Crispin Porter & Bogusky

Just yesterday Crispin's new site launched, and though it's still in Beta, Dog + Pony's Matt Morin noticed a stark similarity between the Crispin site and Perspectv's. Whaddya think?

Via

More: "Crispin's Beta is Up"

Ta'other day, @bogusky let us know his agency's site would be demo'd and a new thinga-ma-bob would land in its place. And then there was light. Above is the intro video, courtesy one Alex Bogusky, who apparently works there.

Some features of said site: A simple setup including video, blog posts, news and tweets about Crispin. Click a button and all that CP+B content is swapped out for info pertaining to whichever button you hit. For example, press the Microsoft button and it all changed to (wa waaaa) Microsoft stuff. Let me google that for you.

Mostly you'll find the agency's biggest clients like Microsoft, VW, Burger King, Old Navy, Domino's, Hulu, Coke Zero and so on. If one thing can be said, it's simple and supposedly transparent. Apparently the agency will only control some of the video content which means if we say, like, "hey that CP+B agency eats babies" that falsehood would presumably land on the site. But, we'd never say anything like that.

Do you want me to link to it? Not sure I want to give those kids the attention. OK here. beta dot cpbgroup dot com. Go forth, yon wunderkind.

Oh and if you're particularly interested in recreating the site in its entirety or emulating part of it (because we must all be like CP+B), they're going to give out the code. Click continued for deets. Basically it looks (to this untrained eye) like Java + a monitter application.

More: "Kids These Days: a Cover Letter to Crispin"

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Never one to hide his love for outdoor activities, CP+B chief Alex Bogusky took to the airwaves a few days back on Smart City Radio to plug his nascent bike-sharing venture B-Cycle.

Bogusky engaged in a one-on-one convo with host Carol Coletta that covered the potential proliferation of B-Cycle initiatives throughout the U.S., the lack of outdoor advertising involved and whatever other related info he could squeeze into twenty minutes. But sorry CP+B lovers/haters, agency-related talk was merely an afterthought.

You can listen to the whole dry chat here.

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And for their next act, Crispin Porter + Bogusky has purchased a Swedish agency called Daddy. It cost them "an undiclosed sum", says CampaignLive. Click here for the story.

More: "Kids These Days: a Cover Letter to Crispin"

Thanks to the person who forwarded us this little article about Colorado University at Boulder's upcoming graduation commencement (May 8th, put it in your calendar!), where CP+B's Alexander Bogusky (as the article calls him) will be awarded an honorary degree, called Doctor of Humane Letters.

"Bogusky is an influential and creative advertising and marketing innovator and pioneer in the field of social marketing. Time magazine listed him among the "Visionaries of Tomorrow" in 2004. He is chairman of the Crispin Porter + Bogusky advertising agency, an award-winning agency with offices across the globe, including in Boulder. Bogusky will receive the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters."

According to Wikipedia, "The degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (Latin: Litterarum humanarum doctor; D.H.L.; or L.H.D.) is always conferred as an honorary degree, usually to those who have distinguished themselves in areas other than science (these normally receive the Doctor of Science), government (these often receive a Doctor of Laws degree), literature (these often receive a Doctor of Letters degree) or religion (these often receive a Doctor of Divinity D.D. degree in locations where American English is spoken, or a Doctor of Ministry D.Min. degree in locations where British English is spoken; Knowledge of the location is important, because the alternate degree is an earned degree in both locations)."

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Burger King has said that it will be beefing up its ad budget in 2010. Look for a 20 to 25 percent increase from the restaurant to the national level. It's Burger King FTW, kiddos.

The brand's lead agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, has recently been cranking out work featuring those oh-so Crispin pugilistic undertones. This, my friends, is their sweet spot and its looks like there's going to be a lot more where that came from. Good for Crispin. We wonder if the agency had any hand in pointing out that during a recession it's time to shine and take advantage of weakened competitors and lower media prices? That, and Burger King has seen a drop off in store visits causing a drip in their stock price. Yeah. That, too.

More: Time For The Waambulance: Steak n Shake Goes To Court With Ad Agency

UPDATE: According to The Consumerist and thanks to the work of their sleuths, all the offending employees have been fired. Still... Never. Eating. There. Again.

Warning: Do not watch this video if you are sitting down to lunch, okay? Blech and double blech. This video from YouTube is a Dominos PR nightmare. Boogers on food? A Piece of cheese inserted up a nose and then placed directly on a sandwich? It's almost unbelievable? And all the while, employees are laughing. Ohhh... that is so fricking nasty and if it goes massive, will totally negate any good work Crispin Porter has done for the brand. Oh heavens :barf:

Thanks to V for the link

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Recently, Fallon Minneapolis has been creeping back into the light with several account wins helping to ratchet up the momentum. And while, Fallon may have just been starting to shine on, recent developments have us wondering whether or not the shop is destined to slip back down into the darkness.

Al Kelly, who has been Executive Creative Director since 2007, has left Fallon. Where is he going? WE HEAR... that he's been interviewing with the likes of TBWA Chiat/Day among other shops. Why did he leave? You can take your pick from about 99 problems such as: Fallon's lack of serious commitment to building a digital capability; the intrusion of the Saatchi mindset on what was once a unique business and well, if you're getting courted by bigger, faster more dazzling agencies - wouldn't you bail on the tumultuous Fallon, too?

Digital Creative Director Chris Wiggins has quit as well. Too bad. He and his wife, Brenda Fogg, came up with the new social networking tool Skimmer, which was released under the Fallon banner. Just the kind of thinking death star agencies need right now. It seems that Crispin Porter recognizes the value of such ingenuity, because that's where Wiggins is headed.

Naturally, you're wondering who has been named to the ECD spot. It's Darren Spiller (pictured right) of Publicis Mojo Melbourne who was hand picked by the Saatchi overloads that run the SSF Group. From a cursory look at his resume, Darren is an accomplished creative director, but seems to have limited digital experience. No matter. Fallon CEO Chris Foster apparently wanted one of his own. If you recall, before coming to Fallon in March 2008, Foster was the VP, Global Equity Director at Saatchi & Saatchi New York. Our understanding is that Chris is still all about the business - running a ship in which account managers have all the say from traditional creative to digital and beyond.

And hey! Where does all this leave Dave Damman who returned to work under Kelly in 2007 to heavily support the creative team?

Who knows. Fallon isn't talking. Emails sent to the agency went unanswered. So, let's make some bets, yeah? Ten to one - Fallon will begin to farm out its digital work to partners rather than creating work in-house. Five to one - more talented, high level creatives and planners will be looking for the escape hatch. Two to one? If you love this business, right now, you feel a deep loss for the days when Pat Fallon's shop was blazing trails and burning up the industry.

More: Not Flash. Just SSF.

While McCann has the title of "lead agency" on the Microsoft business. Right now, you are probably snickering into your morning coffee at the term considering the brand engages quite a few shops on its business these days: Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Razorfish and more recently, JWT. And those are just the ones above the board. Who knows who is doing little assignments here and there?

Microsoft has recently put these agencies in a dog pit to face off for the brand's nameless, faceless new mobile application. Our guess is that this mysterious piece of business is Windows Mobile 7 or The Windows Marketplace (the new app store for people running Windows OS on their mobile phone), since PR agencies are currently engaged in a pitch for those accounts. Let the games begin, but perhaps, McCann might want to consider this as a warning shot from the brand. According to Adweek, "Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer who joined the company in August 2005, is not a proponent of a single agency partner and has pushed for bringing in other shops."

This reminds us of when McCann was forced to fight for project from their other long time parter, Intel, back in November. Just three months later, the entire account was moved to Venables, Bell and Partners. Stick and move McCann and keep your left up while you're at it.

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With power comes great responsibility and so, Alex Bogusky, head honcho over at Crispin Porter & Bogusky, decided to launch a bike share program: bikes lent out by a municipality for public use. With the help of a CP & B employee and avid biker, Dave Kingsbury; healthcare company Humana and the bike company, Trek, the ad agency created their own Denver based bicycle program.

Bogusky told a breathless crowd at SXSW that the program would cost a city $1.8M a year to maintain. However, he believes in the French model, which is run by an outdoor advertising company, JC Deaux, who funds the program with ad placements.

New York City has toyed with such ideas. Editorials appeared in The Times almost a year ago and now, a summer test run is planned for 2009. So you Madison Avenue kids? Get ready to ride.

Bogusky also told the Austin crowd: "It's about doing something a little bit outside of what you're doing every day." It's a model to live by.

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