-Among other notable Cannes happenings today, the Barbarian Group picked up a Grand Prix Lion in the newly created Innovation category for its creative coding platform, Cinder (highlight reel above, video explaining the technology here).

-Google-owned Motorola has reportedly shifted its global media duties–without a formal review–to Digitas. link

-Shawn Kardell, a former space150 vet who we’ve been told essentially built the Minneapolis agency’s UX department from scratch, has joined Digitaria’s Twin Cities office as user experience director.

-Y&R/Wunderman Latam has appointed seven-year and current CFO Manuel Segimon as COO, effective July 1. Succeeding Segimon as CFO will be Jesus Portillo.

-RAPP has welcomed Organic alum Michael Arugello as a senior art director.

-L.A.-based brand response agency Hawthorne Direct has welcomed Kathi Moore as its new VP/account director.

-Chrysler has recalled 2.7 million Jeeps, but don’t worry, the company assures that they’re still “safe.” link

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Sources add that the “small percentage” of cuts equates to essentially a handful of staffers in St. Louis, though we haven’t been able to confirm what current headcount is at Momentum’s Midwestern branch as a result. The St. Louis office currently works with clients including JM Smucker, William Grant & Sons, Pacific Gas & Electric and SSM Healthcare.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We’re trying to get a comment/statement from Yum! Brands-owned Pizza Hut, which worked with BBDO for 20 years prior to moving its account to the Martin Agency. Some of the latter’s most recent work for the chain includes this year’s “Hut Hut Hut” pre-Super Bowl push (see after the jump). No word yet if Pizza Hut’s review includes the digital and social components, which Martin also took over on two years ago, but we’ll hopefully have some clarification this afternoon.

Update: Pizza Hut has issued the statement below regarding the move. We’ve been told that the review involves just the advertising account as Martin doesn’t actually handle digital and social. Huge in fact manages e-commerce for the brand and TracyLocke is handling the latter.

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Most people can barely walk and chew gum at the same time, but Arnold Worldwide’s latest creation, the socially versatile Pogogram, can multitask with ease. The pogo stick can bounce, take video and pictures, and post content to Instagram, Vine, Flickr, etc. Still working on that chewing gum bit, though. I’m not sure why the agency would build such a tricked-out pogo stick with a Canon G15 camera attached – maybe so staffers can goof around in the lobby on breaks? – but it’s a cool side project bolstered by a minimalist video with a peppy French song straight out of a Woody Allen movie. You may also want to know that Pogogram even holds a pogo stick Guinness World Record for highest bounce.

Arnold seems to have a fondness for building souped-up consumer products. First there was the socially connected beer vending machine, a homey staple for frat houses with an abundance of engineering students. Next came the Arnold Bike from Arnold Amsterdam. Beer vending machine, check. Bike, check. Pogo stick, check. Now, is there a way to combine all of the inventions together? Maybe a hydraulic bike with a beer dispenser? Think of the awards that baby could win…

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If you’re as forgetful as we are, let us just remind those of you based in NYC who didn’t make the trek out to Nice that the Wrath of Cannes returns this Thursday. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, competition and judging returns for the seventh annual installment of Woods Witt Dealy & Sons’ annual event, which focuses on the agency’s new brew, Wrath of Cannes Bitter Ale. While WWD&S has a recipe, label design and brewer in tow, the agency needs funds to bring its Bitter Ale to life, hence why it’s going the Kickstarter route. The Wrath 7 competition itself is explained in this brief, which asks participants to devise a social media campaign to drive folks to Kickstarter and ultimately donate.

Those who feel like competing can submit ideas directly at this Thursday’s event, which takes place at 200 Orchard from 7-11 PM. You can get further updates by following WoC7 here.

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Along with his 15-plus years of agency experience, Thurlow perhaps more interestingly moonlights as an illustrator whose Covers series has been featured in Juxtapoz among other trades. Regarding his exit from Grey, which we hear is currently ramping up staff on its recently won Gillette biz, one tipster laments that Thurlow “deserved a hell of a lot better.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

-SapientNitro has unveiled its second of six Cannes Lions infographics, this time focusing on the ’60s. link

-Speaking of, the Cannes 2013 Cyber, Design and Radio Lions shortlists have been released, with winners to be announced Thursday. link

-Advertising/publishing vet Marc Gallucci and former Goldman Sachs VP Lane Murphy have launched their new content marketing firm, Relevant24 (or R24 for short), in Boston’s South End. link

-Global social media agency We Are Social hired J.D. Power and Associates alum Michael Greve as a senior analyst in its New York office.

-London-based digital agency Metia Group has launched a free app for Windows 8 called Modern Web Analytics. link

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Regarding her company’s new digital AOR appointment, L’Oreal Luxe president Carol J. Hamilton says, “I am so pleased to have a partnership with Firstborn, whose dedicated energy and expertise in the world of digital will help drive our brands to new heights.” As a result of the win, Firstborn essentially extends its relationship with L’Oreal as it’s already worked with the brand’s Redken line. The digital shop, which has also handled digital efforts for other notable brands including Pepsi, Aflac and Under Armour, will initially focus on digital ecommerce marketing strategies for various brands within the Luxe portfolio.

R/GA, which had served as Luxe digital AOR for two years, will still continue its seven-year relationship with L’Oreal Paris.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

From Team One and director Jonas Åkerlund (whose music video reel includes Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up,” Blink 182′s “I Miss You,” and Madonna’s “Ray of Light”) comes a new campaign for the Lexus IS. As you can see, Lexus is really trying to market their new luxury sedan as a high-fashion, chique automobile, which strays a bit from the brand’s usual “Hey, you want a luxury car, but you don’t want to go nuts?” appeal. And, considering Åkerlund’s impressive resume, who better to pay a ton of money to make your product pop on TV?

Both “Crowd” and “Color Shift” succeed in that they’re flashy, somewhat dystopian depiction of urban wealth looks starkly different than any other car advertising you’ll see during commercial breaks. However, will consumers buy that Lexus is a brand that can adeptly align itself with fashionable, rebellious youth? Credits after the jump.

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-Following a review, San Francisco-based shop Heat has been appointed as the first agency of record for file-sharing service, YouSendIt. Expect Heat’s first “consumer-facing” campaign for its latest client to launch next month.

-Publicis Groupe-owned Rosetta has launched its first Commerce Center of Excellence (why are we reminded of Zoolander all of a sudden?) in San Luis Obispo, CA. The new Center will serve as the main hub for the agency’s commerce-related efforts. link

-And so it begins. McCann Melbourne’s “Dumb Ways to Die” has already picked up the Cannes PR Lions Grand Prix while W+K and Heineken has nabbed the Grand Prix in Creative Effectiveness. link

-Among other Cannes items of note today, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced the 2013 brief for the Cannes Chimera Initiative. This year’s focus is on fighting “extreme poverty.” link

-If you happened to wander by the Google Beach today at Cannes, you might’ve caught Converse’s Hack-a-Chuck (demo above). link

-SapientNitro is targeting business execs with its Social Stock Ticker. link

-Omnicom-owned, Minneapolis-based agency Martin|Williams has added a handful of full-timer staffers including account manager Callie Andersen, media analyst Stephanie Haas and Tim Lien as production lead.

-Just in time for summer, Watermelon Oreos, anyone? link

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Even though Domino’s recently redesigned their logo, that doesn’t mean all of the company’s old materials have to go to waste. The newest content from the pizzamaker and AOR CP+B showcases products built from recycled Domino’s materials like staff shirts, pizza boxes, and anything that incorporated the old logo. You can check out some of the “upcycled” gear on Pinterest – the above picture is just one example of the innovative user creations: an in-progress light fixture made of company signane and pizza boxes.

This project from CP+B is the latest in a consistent line of inventive campaigns that have helped build up some brand equity for Domino’s. We’ve covered a few of the efforts here – a consumer contest for the “Ultimate Delivery Vehicle,” a digital suggestion box called “Think Oven“, etc. All of the content has been very social and very original, allowing for customers to constantly engage with the pizza chain. Basically, Papa John ain’t got nothing on that.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Channeling the spirits of Lonely Island and many an agency rapper before him, Grey New York producer/production coordinator Adam Defrin has taken it upon himself to write, director, perform in and edit this clip to promote the agency’s monthly open bar outing that it’s dubbed “Dog & Pony.” If you can sit through the clip, which features an apt theme and setting as the first Dog & Pony show is essentially a booze cruise, you’ll catch an odd likeness of Grey NY president/CCO, Toy Myhren, which we guess counts for a ringing endorsement of Defrin’s handiwork. Our only question is, why are the MC/creator and his sidekick wearing sunglasses under the darkest of skies?

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While yours truly languishes in the humidity shrouding NYC as of now, we’ll be receiving daily Cannes reports from one Chris Zander, managing director/partner at Venice, CA-based prodco, Backyard. As he awaits his flight to the French Riviera, Zander, who will be be going rogue in a sense for the duration of this year’s Cannes Lions, tells us in his first submission, why go in the first place? Consider this an introduction post more than anything if you will. Stay tuned and you can follow Zander at @realchriszander.

Tonight, I’ll be on Delta 82 to Nice with half of the advertising world.  The next five days will be a whirlwind of dinners, drinks, villa parties, networking, late night dancing and late morning jogs.  This year my travel partner will be Kris Mathur, my good friend, Backyard’s esteemed executive producer, and the real Most Interesting Man in the World.

If you want the Cannes Ad Festival updates, you are in the wrong place.  I won’t be buying a delegate pass.  I tried going “official”  one year, and went to multiple sanctioned events.  It wasn’t for me.  I discovered that short list screenings were a perfect opportunity to catch up on sleep.

My guess is that at least half of the annual attendees are in Cannes as unofficial delegates.  Walk around the Gutter Bar before the sun comes up next Sunday morning, and you may see one or two happy people carrying around Gold Lions…maybe.  Trust me: if the crowd was limited to the award winners and delegates, the festival wouldn’t be nearly as fun, crowded, and colorful, and almost everybody would be asleep by midnight.  There would be nobody in the street to pose for pictures with the Leopard Ladies.  The energy level would be severely reduced, and the opportunity to be taken on day trips to Saint Tropez would we greatly diminished.

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Usually, city rivalries related to sporting match-ups involve wacky wagers from politicians. The mayor of City X wants 100 pounds of cheese from the governor of City Y if City X wins the Super Bowl. But for the 2013 Stanley Cup between the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks, the wacky wagers are getting social and, well, smack-talky. The folks over at Arnold Boston and Leo Burnett in Chicago are using the Stanley Cup to launch their own trash-talking competition for charity: The Smackley Cup. Agency employees and random fans from all over are encouraged to tweet using #smacktalkboston or #smacktalkchicago. Once the series concludes, the agency supporting the loser of the Stanley Cup will have to donate 10 cents per tweet and retweet to a charity AND wear the opposing team’s sweater in the office the following day. That sort of masochism always makes for fun water cooler talk.

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This three-minute Samsung spot played during halftime of the NBA Finals last night, and it ran before my YouTube videos this morning. It’s Jay-Z, playing with sweet beats, so of course I didn’t click “SKIP AD.” You better not either, because at 1:20 you’re going to bob your head emphatically as Jay and his team recreate the sound of the speakers blowing out. If you skip the ad, you’ll also miss Pharrell’s face, looking incredulous and smiley as he assists Jay’s genius. You’ll miss uber-producer Rick Rubin hanging out on the couch barefoot.

Just as we were getting worked up over Yeezus, HOV comes through with Magna Carta Holy Grail and perhaps the greatest (or at least highest-profile) marketing coup in Samsung’s history. On July 4, the first million Samsung Galaxy users to download a customized app will receive the album for free. Three days later, other drabby people–i.e. iPhone users–get access. It’s a tantalizing prospect, and one that depends on avoiding the lately inevitable leak. Or maybe not–if the app’s “personalized stories and inspiration” really consist of never-before-seen content, then it’s an asset even if (when) the music sweeps the Internet in advance.

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