Ogilvy

Just a week after we reported about some buzz that Matt Bonin was leaving the West Coast and TBWA\Chiat\Day LA for a job on the East with Ogilvy, the latter agency has confirmed his move. O&M has officially announced that Bonin is joining the New York office in the newly created role of chief production officer.

In a statement, Ogilvy North America CCO Steve Simpson says, “Matt has done in practice—and to wonderful effect—what many agencies are still attempting notionally. He knows how to pull all the levers of production, at all the right times, in the service of the idea. Matt’s arrival accelerates the work we have done at Ogilvy in working in a more fully, deeply integrated way and—beyond process–he will be central to our efforts to develop new kinds of content.”

We’ve been through Bonin’s resume before, but in case you need a refresher, he spent around five years at CP+B, working on integrated production models for BK, VW and Microsoft. Following his stay in Boulder, Bonin moved on to Trailer Park, Tool and finally Chiat LA before heading out to our neck of the woods.

O&M tells us that he will start at the end of the month.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

Yes folks, the Matt Bonin agency tour continues. After barely a year spent at TBWA\Chiat\Day LA as executive director of integration, word on the street is that the CP+B alum is making a move to the East Coast and taking a gig at Ogilvy. After spending the last few years in the West Coast with the likes of Tool, Goodness Mfg. and more, we figure that Bonin is savoring some winter flavor, though at this point, we don’t know why. No word on start date or title just yet, but stay tuned.

A source familiar with the matter sent us a memo from Dimitri Maex and Harvey Kipnis, managing director of OgilvyOne NY managing director and MD of OgilvyOne North America, respectively, that confirms CCO Mat Zucker has left the agency. Read below.

“Nearly three-years ago Mat Zucker returned to OgilvyOne to embark on a journey with us to grow our creative portfolio in new directions.

He took us to Cannes with the Search for the World’s Greatest Salesman. He brought a fresh new meaning to David Ogilvy’s “We Sell, or Else” credo. He helped us win new business and became a sought-after creative jury member.

Mat has informed us that he is now ready to begin a new journey – and will be leaving Ogilvy. We will miss him. He was a terrific creative partner and mentor to many.

Please join us in wishing him all the best in his new venture.

Dimitri and Harvey”

No word on where Zucker is headed to, but from what his LinkedIn tells us, he’s also serving as a correspondent at The Faster Times. Ogilvy had to no look further than from within, as the departing exec’s duties will be absorbed by Shackleton alum Alfonso Marian, who initially partnered with Zucker as co-CCO at OgilvyOne last summer. Prior to his second tour of duty at Ogilvy, Zucker held senior creative roles at the likes of Agency.com and R/GA.

 

While the interminable wait for the winner of the McCann push-pin contest continues, we might as well bring you this somewhat related clip that features several folks from Ogilvy’s Chicago office paying homage to their agency’s co-founder via, you guessed it, push-pins. According to the YouTube page, the David Ogilvy mural was concepted by art director Brian Thibodeau and copywriter Bill Wanek and took over 33,000 push-pins in five specific colors to be fleshed out. The end result is a rather sharp, touching tribute, we say.

Sources familiar with the matter confirm that Ogilvy let go of some staff today in the New York and LA offices. From what we’ve been told, the cuts, which were made across departments, affect “less than three percent” of staff in said locations. The primary reasons, according to our sources, is that clients are “being very cautious” about spending in 2012 and relationships are changing from retainer to project-based. In addition, we hear O&M is “remixing” its talent to accommodate needs. Take that as you will.

Ogilvy has a new worldwide chief marketing officer in Lauren Crampsie, who has spent the last 18 months as CMO of the agency’s North American operations. Crampsie replaces Eleanor Mascheroni, an 11-year O&M vet who has left to join a company in Detroit (we’re checking to see which one). Crampsie, meanwhile, has been with Ogilvy for eight years, eventually moving up the ladder to new business director in 2008 before assuming her post as NA CMO in 2010.

Ogilvy’s worldwide CEO Miles Young says in a statement, “Lauren is someone with phenomenal energy and great skills.  She’ll be a tremendous spokesperson for the vigor of our brand in the new landscape of communications.”

Gerard Caputo is headed from the warm confines of Miami to the impending cold of New York as Ogilvy’s announced that it’s brought on the former CP+B creative director as an ECD on the American Express business, among others. During his 18 months at CP+B Miami, Caputo helped resurrect the agency’s creative department and worked on accounts including MetLife, VitaminWater as well as new business. During his career, Caputo worked at the likes of Mullen, Fallon and DDB and also got an Emmy nod for FedEx’s Super Bowl “Pigeons” spot while at BBDO.

Do you like dancing alone in front of a camera? Do you enjoy movies about dancing and nothing else? Do you love Internet challenges for zero-calorie soft drinks? In the case, does Coke Zero have the star-studded Internet dance challenge for you!

None other than John Chu, director of such cinematic classics as Justin Bieber: Never Say Never and Step Up 2: The Streets, and his dance crew, The LXD (Legion of Extraordinary Dancers), are teaming up with Coke Zero and Ogilvy Paris for the “Create a Dance from Zero” campaign. All you have to do is “choose your beat” from one of Coke Zero’s pre-selected songs you’ve never heard of, record a video of yourself dancing in a silly new way and send it to Coke Zero. What do you win? Well, the campaign’s website mentions “getting noticed” and “meeting that special someone,” but it doesn’t look like anything tangible. It’s cheaper that way, right?

Throughout the “competition” (dance is about the love, man, not the accolades), the LXD crew will comment on the videos. We have a challenge for you: turn the above video up at full volume and see if you can last the full two minutes.

It seems plausible as a phone call to the agency confirmed that Gavin Becker (aka @grokstar) is no longer in the O&M New York directory. It looks like Becker, who’s spent the last two years as senior partner, executive director, digital innovation and strategy, is moving full steam ahead with his startup BONDSY, which he says is a “personal project to build the best way to sell used goods before going to Craigslist or eBay.”

Prior to Ogilvy, Becker worked in various biz dev roles throughout the aughts at agencies like Martin, AKQA and Wolff Olins. We’re checking to get official confirmation on the departure.

Update: Yep, Becker tells us that he left Ogilvy last week.

 

We’ve received a couple of tips in the last hour regarding the status of Walt Connelly, who joined Ogilvy & Mather New York just five months ago as executive creative director on the IBM account. Spies are now telling us that he’s already out at the agency. When we called Ogilvy’s New York HQ and asked for the ECD, we were told the name “Walt Connelly” wasn’t showing up in the computer. Hmm. Well, we’re checking with the proper folks for clarification on this matter and will update once we have a yea or nay.

Connelly joined Ogilvy from JWT, where he spent six years as ECD on Microsoft, Kimberly-Clark, HSBC, Ford and Bloomberg.