We Hear…

Over the last 24 hours, we’ve been getting multiple tips about some turbulence occurring at Pulse, a unit of WPP’s Team Detroit that focuses on non-Ford clients that have ranged from Sports Authority to NASCAR to Shell over the years. One of the casualties from what we hear is Greg Braun, a former Y&R Detroit EVP/ECD who joined up with Pulse three years ago as co-president/ECD. Calls to Braun have been left unanswered, but we’re checking with the folks at Team Detroit for more clarification on the matter. We’ll keep you posted and as always, you can hit us up on the tips box.

image via

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.

Cline Davis & Mann may not be the sexiest of names when it comes to the agency world, but figured we’d tell you that the global agency, which has a client roster ranging from Pfizer to Bayer HealthCare, has cut 10-15 percent of staff according to sources familiar with the matter. Apparently, there was a meeting called in the last few days to discuss a “new organizational structure” and those that were affected included CDM and CDMi New York as well as development team Link9, and the network’s San Francisco office might possibly be closing. Of course, we’ve reached out to the CDM higher-ups on the matter but have yet to hear back.

So, once again, phone calls led nowhere, voicemails were not answered and operators could not “disclose” any such information on the matter, but word on the street is that Critical Mass’s Toronto office has parted ways with Cam Bedford, who has spent over three years as SVP/GM with the agency, as well as Clare Meridew, who served as SVP/group creative director up north for well over a year. No word on reasons why or where to next, but we’ll keep you posted.

Prior to CM, Meridew spent time at Grey while Bedford worked with the likes of Organic and Arnold Worldwide.

Don’t worry, AKQA is still very much in the Coca-Cola mix from what we know, but over the past few days, several tinkers, tailors, soldiers and spies have been telling us that the agency lost out on the paid search part of the account. When pressed for comment, the digital agency said, “In respect for our long-term relationship with Coca-Cola, we are going to decline any comment in regards to our relationship.”

We’re hearing that the paid search portion was run out of AKQA’s New York office, but after a recent review, potential baton-grabbers could be iCrossing or 360i. From what we’ve been told, there is still a search relationship between Coke and AKQA, but the details are hazy when it comes to AOR status. We’ll keep you posted as the story develops.

 

After what had to be a tough month to endure, the Y&R network could use some uplift and since the beginning of December, we’ve been hearing that agency’s Chicago office has locked yet another account, which happens to be BMO Harris Bank. We haven’t received confirmation from the agency yet, but since Dec. 6, we’ve received pretty straightforward tips like these: “Y&R chicago awarded AOR for BMO Harris” or “BMO Harris won by Y&R Chicago. Announcement coming soon.”

If true, this marks yet another win for Y&R Chicago CCO Bob Winter, who in just 15 months on the job, has led a team that’s picked up several accounts including Dave & Buster’s, Famous Footwear and the YMCA. Nearly five months ago, Chicago-based Harris Bank, as it was known pre-merger, launched a review for its creative account, which was handled by Element79 since 2005. As the tipsters hinted, we hear that some sort of announce is expected within the next few days. We’ll keep you posted.

image

This could be the case according to a diligent spy, who sent us detailed info that outlines Twitter’s plans to spend $25 million in advertising this year across all channels. The “2012 Media Concept Plan” includes a handful of options and each one is broken down into tiers. Tier one, for example, includes two :30 spots (one for national broadcast TV, one for national broadcast and cable TV), national digital/mobile efforts such as roadblocks and preroll on key affinity sites (NYTimes, People, etc.), event advertising and of course, print including “premium placement spreads [and] editorial integrations.”

Our source says that the microblogging service will hold a meeting around the last week of this month with the board of directors and a final decision will be made. While the hopes are to launch the marketing effort in conjunction with the Academy Awards, given time constraints, it appears that March Madness could be a more likely launch pad. Our sources adds that Twitter’s plan “is to culminate with over $10MM in spend around the Olympics.” We’re of course checking with the company to see what’s panning out, and who its agency partners will be if any should this 2012 campaign get the green light.

Like Chris Bradley‘s status at R/GA, things are murky at this point but sources are telling us that TBWA\Chiat\Day NY senior creative team David Suarez (art director) and Danny Gonzalez (copywriter) have left for gigs at Gerry Graf‘s fellow New York-based operation, BFG9000. We’ve been told the pair had only been at Chiat for 11 months, give or take. Prior to that, Suarez and Gonzalez held their respective AD and CW posts at JWT New York on campaigns for Huggies (remember this from a year ago?) among others. As always, we’ll let you know when we know, but from what we hear, the pair starts at BFG this week.

Update: Gerry Graf has confirmed to us that Gonzalez and Suarez are joining BFG9000 next week.

Since our post last Friday about now-former Big Fuel ECD Chris Bradley, who left the agency after just 11 months, a handful of spies have emerged from the shadows to tell us that he’s heading to R/GA. The “agency for the digital age” has yet to confirm Bradley’s arrival, though we’re hearing that he’ll assume a similar title at its New York HQ. While we continue prodding and poking R/GA for some clarification on the matter, we’ll remind you that Bradley also held lengthy, high-level creative posts at the likes of Arnold and Ogilvy during his career.

Since JCPenney added Minneapolis-based Peterson Milla Hooks to its agency roster over a month ago, some were wondering where this move would leave Saatchi & Saatchi NY, which has exclusively handled creative duties for the brand for the last five years (who can forget “Beware of the Doghouse”). Well, over the past week, we’ve received a few tips from different sources claiming that the retailer has indeed parted ways with Saatchi and that the parties involved are just keeping things quiet.

We reached out to JCPenney the minute we started hearing these grumblings on Dec. 20, but have yet to hear a peep from the brand or Saatchi for that matter. Well, it is the holidays after all, but considering that JCPenney’s new management brought PMH on board and changed PR agencies in just a month’s time, would a split from Saatchi seem all that shocking? Hopefully we’ll find out whether the relationship’s intact or not as we head into 2012. OK, back to autopilot mode.

Update: Well, they’re keeping quiet no more as a JCPenney spokesperson tells us, “Both jcpenney and Saatchi mutually decided to end our relationship.” According to tipsters, the creative account is worth something to the tune of $400 million, though we’re checking with Penneys on that.