We Hear…

All we hear is the busy signal on multiple occasions when dialing for Eric Bader, who multiple sources say is no longer with Initiative, where he’s served as president/chief strategy officer for the last two years. By the way, Inititative needs to do some updating on its website, as it still has Richard Beaven toplining its leadership team. Beavan, if you may remember, was cut from the IPG agency over a month ago. According to our spies, Bader’s apparent departure is part of Matt Seiler and Jim Hytner’s retooling at Initiative. We’re pressing for comment on the matter and will let you know when we get it.

Let’s flashback to the ’90s and refresh the phrase, “things that make you go hmmm.” Well, we’ve received several tips that Eliza Esquivel, who was promoted just over a year ago to the position of director of planning at TBWA\Chiat\Day New York, has turned in her resignation after spending nearly four years at the agency. We contacted Esquivel directly to find out if she’s indeed leaving, and the rather soft-spoken exec in turn offered us a curt “no comment.”

We will let you draw your own conclusions on that one, and since TBWA still seems to be boycotting officially communicating with us (we think), we’ll have to wait for the newswires or the other pubs to find out where she’s headed to next. Wherever she lands, Esquivel carries quite the resume on the planning side, having worked at the likes of W+K Amsterdam, DDB and JWT New York prior to joining Chiat NY.

Since Monday, multiple sources have been telling us that Atlanta-based Moxie Interactive has cut staff and one of those affected is EVP, account planning & research Alyse Schwartz. Multiple calls to the exec, who has been with Moxie for six-and-a-half years, have been met with automated voicemails and on Twitter this past Monday, she tweeted this rather cryptic comment: “The biggest decisions are the hardest #HardestThingsInLife.” We’ve been told that Moxie cut approximately 15 staffers on Monday.

We’ve put in several calls and emails to the Publicis/ZenithOptimedia agency, which recently lost longtime creative Chris Gomersall to Facebook (and not to mention its top exec last December).  We’ll keep you posted when we get more info.

So, over the last 24/7, we’ve heard word from a few sources that Leo Burnett has won out in a pitch for Nintendo’s Wii U console, which according to site, is dubbed as a “next home console.” We’re checking in, but right now, we’ve been deferred to the client. LB is deferring to the client, which has yet to respond. We’ll keep you posted.

Since March 1, we’ve been receiving tips that McKinney partner/chief strategy officer Andrew Delbridge is no longer with Raleigh-Durham agency McKinney, which has repeatedly denied his departure. Then again, we have no proof that he’s still there as calls have been transferred to someone else’s voicemail. Delbridge has spent 12 years at the NC agency and has recently served as chairman on the strategy committee for the 4A’s.

In addition to Delbridge, we’re hearing that partner, connection planning director Doug Holroyd is also out at McKinney. No word on his status either (check what toplines his LinkedIn), but prior to his most recent gig, he held a similar role for five years at Fallon. We’ll let you know what’s happening as the story develops.

Update: We’ve received confirmation that Delbridge is moving on from his CSO post, though he will remain on as a consultant to McKinney. In addition, we’ve been told as part of “reviewing where we want to focus strategic efforts moving forward,” McKinney has also parted ways with Holroyd.

It was only weeks ago that we mentioned the “Restaurant Catch-Up” blog started by Mendelsohn Zien, which, if you need a refresher, was fully acquired by Japanese agency network Hakuhodo in 2009 and renamed MZ Advertising. But judging from the image above, which is all that greets you when you visit the Santa Monica, CA agency’s homepage, it looks like activity has come to a halt at MZ (links to staff pages including that of Richard Zien have been met with the ol’ “404 Not Found” message).

Perhaps they’re just retooling their site? Whatever the case, we’re still waiting for the West Coast to wake up, but inquiries have been sent to our contacts at MZ, which perhaps never recovered from losing longtime client CKE Restaurants at the end of 2009 (though it still counted clients including Qantas Airways and Farmer John).

From what we hear from sources, Zach Hilder has moved on from his ACD post at BBH New York to creative director at 72andSunny. No confirmation on this yet, but you may remember Hilder as the guy who created an image called “Fuck Photoshop Pencil” (above). Yes nerds and those alike, we’ve heard from sources that he is heading to the MDC-owned 72. During his career, he’s worked  as a copywriter at the likes of Energy BBDO and Hal Riney.

Over the last few days, we’ve been inundated with tips regarding layoffs at Wieden + Kennedy due to the loss of the Target business. W+K has yet to respond, but we’re hearing that it’s not just the Portland HQ that’s been affected (NYC, London and others have been murmured about). Numbers, like always, are all over the place, anywhere from a dozen to 60 (though tipsters sometimes tend to get apocalyptic with things). Anyhow, if you have anymore info on the matter, give us a shout at agencyspy at gmail dot com.

Update. We’ve been told the cuts were limited to Portland and indeed because of Target. The number at this time has been limited to 40. Here is a statement from a W+K spokesperson : “This is never something we like to say, but yes we are in the process of layoffs. As a result of the loss of the Target account we are making some adjustments to our staffing that reflect the loss in revenue. Yesterday we sadly parted ways with a number of valued employees from a variety of disciplines within the agency.”

BBDO has declined to comment and no one answered when we called, but tipsters have been telling us today that Proximity Chicago has folded into Energy BBDO. As you can see, folks like Claudia Richman, SVP, solutions director who previously listed her agency gig at Proximity, has changed her LinkedIn to Energy BBDO. So has Andrew Kasprzycki, who has spent the last four years at the agency as EVP/MD, digital. If you want further proof that they worked at Proximity, look no further than here. Anyhow, we hope to have more clarification on the matter shortly.

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.

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