalletti.

Update: Here’s a quick note from Cavalletti himself: “Leaving Mullen in this very special time for the agency makes me feel sad. However, it’s time for me to move back to Brazil as I have important personal matters to take care of there.” Cavalletti clarifies that his family is actually in “good health” (good to know) but is “asking us to be by their side.” Best wishes, my friend.

Two weeks after reportedly cutting its agency review down to two finalists, Mullen and incumbent Publicis & Hal Riney, U.S. Cellular has chosen the former as its winner. As a result, Mullen will handle brand strategy, creative development and performance analytics across all traditional, digital and emerging media channels for the wireless brand’s advertising account.

Regarding the decision, David Kimbell, VP of marketing for U.S. Cellular, says in a statement, “Mullen impressed us with the breadth and originality of its strategic thinking. We have bold ambitions for the U.S. Cellular brand, and in Mullen we have an agency partner with a proven ability to creatively express the unique qualities of challenger brands and make them stand out in the marketplace.”

No word on when first work from Mullen for U.S. Cellular will break just yet.

For most Americans, the hope of a “White Christmas” is diminishing with each new weather report. So, GSD&M and Mullen are taking it upon themselves to give a wintry experience to those whom God has deprived of snow and fun.

GSD&M is presenting the “One-Sided Snowball Fight,” an opportunity for users to pelt helpless employees with snowballs. The dude in the Santa costume in Andy Miller, a creative director/copywriter at the agency. When typing in “creative” on the site’s search bar, Mr. Miller is the first person who comes up, which is why his video gets on our site. Ah, the power of SEO.

Currently, GCD Jay Russell has been engaged in more snowball combats than any employee according to the site leaderboard (609 times). If you recall, Jay returned to the agency in July after a stint at CP+B. Obviously, the man was missed.

Meanwhile, Mullen is using Google Maps’ API to create “Snowify.Me,” a website that adds snow to any location. From the location, users can add a variety of holiday decorations that change size according to distance (including the Royal Couple and Occupy Wall Street-ers). Pictured above, you’ll find MediaBistro’s NYC offices (link here). If only it was actually this festive in real life. Applause to GSD&M and Mullen for the gift of seasonally appropriate weather.

It’s been just over a year since Narrow Design’s Nick Jones showed us how agency websites are completely unfit for mobile devices. Well, Google is looking to change that with the launch of GoMo, a service that aims to make it easier for businesses to build mobile-friendly sites. To help accomplish its goal, the online giant enlisted the services of Mullen, which handled the site design and user experience work for the GoMo project. If you’re looking for background on GoMo (aka “Go Mobile”), you can check out a Google blog post here.

Sorry, couldn’t resist. Boston-based Mullen tells us that it’s been named North American AOR for iRobot, which has nothing to do with the mediocre Will Smith sci-flick but is instead a company that creates robots for home cleaning. The Jetsons (and to a lesser extent, Small Wonder) was way ahead of its time, wasn’t it. Anyhow, back to the point. As AOR, Mullen will be responsible for brand messaging and advertising for iRobot’s home products including the Roomba vacuum (above), Scooba floor-washer and the Looj gutter-cleaning robot.

Mullen beat out two other undisclosed agencies for the iRobot business, which is still being handled internationally by London-based shop, BPL (which was previously responsible for North America as well).

Paul Sincoff, the man behind the “Ad Agency in My Mind” blog, has left Mullen’s Boston office after just seven months. During his brief stint, Sincoff served as SVP/ACD on JetBlue among other clients. Prior to joining Mullen, Sincoff spent four years give or take as a copywriter at TBWA\Chiat\Day and one as an interactive CW at TBWA\Tequila, where he worked on accounts ranging from Activision and Playstation to Pepsi and Visa.

From what we’ve been told, Sincoff is heading to Europe for a while before returning to his West Coast stomping grounds to freelance.

Looks like our pal Paul “Ad Agency in My Mind” Sincoff has some new fellow ACDs joining him at Mullen as the agency has brought Jeff Da Silva and Jon Ruby (l-r) aboard. The pair arrives from Proximity BBDO/Toronto, where they each spent four years, held the same titles and worked on PepsiCo, Diageo, Doritos and M&M’s (in fact, they just picked up three Bronze Lions at Cannes for their “Find Red” work for the last brand).

Prior to Proximity, Da Silva served as art director and senior designer at Tribal DDB and Organic, respectively, while Ruby was a VP, creative director at Publicis for four years. Both have already assumed their new roles at Mullen, though what account they’re working on exactly hasn’t been divulged for whatever reason.

Last night, the Boston Bruins defeated the Vancouver Canucks for the team’s first Stanley Cup in almost 40 years.

As we’re sure you already heard, the otherwise peaceful town of Vancouver exploded in riots for one reason or another. As the former Olympics host city burned, Tumblr blew up and people made out in the streets, Boston celebrated. And, with this video Boston agency Mullen released two years ago and is rolling out yet again, Beantown has a whole new dance step to learn. Truly, there’s no better way to celebrate a Stanley Cup win than watching a large bear swivel its furry hips.

For once, the United States looks civil in comparison to Canada. So, lets shake our asses along to this Boston Bruin until the next time we do something incredibly stupid.