Tribal DDB

Well, now you know. We’ve received confirmation that Tony Cordero (pictured), who joined as executive creative director at Tribal DDB San Francisco, is no longer with the agency. Cordero split from Tribal’s Chicago office and headed to the network’s Bay Area branch back in December 2008 and subsequently oversaw creative across the agency’s client roster that includes/included Clorox, McAfee and SunPower. During his five-year stint at Tribal DDB’s Windy City locale, Cordero led client work for the likes of Anne Klein, LensCrafters and Nine West.

We’ve been told that Cordero has been replaced by Keith Ciampa, who previously served as a creative director at Goodby and worked on campaigns for Yahoo among others.

It’s been bugging us for days now and even more so due to lack of response from the parties involved. Since Friday, we’ve been receiving several tips that Tribal DDB has lost the Reebok account. If you remember, the agency’s New York office was just named global digital AOR for the apparel/shoe giant in January.

When pressed for comment, the Tribal camp says it wasn’t allowed to offer any outside of official Reebok press releases, so we pinged Reebok’s top corporate communications folks. Guess what, after sending emails and making phone calls, we’ve received zilch in terms of response. Something’s fishy here because a half-dozen tipsters and reliable sources saying the same thing about Tribal DDB and Reebok’s relationship (or lack thereof) has our eyebrows raised. You’d think either the client or agency issuing a simple “not true” would put this issue to bed, but that has yet to happen after three days. We just want to know people, true or false, and then we can go on with our lives.

Update: Forgot to mention, tipsters have been telling us since last Friday that the digital account went to McGarryBowen. We have pinged McGarryBowen twice since Monday and like the others, have heard nil. The saga continues…

Sources familiar with the matter confirm that Tribal DDB New York let go of some staff last Friday, though we’ve been told that the number is less than what tipsters are giving us (around 15). In addition, our sources say that the cuts were not related to any account losses. We’re checking to see what departments were affected, etc. Stay tuned.

Update: Nothing earth-shattering to follow-up with on this except to say that it wasn’t just one department that was affected at Tribal NY, nor were cuts made across all departments.

Update 2: So,  spies are telling us that a number of those let go were about to reach their five -year anniversary, when they would’ve become vested in Omnicom. We’re hearing that among those cut include a creative director, senior art director, an EP and a senior project manager.

Following the popularity of Tribal DDB’s Wheel of Concept (over 150,000 professionals reportedly gave it a spin) for digital advertisers who need quick, trendy ideas with instant concept boards to match, the agency is back with a new wheel for PR professionals. The Wheel of Concept: PR Edition will suggest that you tattoo your chosen brand’s logo onto the back of a celebrity, give away free swag with your adorned brand’s logo or send out a herd of young, hip street team members to walk around handing out coupons to strangers. Imagine the fun those young college kids will have sporting a t-shirt with your logo and harassing commuters! Maybe you can even get them to staff your cool new pop-up store at SXSWi.

Hopefully, we won’t have to wait until next summer for the Wheel of Concept: Cannes Edition.

Tired of trying to add a trendy marketing aspect to your client’s campaign? Torn between whether to create a Facebook page or an iPhone app, because neither seems very important in the long run? Don’t have any art directors or copywriters under the age of 25 who have experience with location-based software? Or, after you finished creating print, TV, outdoor and radio advertisements, you just ran out of ideas? With the Wheel of Concept, your digital remedies are just a spin away!

Thanks to the charitable folks at Tribal DDB, your clients’ trendy digital needs can be met with very little effort from your creative team. Delight your clients with social gaming (wow!), augmented reality (cool!) or QR codes (how did we ever live without those!?!). Just type in a company name, spin the wheel and download a PDF that looks so nice, you can just stick it in your campaign book without giving it a second thought. Look, your client’s logo magically appeared over FarmVille’s! The best thing about the Wheel of Concept? You get the feeling that it just might work. Hell, you might even get an award out of it. Credits after the jump…

Read more

Mark Weintraub (pictured) is returning to his old stomping grounds at DDB, this time to take on the role of global business director at sister agency Tribal NY. Weintraub arrives from The Concept Farm, where he spent the last two years as director of account management. He served as a similar post at TAXI and during his career, led the Thomson Reuters, Motrin, New York Life and Century 21 department stores account.

Joining Weintraub at Tribal New York are R/GA alums Jason Rockwood and Peter Golibersuch, who will take on the posts of director of social strategy and director of visual design, respectively. While at R/GA, Rockwood held the now-popular title of social media strategist and led such efforts for Walmart and Verizon and contributed social strategy to L’Oreal and Goldman Sachs business as well.

Golibersuch meanwhile has spent the last eight years running his own boutique shop, DRPCLQ, and also held creative positions at ATTIK and R/GA during his career.

Despite a spy’s claim that Tribal DDB Dallas is being swallowed up whole by longtime agency partner and fellow Texan shop TracyLocke, sources familiar with the matter tell us that this is not the case. What we’ve been told is that staffers at Tribal Dallas are reporting directly to TracyLocke president/CEO, Beth Ann Kaminkow, who in turn is reporting up through DDB corporate.

One of the pair’s biggest joint accounts is Pepsi, which both parties are working on in areas where it serves the best interest of the brand’s business including shopper, food service and promotion activation through digital, mobile and social tools and platforms. The Tribal DDB Dallas name/brand remains intact, the agency is still full-service and it’s operating as a standalone as it makes sense for serving various clients. TracyLocke meanwhile is not “cannibalizing” business from other DDB operations, but is instead utilizing Tribal DDB and other Omnicom digital agencies for core strengths including app development. After the dust settled, we’ve been told that there were no major layoffs, save for a GM and account lead. In addition, TracyLocke is in the process of bringing in a new CTO soon.

Reebok is expanding its alliance with the DDB network as the fitness/apparel brand has tapped Tribal DDB New York as its digital AOR. DDB Berlin currently serves as Reebok’s global agency of record. In a statement, Tribal U.S. CCO Rob Rasmussen says, “This is a phenomenal opportunity with a brand that we’re all passionate about in a category that’s simply a lot of fun to work in. Since I joined the agency, we’ve focused on building even further on our world-class, cross-disciplinary creative team, and now we’re able to hit the ground running with innovative projects that stretch beyond the world of advertising.”

Tribal DDB New York’s assignment includes developing digital strategy and implementing social media and digital initiatives for Reebok’s four key categories: men, women, children and classics. According to sources familiar with the matter, there was no review. Expect Tribal NY’s first work for Reebok to debut in Q1.

Just months after Paul Chambers announced he was leaving Tribal DDB NY, the agency’s found another group creative director in Nilesh Mehta.

Mehta arrives from R/GA London, where he spent the last two years as CD and led creative efforts for Nokia, Alfa Romeo and Nike. Prior to R/GA, Mehta spent time both on the traditional and digital sides at shops ranging from Nitro to TBWA as well as MTV. Though he’s spent plenty of time in the agency world, the London-born Mehta also has a directing deal with RSA and has helmed multiple TV and online spots for the likes of Volvo, PlayStation, Adidas along with the aforementioned Nokia and Nike during his career.

Tribal NY CCO Rob Rasmussen has this to say of the new hire: “Directors do not make excuses; they make things happen regardless of challenges or media channels they face. This is Mehta. We here at Tribal DDB are proud to have him join us.”

More: “Senior Creative Duo Leaves Tribal DDB NY“

Tribal DDB New York might be losing its fair share of senior creatives, but the agency wants you to know that it’s still adding to staff in some form or another. Tribal NY added among others Rashi Dhanda as management supervisor. Dhanda previously served as an account supervisor at Goodby for over two years, spent some time at Organic at 72andSunny and worked on the client side at Yahoo.

In addition to Dhanda, Tribal welcomed Raisa Ivannokova as art director. Ivannokava, who will work on a new technology client that’s yet to be announced, previously worked at Cossette, McGarryBowen and Wunderman. Finally, Josh Chambers (pictured) joined the agency as something called associate engagement planning director.

A few unknowns? Perhaps, but considering it’s been “layoff” this and “let go” that when we’ve been writing about the NY (and Chicago) Tribal office over the past year, might as well shine a light when they’re actually hiring. How these new staffers will immediately benefit an agency whose creative department is seemingly in a bit of flux, though, is anyone’s guess.

More: “Stolte, Johnson Leave Tribal DDB NY”