SanDisk is dumping Grey SF if favor of Publicis & Hal Riney as their agency of record. They are entrusting Riney with the goal of creating "a clearer functional and emotional brand identity while supporting differentiation and sales."

It's about time they start focusing on having a clear brand identity. Remember the whole isheep campaign created by Grey SF , Venables Grey SF. Yeah, me neither. In my mind, they haven't had a memorable campaign thus far. So Riney has nowhere to go but up.

The hits just keep on coming. A tipster sent us this tidbit about Publicis Groupe North America:

"(PGNA) laid off 10 percent of their IT team today. The division does IT from Bromley to Zenith in the Pub Groupe Universe."

I have no idea how many people that is, maybe some of you could elaborate, extrapolate, probate.

Update: "ReSources IT is the 'company' that does all the IT for PubGroupe. It's been a mess for years, with 2 're-organizations' in 2 years. Today's 40 employees (including myself) is just the next attempt for the IT division to prove to their brands (Leo Burnett, Starcom, Saatchi, et. all) they are trying to be progressive.' In reality, PGNA's IT is backward, messed up in 'process' and can't get things done. Hate that I lost my job, happy I am gone from there."

From anon:

"A Publicis Seattle e-mail went out yesterday to the creatives making it mandatory to be there by 9:30 a.m., because apparently they think that's the reason morale is down. They've had ton of creative turnover this year."

"It's not that big of a deal. Just that that place is super broken, they are struggling to figure out interactive and have no full time interactive people on staff. Which sucks because there are some cool people that work there and they'll prolly all quit by end of summer."

"This is a business and we are supposed to be professionals. Part of being a professional is having enough respect for your job and for your colleagues to show up at a reasonable time, ready to go. Too may people are straggling in too late, and this is having a ripple effect in terms of morale, energy, and simply getting stuff done.

So, this is the deal:
Every creative, in the office, ready to go by 9:30, latest. If you can't make it because of an appointment, a client meeting, production, or you worked until midnight the night before, etc., your obligation is to call XXXX, who is in here every day pretty much at 8, and let her know your situation.

If this doesn't work, we will need to consider other measures."

Ah the lives we lead. Thanks anon.

Publicis, in an apparent dash-and-grab, has picked up EmporioAsia, the leading digital agency in China. As the Red country's ginormous population emigrates to the Web, the rest of the world is scrambling to grab it for their clients.

And what better way for Pubicsis (get it?) to do just that, than bla bla bla.

We heard about this awhile back and since then, bated breaths have been emitted from our salivating mouths. Ew, that sounds fucking gross.

More following a click.

continued...

Seems Publicis in the West -- based in Seattle -- laid off several this morning as well -- both freelancers & creatives.

Susan Giannino, Chairman and CEO of Publicis USA, was out there visiting a couple of weeks ago -- and we were told that it was a routine visit and that everything was going great.

Maybe not so much -- we'll hit up the PR people to see how they spin it this time...keeps "hump day" interesting if nothing else.

Publicis is reviewing the agency operations in London as its starts a consultation with the current staff that could lead to shitcanning some staff. It is expected to lead to at least ten people will get the axe if it comes down to it -- which means it probably will come to that conclusion.

The London-based senior suits are meeting with Publicis Groupe worldwide chief executive Richard Pinder next week to discuss the situation. Pinder says there maybe some layoffs but adds that some of the jobs may be relocated abroad.

All of this comes after Publicis retained the $200 million below the line HP account in the EMEA region after a marathon six-way pitch. They lost the advertising account they had held onto for 12 years back in January 2006.

Apparently Publicis promised HP that they'd re-jig the account to make some savings & "streamlining of costs" (read: people reporting to the unemployment line) in order to retain it.

Publicis London suffered a series of losses last year including Asda, MFI and The Post Office, which was a third of its billing. It led to the departure of then chief executive Grant Duncan and UK chairman Tim Lindsay. It later appointed former Vodafone marketer Neil Simpson as chief executive.

It's been 42 days since Publicis Seattle Art Director and father of two, Nicolas Francisco, went missing.

After leaving work on February 13th, he "disappeared." His car was found only days later. His pregnant wife begged everyone to help her find him.

So, where's this case gone lately?

And people who knew Nick seem split on the issue now. Was it foul play? Or cowardice?

The media hasn't really explored the fact that Nick apparently told his church he'd planned quitting. A church that has a rather controversial reputation to begin with, quoting Snoop Dogg in sermons laden with firmly-prescribed gender roles. Some even refer to it as "cult-like."

Here's an article about Nick's church from Salon.com.

There's been speculation that the link between Nick's resignation from the church and his disappearance are far too coincidental.

On the flip-side, some of his co-workers tend to think he just cut and run. Not a pleasant thought, but considerably less scary than the alternative.

Nick had only known about his wife's pregnancy for a matter of days before disappearing. There's been buzz about a lot of missing money from a PayPal account he had... and apparently the family was beyond broke.
Perhaps his resignation from the church was simply a heads-up... like, "hey. I'm not gonna be around soon." And ditching one's own car isn't exactly rocket surgery.

A soap opera worthy of the name "As the Rumor Mill Turns."

Either way, we hope Nick returns back safe and sound.
42 days and counting.

****

http://www.findnicholasfrancisco.com/

Hal Riney, advertising legend and founder of Publicis, has passed away from cancer yesterday. He was 75. Riney was named number 30 on the Advertising Age 100 people of the 20th century. He was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2001. AdAge, who broke the news, has a comprehensive obituary.

"Riney's unique body of work celebrates, implicitly if not flat-out, the American spirit and voice -- often his own, deep honey-coated voice-over. For Saturn cars, Crocker Bank, Alamo car rentals, Henry Weinhard beers, Gallo (with front-porch stars Bartles & Jaymes) and "Morning in America" for Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign, Riney's words and pictures conveyed sincerity, warmth and credibility. He was recruited from Botsford Ketchum by David Ogilvy and opened O&M's San Francisco office in 1976. In 1986, he took over the office, renaming it Hal Riney & Partners, and went on to mastermind GM's Saturn introduction with dazzling success. Often imitated, never surpassed, Riney's work achieved larger-than-life levels of creative excellence."

Ad data processor Donovan Data Systems and Publicis' Starcom Mediavest are going to war. CEO Michael Donovan (pictured below) runs one of Madison Avenue's biggest operating system for media buys. Publicis Groupe Media was a big client of Donovan's. In an attempt to keep the Starcom MediaVest unit as a client, Donovan flew to Chicago to make his bid to CEO Jack Klues.

It didn't go so well with Donovan calling out Klues on Starcom secrets. He even produced some sort of written evidence, which affidavits refer to as a "highly confidential document." You better believe Publicis wants to keep this under wraps as the document is supposedly a business plan of SMG'spotential joint venture and co-market a new data processing system that would be a tough competitor for Donovan. MediaBank has been making this new system. This is like Watergate, folks. These are plans, which Donovan should not have his hands on. It would put Publicis media unit at huge disadvantage if were leaked considering it contains the unit's finances. [Please! Someone leak it to us! We love the brawl. We want front row seats!] Publicis has spent the last 10 months trying to make sure it never sees the light of day.

When it rains, it pours. These things come in threes. Insert your own adage here. Turns out that Publicis West has laid off somewhere between 8-10 people from across a wide swath of department. We hope that whoever these folks are get back to work soon.

This move is not due to a client loss. The lay-offs seem to be based on the shop shifting itself towards more digital and brand experience initiatives. Hunh. Interesting.