Ogilvy

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.

As  some folks hinted and our poll predicted, SC Johnson came down with its decision by month’s end and as a result, the Wisconsin-based giant has ended its nearly 60-year relationship with Draftfcb Chicago and is now splitting creative duties between Ogilvy and Energy BBDO. The SCJ biz is valued at approximately $800 million, give or take, and now, Crain Chicago Business is reporting that Energy will handle the Pest Control and Home Storage units for the brand while O&M (which will operate as an integrated team with fellow WPP shop, Group M) will handle Home Fragrance and Home Cleaning.

In a statement to Crain, SC Johnson says, “”It was a very difficult decision and we truly value the many contributions the Draftfcb team has made to the success of our business over a long-standing partnership.” The products under the “Family Company” umbrella include Windex, Pledge, Raid, Ziploc and Glade. So now, the question on the top of everyone’s heads we imagine is where does this leave Draftfcb, which just brought on a new CCO?

Well, Draftfcb CEO/president Laurence Boschetto offers his take, saying in a statement, “In looking at the highly professional way we have managed SC Johnson’s business over the years as well as the strong results we have helped the company achieve for many years, it’s difficult to understand this decision, but we obviously have no choice but to accept it. We wish our SCJ colleagues all over the world continued success as they build upon the very strong foundation that our two companies have collectively established.”

Boschetto continues, “It’s important to keep this situation in perspective. Our organization has grown significantly since our 2006 merger, and we’ve consistently been among the top performing networks for IPG. That growth has allowed us to substantially diversify our revenue base, making SCJ an increasingly smaller part of our global business over the past few years.”

Yes, we know it comes off like a saving face comment, but do you think Draft Chi can survive this?

Will worlds collide if there are two chief creative officers at one agency? Probably not, but anyhow, that’s the new structure at OgilvyOne New York, which has just brought on Alfonso Marian to serve as CCO alongside Mat Zucker, who has held his title at the agency for over two years.

Marian joins from Shackleton in Madrid, where he served as executive creative director for seven years and picked up awards for his work on campaigns for pay TV channels in Spain, PSAs and pro-bono projects in the process. Prior to that, the creative spent ten years at what would become CP Proximity BBDO, moving up from senior art director to ECD during his time there. Marian’s new boss, Ogilvy North America CCO Steve Simpson says, “Alfonso is an important addition to our creative leadership, and his hiring is one of the successes of our ongoing and aggressive talent strategy.”

As you probably know by now, this year marks David Ogilvy‘s 100th birthday, and the marketing world is taking some time to honor the man who literally wrote the book on modern advertising. In addition to asking Ogilvy employees “What Inspires You?” for a video contest, the company is also turning Twitter avatars red in order to create an online mosaic of the birthday boy along with a #DO100 hashtag.

Now, it’s time to feel jealous. A very poetic statement reads, “At sunrise on June 23rd, the longest red carpet ever seen in Cannes will be rolled out along the entire length of the Croissette, leading to the steps of the Grand Auditorium, where a giant billboard stating, ‘On this day, 100 years ago, David was born to inspire,’ will commemorate the centenary. After dark, all the lights along the boulevard will bathe the pavement in red, setting the mood for the agency’s celebration at Le Grand Hotel.”

It sucks not to be invited, doesn’t it? Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide CCO Tham Khai Meng adds, “We wanted to pay our respects to the great man, but also to celebrate just what made him such a pioneer in this industry and how that can inspire people today. Where better to commemorate his creative legacy than Cannes?” Hopefully they’ll be serving red wine, too.

Okay, so you may get this model’s phone number if you’re funny enough to win her heart, but nowhere in the contest rules does it say that she’s required to answer when you call her. So, why would someone offer up a date with a hot Brazilian model on YouTube for free? Well, as with all things of this nature, there are stings attached.

To commemorate what would be David Ogilvy‘s 100th birthday, Ogilvy is throwing a company-wide contest with the winners receiving a round trip ticket to Cannes this year to be the agency’s on the ground Twitter reporter. All you have to do is come up with a video based on the theme of “inspiration” and the top 10 videos will eventually be judged by Ogilvy’s creative leadership. Doesn’t sound too difficult, but then it does. That’s how these ad contests work – the more you overthink it, the worse off you could potentially be. See the full memo from Ogilvy’s global CD, Tham Khai Meng, after the jump and see the submissions and official rules here. Not employed by Ogilvy? Sorry, you can’t enter.

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To think it all seemed so peachy when we spoke at the ANDYs. Anyhow, Ogilvy has confirmed that North American CDO/New York CCO Lars Bastholm is leaving the agency effective June 15 as the result of a mutual decision made between Bastholm, John Seifert and Ogilvy NA CCO Steve Simpson.

Seifert sent a note to staff, which reads, “Lars, Steve and I recently sat down and discussed the progress of Ogilvy’s strong business recovery, the development of our creative community, the agency’s creative product, and our respective leadership roles. We agreed that Lars had made significant contributions to accelerating our digital transformation, recruiting sparkling talent, and helping win IKEA, a showcase accomplishment that revitalized our approach to new business and fueled our growth in 2010.”

Bastholm originally joined O&M from AKQA in early 2009 and eventually took over as New York CCO nearly a year ago. While Ogilvy searches for his replacement, Simpson will assume creative leadership duties at the NYC office. From the looks of his Twitter profile, Bastholm, who has had some gripes about Ogilvy NY’s creative output in the past (a possible issue perhaps?), is prepping for his trip to Nice…which could be more personal than business this year.

After a review, Huggies is giving its business to Ogilvy & Mather. There is no word on who else pitched to the Kimberly-Clark owned baby and childcare brand as part of the review. We’ve been told Organic was the incumbent.

In a post on Ogilvy’s website, Huggies global digital director Jeff Jarrett said of the agency change, “We understand the importance of using digital channels and mobile platforms to connect with today’s moms. Ogilvy delivered an innovative approach that demonstrated unique insights into the digital behavior of moms that we believe will significantly increase our opportunity to engage moms across digital channels.”

The digital assignment will go to Ogilvy’s New York and Chicago-based offices. We’re looking forward to seeing what innovative online diaper marketing looks like. You can check out what Huggies’ current website looks like here.

Update: As a tipster notes below, to clarify the whole Huggies incumbent thing, it was actually Wunderman. Organic actually WON the Huggies Pull Ups and the GoodNights business as part of that same review. Organic is also the digital agency of record for Kimberly-Clark’s U by Kotex brand.

After five years at JWT, Walt Connelly is now headed back to Ogilvy to serve  as executive creative director on IBM in the agency’s New York office. During his tenure at JWT, Connelly held the ECD title as well and worked on accounts including Microsoft, Kimberly-Clark, Ford and Bloomberg.

Along with his two stints at O&M (his first time included work on AmEx and Jaguar) and time at JWT, Connelly was an ECD at McCann Worldgroup in San Francisco, where he spent nearly five years, and was a creative at Euro prior to that. In his return to Ogilvy, Connelly will work alongside IBM global CD Susan Westre and North American CCO Steve Simpson, the latter of whom calls the new hire “an ideal fit for Ogilvy and for IBM” in a statement.

Google Australia held its YouTube Creative Festival recently, and the big winner was Ogilvy Sydney, which concocted this amusing clip. The brief: Create a two-minute short around the theme of space. The agency’s idea? Get Kevin Spacey to star in an ad in space that promotes old Pillsbury product, Space Food Sticks. Well, as we already spoiled it for you in the headline,  O&M failed in their mission to lure the Oscar-winning actor, who’s probably still nestled in the theater world in London somewhere. Anyhow, here’s their somewhat half-hearted attempt that was still good enough to win the competition.

Credits via:

Jono Paull (copywriter)
Denny Handlin (copywriter)
Henri Azzi (art director)
Simon Fowler (copywriter)