The Martin Agency

Just over a month after its “creative restructuring,” the Martin Agency is adding another CD to the fold, namely Fabio Costa. Who’s that, you ask? Well, Costa has been an agency creative for about 15 years now, spending six years as a creative director at Almap BBDO and helping set up the agency’s interactive department before taking on CD posts at Blast Radius, OgilvyOne and Cutwater (where he spent nearly three years and worked on accounts such as Ubisoft, Ray Ban, Disney and Motorola).

Most recently, Costa was a creative director at Ogilvy Paris, where he was responsible for the Perrier and Louis Vuitton work. As for why he’s joining Martin, Costa pins it on the leadership. In a statement, the creative says, “Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some great creative minds. But with John Norman and Mike Hughes at the same agency, I feel like this is the perfect place to be. I’m extremely excited about what lies ahead here, and about all that I will learn as a part of this already strong team.”

Costa began his advertising career in Brazil and during said time there, he helped Almap BBDO win prizes including an Interactive Grand Prix at the London International Awards and a Gold Cyber Lion at Cannes.

The Martin Agency welcomed Neil Patel to the fold and created a new position for him in the process: SVP/director of content strategy & development. Patel, a veteran of FCB, BBDO and Chiat/Day, also worked outside the agency world for director Ridley Scott and also once served as an executive at Disney’s California HQ.

Among Patel’s achievements prior to joining Martin are playing a key role in developing patents for mobile advertising, entertainment and digital distribution strategy for a number of major brands and advising several well-known digital agencies on growth, strategy and M&A issues.

Now that he’s officially taken his CCO post at The Martin Agency, it looks like John Norman (right) is finally getting down to business. The Richmond, VA-based agency’s first creative lead in three decades unveiled a new group creative director tier at the agency, with veteran CDs Cliff Sorah, Joe Alexander, Steve Bassett, Delta hater Andy Azula and Nancy Hannon taking on additional responsibilities as GCDs, as will new additions Keith Cartwright and brothers Eric and Keith Tilford.

The aforementioned bros will also join forces with the agency’s studio and digital art leadership to create Design@Martin.  In a statement, Norman says, “We’re just re-assembling the parts to make it even more nimble, even more technologically forward and even more social–we’re going to work more in groups.” Along with the creative shifts, Martin Agency is also redesigning the 30,000+ square foot second floor of the agency to accommodate the new “surround the work” style.

Following a dedication ceremony on Oct. 27, the Virginia Commonwealth University, or VCU, Brandcenter will officially be known as “Mike Hughes Hall.” Besides being the president of The Martin Agency, Hughes has served as chairman of the Brandcenter board since 1995 and created and built the graduate program at the ad school with the help of its founder, Diane Cook-Tench.

Rick Boyko, director of the Brandcenter says in a statement,”Mike Hughes has been an integral part of the VCU Brandcenter since its inception. In fact, without his support, leadership and dedication the school would simply not exist. As chairman of the board from the day the school began, he has helped guide the school to earn top rankings by BusinessWeek, Advertising Age, Creativity magazine, the 4A’s and the industry itself. It is only fitting to have the building that houses the Brandcenter named in his honor.”

As far as Hughes’ day job goes, most of us are familiar with The Martin Agency’s client roster, including Geico of course, as well as Walmart, Pizza Hut and Tylenol. Under his leadership, The Martin Agency was named “Agency of the Year” in January by Adweek and earlier this year, Hughes was the 47^th person in the history of advertising to be inducted into the One Club Creative Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Hughes will be feted by the likes of IPG chairman Michael Roth and Martin’s CEO/chairman John Adams.

More: Martin’s Collins: Unit Spins Off

The Martin Agency’s basically employed a three or four-pronged strategy with its Geico ads, from the gecko to the cavemen to Ed Burns‘s friend doing the rhetorical shpiel. Now, listen to Martin CD Steve Bassett explaining the ad strategy for the Berkshire Hathaway-owned car insurance brand to Bloomberg’s Jon Erlichman.

More: “Geico Introduces Honesty, Badassery to Ongoing ‘Rhetorical’ Campaign”

Three years after Martin Agency president/CCO Mike Hughes (pictured) transferred ownership of the agency’s design/brand unit Collins: to Brian Collins and his partners.

Collins:, which handled Microsoft Store and the launch of The Alliance for Climate Protection campaign with Al Gore alongside Martin, will move to its new Union Square office in September.

In a statement, Collins says, , “We’ll continue that mission even more so as we’ve made a new strategic decision–to cap our client roster at nine. We believe this discipline will have a number of great benefits both for our people and, especially, for our clients. But most importantly, it signals what our main concern has always been and will continue to be: concentrated, game-changing creativity.”

More: “The Martin Agency Wins Expedia Account”

Goodrich is planning on giving cars some brand new shoes, making your vehicle capable of performing 1G turns. That’s just a fancy way of saying better grip. BF Goodrich has teamed up with The Martin Agency to put out a campaign. The strategy behind this campaign is to show the tires grip, acceleration and toughness through the influence of specific animals that fit each category.

The spot shown here is of a window-washer on a skyscraper who can’t reach what looks like bird poo or a dead bug. He bolts on a tree frog hand (what else?) and is now capable of scraping off the mess by sticking to the glass with his new appendage. The strategy? Goodrich tires will provide your car with better grip. Get it? Got it? Good. I know men like animals and cars and I get the strategy very clearly though some may think that poor window guy turned into a Martian. I think the campaign itself should bolt on a pair of wings and fly away. C’mon guys. You can do better than that.

More: “Pirelli Makes Promotional Calendar That Has Nothing to do With Tires (NSFW)”

Current W+K Amsterdam ECD John Norman will take the Chief Creative Officer post at The Martin Agency in February.

Norman, who helped create the multi-award-winning “Happiness Factory” spot for Coke, will take over for Mike Hughes, who’s led Martin’s creative department for 28 years. According to the Wall Street Journal, Norman’s creative style of “visual storytelling” will help Martin craft ads that could translate well in international markets, something the Richmond, VA agency has yet to breach.

Texas native Norman, who’s had two stints at W+K, has also served as a graphic designer at Nike and GCD at Goodby, where he helped develop the “+HP” campaign. While all CDs, art directors and writers will report to Norman the day he takes his post at Martin, Hughes will be staying onboard and remain president of the agency while sharing the CCO title with Norman during his first year.

More: “The Martin Agency Wins Expedia Account”

Walmart has supposedly selected R/GA to handle its digital property, SaveMoneyLiveBetter.com. AdAge pegs the project as a $40M campaign and couldn’t get anyone to confirm the win from the agency nor the brand. So, you know. This one is a rumor has it.

Meanwhile, The Martin Agency, the lead agency on the account, has had a definitive win for one of their clients, Geico. The shop has been paying internet starts to create videos in which the Geico lizard can be seen in the background. In one case, Gary Brolsma, creator of the “Numa Numa Dance”, was paid $2,000 for his spot. Watch it above. In two days, the YouTube posting of the vid has clocked over 280,000 views. Nice.

More: Geico Caveman and Serta Sheep Are In The Hall Of Fame

While we are all busy planning, producing, shooting and coding the next big campaign, there’s a little thing called the Presidential election happening outside the office doors. In an article about Obama’s recent trip to Richmond an advertising executive got some press lines:

“Rye Clifton, an advertising executive at the Martin Agency, stands in Starbucks by the glass doors opening into the hotel. When Republican-nominee Sen. John McCain was in town in June, Clifton tormented Shockoe Espresso, a coffee competitor two blocks down the street, by retrieving the still-full mug McCain left behind. He sold the “mug of lies” on eBay for S213.61 and donated it to Obama. The incident so angered the manager of the coffee shop that he banned Clifton from returning.”

Go on Rye! I’m not sure which is more surprising: that he made it out of the office long enough to get in some guerrilla action or that someone paid two hundred smackers for the mug?

Clifton is also the guy behind the video, which took Unilever to task for pushing the pro-women message of the Dove brand with one hand, while the other is totally rubbing some T&A with Axe. Love it.