Archives: September 2010

Ever-Twittering Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer announced the early beta launch of FourScore, a tool to help businesses understand check-ins and the data generated by users of location-aware apps.

According to the DF camp, FourScore is a way for serious marketers to begin understanding not only the significance of their customers actively and passively sharing data about their location, but the size of that audience relative to their competitors  nationwide.

So come check it out and see where you stand. In the meantime, here’s something for you: Peep this list and look at the bottom and you’ll notice media and ad agencies check-in more than anyone else in their zip code.

More: “Foursquare: A Thief’s Resource for Homes to Rob“

Nick Brien‘s been a busy man this week it seems as the CEO of McCann Worldgroup has announced leadership changes across various units including MRM, McCann Healthcare and Worldgroup itself. Most notable is the appointment of Marc Landsberg to CEO of MRM Worldwide. Landsberg replaces Reuben Hendell, who spent the last six years as head of the agency but is now “leaving” we’ve been told.

Landsberg arrives from private equity firm Lake Capital, but held senior exec posts at Arc Worldwide and Leo Burnett. While we’re on the MRM tip, the agency added a few other staffers to its NYC HQ including John Running as SVP, director of technology, Martha Pearlstone as SVP, brand leader on General Mills and Diageo as well as Shannon Di Paola as VP, director of search.

Along with the MRM leadership shift, 14-year McCann Healthcare vet John Cahill has been named global CEO of said unit. As for the Worldgroup , Tara Comonte succeeds Gary Lee as CFO,  Patrick Lafferty is joining to lead the newly created Global Brand Community.  Overseas, McCann is splitting up its EMEA region, with Brett Gosper continuing to head Europe and Luca Linder adding the Middle East and Africa to his Latin America/Caribbean responsibilities.

More: “Former McCann Exec Gets Into Acquisition Game“

On its website, TED announced its “Ads Worth Spreading Challenge,” a contest that serves as an open invitation to the global advertising community to “reinvent, inspire and engage audiences with a new realization of what advertising can mean in the digital age.”

TED’s curator, Chris Anderson says in a statement,”We want to encourage development of ads with a difference, ads that engage our audience authentically, intelligently, delightfully. Ads that people will want to share because, like the rest of TED, they encapsulate ideas worth spreading.”

You may start submitting as we speak but your video campaigns must be submitted to the contest no later than January 10, 2011. A judging panel will select up to 10 winning video campaigns, which will premiere at TED2011, February 28-March 4, 2011, for the gathered audience of 1500 people, and will appear on TED.com for free for one week in March.

The videos must be anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes in length and must be promotional in nature like commercials, PSAs or self-promotion. Remember, this isn’t AFV. All entrants into the Ads Worth Spreading Challenge will be notified as to whether their video has been selected by Friday, February 25, 2011.

More: Big Ad Gig Clip Pays Tribute to Falco, Vents at Andrew Keller

After spending the last year serving as managing partner at UK’s Santo, Toby Pschorr has joined up with DDB UK to serve as deputy MD of the agency’s global Philips team.

Pschorr, who succeeds Roger Trollope, begin his career at BMW in Germany before moving over to the agency side, spending two years each at WCRS (board account director) and Fallon (group account director) before settling in for the next four years at BBH London, where he ultimately served as head of account management until 2009.

More: “Tribal DDB Canada Promotes Yaskowich to MD“

Alas, our time with Linda Sawyer has come to an end. Here is the third and final installment from our Media Beat interview with the Deutsch CEO, who talks about winning the VW account, the effect of the Deutsch/Lowe merger, the departure of Eric Hirshberg and of course, life with that guy named Donny.

More: “Media Beat: Abbey Klaassen on Ad Age’s Early Move into Pay Walls“

Back in January, the Television Bureau of Canada (TVB) and ad agency john st., Toronto broadcast advertisements touting the miraculous nutrition of broccoli for five weeks. However, TVB is now revealing that the ads weren’t for broccoli at all. Instead, they were used to prove that television advertising works and call sell something even as truly wretched as broccoli.

The results from the experiment are quite startling, aside from the fact that Canada doesn’t really need to worry about health in comparison to their neighbors to the south (hey-o). Over the five weeks the “Miracle Food” campaign ran, fan-produced Facebook pages supporting broccoli gained as many as 20,000 members, broccoli sales went up at staggering 8% and Canadians added a total of 188,574 pounds of the vegetable to their shopping carts.

Three different ads were televised including the one above and this one a viewer could see as a light jab at the whole John and Kate Plus Eight terribleness that has plagued us this past year. The spots were directed by OPC’s Brian Lee Hughes and pointed to TheMiracleFood.ca. TVB and st. john are now following the television spots with a print ad revealing the experimental and inauthentic nature of the campaign.

More: “Wal-Mart Concocts Fake Community Group to Gain Chicago Support“

The IAB MIXX Awards gala took place last night incase you didn’t know and HBO’s True Blood was the big winner, taking Best in Show for the “Hacking Reality” campaign, which was created by the premium cable network and Digital Kitchen (which is also responsible for the show’s brooding intro).

The comprehensive campaign included co-branding efforts, online, outdoor, print, viral videos, etc., etc. Like other awards shows before it this year, MIXX also bestowed Gold prizes upon HBO for the BBDO-created “Imagine” campaign, which earned top honors in the Digital Integration and Brand Awareness & Positioning categories. For the full list of winners at MIXX 2010, which featured judges such as Jeff Benjamin and Lori Senecal, click here.

More: “Gawker Media and the Blood Copy Campaign“

We’ve been told by reliable sources that the Toshiba laptop account is currently in review. From what our sources are saying, the brand is looking at both East and West Coast shops though which ones exactly weren’t revealed. Toshiba’s laptop biz has been handled for the last 4 1/2 years by Wunderman. Sources tell us that with this news, coupled with the losses of Dell and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Y&R’s San Francisco one of Y&R’s West Coast operations could be shuttered–though it’s still a bit early to hammer the nail in the coffin at this point. We’re reaching out to Toshiba to get more info on this matter. Stay tuned…

Update: According to our source, they’ve collapsed Y&R Irvine and Y&R SF under SF leadership. Wunderman SF and Wunderman Irvine have been collapsed under Irvine leadership.

Update 2: The Y&R camp tells us thatSan Fran and Irvine are “doing just fine. SF has major accts like Chevron and SunGard; Irvine has Mattel and Jenny Craig, among others.”

More: “Dear Xerox, Y&R Making You Look Bad“

-Jason Schwartzman introduces the New Yorker iPad app. link

-La Comunidad hired David&Goliath alum Rodrigo Butori as creative director. link

-The FTC accuses pomegranate juice brand POM of false advertising. link

-Dunkin Donuts seeks “ultimate coffee fan” via Facebook. link

-Apple TV gets delayed. link

More: “Tuesday Morning Stir“

David & Goliath features overhyped golfer Michelle Wie in its latest spot for the Kia Soul. Challenger spirit, superior performance and terrific style are the marks Kia is trying to hit by bringing on Wie. Like Kia to the automotive category, Michelle brings a refreshing, yet still unfulfilled perspective to the world of golf. Stick them both together and you’ve got yourself a contemporary idea. It makes sense doesn’t it? The music, Kid Sister’s, “Pro Nails,” helps reinforce that idea.

To pull off the TV effort, D&G enlisted, oddly enough, director Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo,  Never Let Me Go) and Spotwelders editor Michael Heldman.

More: “Kia, D&G Attempt to Drive Change“