Razorfish

We’re not sure if this is an evolution of the “shared centers of excellence” structure that Digitas/Razorfish Health were plotting after the last round of layoffs this summer, but whatever the case, the agencies have now aligned with Publicis Healthcare Communications Group as part of a revamp of Publicis Groupe’s healthcare offering.

With this move, Digitas and Razorfish Health will join a PHCG roster that currently includes Saatchi & Saatchi Health, Publicis Life Brands, Publicis Healthware International, Publicis Touchpoint Solutions, and Publicis Medical Education Group. Leadership-wise, while Digitas/Razorfish Health CEO is calling it quits by year’s end, global co-presidents Michael du Toit and Alexandra von Plato will remain on board and report to PHCG president/CEO Nick Colucci. In a statement, Publicis Groupe COO Jean-Yves Naouri, who’s been mentioned over and over as Maurice Levy‘s eventual successor and oversees PHCG, says, “This move will create patterns of cross-fertilization, ensuring that we have the sharpest and best integrated skills on the market.”

The Philly-based Health units’ client roster currently includes J&J, Prizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

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Well, it looks like Digitas and Razorfish Health’s revamped executive team is losing head from body as CEO David Kramer has announced that he’s retiring at the end of 2011. In a statement,  Kramer sounds like anyone on the verge of retirement after a long career,  saying, “Digitas Health and Razorfish Health are poised to become important global agencies engaged in the transformation of healthcare marketing. As founder and CEO for the last 23 years, I realize that it is time for the next generation of leaders in our company to fulfill our worldwide ambition.”  Kramer has decided that he’d like to slow his business life down. I am really happy at the thought of playing more guitar, more golf, more time with my wife, daughters and grandchildren.”

Five years back, Kramer’s Medical Broadcasting Company was acquired by Digitas which was acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2007 and eventually became Digitas Health.

It seems like it’s been a while since we’ve heard about a notable Razorfish appointment (Patrick Hounsell‘s hiring in January is the last thing that comes to mind), but the Publicis-owned agency has now welcomed a new director of business development for its West Coast operations by the name of Brooks Day. Who’s that, you ask? Well, Day arrives from San Francisco-based online video/technology firm Clikthrough, where he spent two years as partner and executive director, business development. Prior to Clikthrough, Day worked as senior manager, biz dev at local shop Fancy, which if you may remember was once home to creative directors Geoff Edwards and Mauro Alencar.

Anyhow, back to Day. In his new gig at Razorfish, the exec will remain in SF but, as his title implies, will oversee all West Coast new biz activity for the Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles offices as well. Tipsters tell us that he will report to Razorfish’s SVP of business development, Wes Breyfogle, who’s based in Austin.

As long as we catching you up on Razorfish, on the creative front, the agency recently brought on Organic alum Sam Cannon as ECD in the Central region and Pierre Odendaal as CD in the East.

Razorfish Atlanta’s creative team has just started its own Instagram feed-claiming to be the first agency to do so in the process–and is sharing and posting photos on the account as are a handful of the network’s offices throughout the U.S.

The Razorfish app feed can only be accessed, though, via a free Instagram account on your iPhone. Why? The Razorfish camp tells us that because this is a strategic approach on the app creators’ part to keep the social core of the experience purely mobile. However, individual photos from an Instagram account can be viewed on the web via Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, and email. If you’re just as riveted by images like the one above (or this one), you can look them up at @razorfish or by searching for “razorfish” within the Instagram app.

Publicis Groupe-owned shop Razorfish appointed Patrick Hounsell to SVP/GM of media for North America. The New York-based exec has tallied up 11 years at said agency, dating back to when he joined Avenue A to serve as group director of search, media and the consumer insight group. Following the Avenue A/Razorfish merger in 2004, Hounsell led the media accounts as part of the agency’s East Coast management team before eventually moving up to GM of Razorfish’s media and marketing group in 2007.

Apparently, Razorfish wants the world to become more aware of its social media, search and digital prowess and to do so, the agency’s tapped Hounsell to create a new “national structure” for its media and search practices.

Where do good ideas, originality, innovation, etc. come from? That’s the question(s) that Razorfish and Microsoft are trying to answer with a short documentary series called “id3a01ogy,” which the parties involved are claiming is a celebration of “ideas” and creative thinking. Everyone from a Hollywood screenwriter/literary manager, to start-up company owners and educators weigh in on the matter and of course, there’s some promotion involved, specifically Microsoft Office for Mac 2011. This is just the teaser above, but as noted in the clip, Oct. 26 will bring the great reveal, or as the folks who pinged us about the project call it, “the full goodness.”

(h/t Dennis Liu)

More: A&G Hires Digitas, Razorfish Alum as ‘Creator of Opportunities’

After spending the last two years in Boise running his own shop Mitchell + Palmer (and maybe having a scotch or two with George Parker, perhaps?), Rob Palmer has joined Razorfish West as creative director.

Prior to leaving for Boise, Palmer served as CD at Goodby, creating the “Power of all of us” campaign for eBay. Prior to GS&P, Palmer was ECD at Chemistri in Michigan where he oversaw all of the national and regional work for Cadillac. And before the Motor City, he was a CD at W+K on accounts like Miller, Nike, and ESPN Sportscenter. And hey, and who hasn’t had a stint at Chiat, where Palmer worked on iMac Colors as the CD on Apple.

Though Palmer will still remain based in Boise, the Razorfish camp tells us that he will be making trips to Seattle and Portland regularly.

More: “Razorfish Offices Going Remote, Austin Squeaks By”

Sources familiar with the matter have confirmed that Philly-based Razorfish Health, which debuted just two months ago, let go of 5-10 staffers in its creative department yesterday. While the reason for the layoffs wasn’t specified, tipsters have speculated that “no new business and dwindling income from existing clients” are perhaps the causes.

Still, we’ve been told that offers for new positions within the Publicis network have gone out to “many” of the cut staffers, though such matters are being dealt with on an individual basis.

More: “Susan Kidwell Leaves Razorfish”

We reported way back in May that a handful of Razorfish offices were “going remote” and shutting down within a month. While that hasn’t quite been the case, tipsters are telling us now that one of those locations–Fort Lauderdale–nevertheless took a hit. Susan Kidwell, VP, client services and head of Razorfish’s South Florida location, apparently quit last week after 10 years with the agency, effectively leaving the branch “headless” as one spy put it.

While the Razorfish PR flack wouldn’t officially comment and Kidwell didn’t reply to emails, according to her Twitter page, this is in fact the real deal. On Monday, Kidwell wrote “very excited – been quiet as i consider the options the good Lord has put in front of me – resigned from @Razorfish last day will be Oct 16!”

Where this leaves the Fort Lauderdale office we don’t know.

More: “Bob Lord’s Getting Oral Love from Ad Pubs”

Did you hear Microsoft sold Razorfish to Publicis? Great. PaidContent and ClickZ, sites we usually think of as pretty hard-nosed, ran interviews with agency CEO Bob Lord. You can read ‘em, but honestly the guy didn’t say squat, making the respective posts come off…soft and sensual. He probably really enjoyed the experiences. Here’s a list of the lamer questions he agreed to answer.

ClickZ
&#151 Now that this deal has been inked, can you say frankly to what degree Razorfish has struggled to convince clients it’s really unbiased when selling Microsoft properties?

&#151 Razorfish joins a much larger family of agencies in the Vivaki unit. Do you think Vivaki has a recognition factor with advertisers?

&#151 The money that Publicis pledged to spend with Microsoft &#151 how much of that will be spent by Razorfish and how much by other agency units?

PaidContent
&#151 What are the particular benefits to Razorfish of being part of a traditional ad holding company structure, as opposed to operating within Microsoft?

&#151 What will the relationship with Digitas be like? Is there any room for collaboration? How do you complement what they have?

&#151 Serious rumors about Microsoft’s plans to sell Razorfish had been circulating for at least a year. How big a distraction was that for the agency? How did clients react to the rumors?

&#151 As an independent agency within Publicis, will you still be able to make acquisitions? Or does being acquired mean that you don’t have to worry about those kinds decisions?

Questions that should have been asked

&#151 When will Razorfish learn about social media?

&#151 Did you know that your employees are incredibly nervous about the merger?

&#151 If I was thinking of hiring Razorfish, the idea of using Bing would make me throw up. Who wants to use a second rate search engine that was so second rate it had to be paired with another second rate search engine? It’s not added value, it’s crafty product integration by Microsoft &#151 packaged in a way that makes it seem valuable.

&#151 What does this mean for your Dell work?

And if you fine folks would like to add anything, feel free. Look, these questions sound a little vitriolic, sure. But that’s only because the other questions he’s been asked lately have been a complete waste of time. Except that they gave this story some fuel.

More: “Publicis Snags Razorfish for $530 Million”