StrawberryFrog

Sophie Kelly, who was the executive management director of Diageo over at JWT, has hopped over to StrawberryFrog New York. Kelly will be managing the Frito Lay brands for the agency, which includes TrueNorth snacks, Stacy's Pita Chips and the hummus brand Sabra.

This is no small move. Kelly joins the management team at the agency, which includes Scott Goodson, global planning director (the awesome) Ilana Bryant, head of planning Chip Walker and executive creative director Kevin McKeon and Ramesh Rajan, who runs business over at the pond.

More: JWT and JetBlue: Stick it in Your Eye, CEOs Etc.

George Nguyen, Group Strategy Director at StrawberryFrog, has been poached by TBWA. George spent just 365 days in the pond's New York office. Before that, he worked beneath Domenico Vitale at Lowe New York. Nguyen has been tapped to head up TBWA Vietnam's office as managing director. TBWA is totally focused on emerging markets these days considering the U.S. is currently a big, fat disaster. Nguyen will report to Ian Thubron, CEO of TBWA Hong Kong.

TBWA Group has also recently acquired Vietnam agency, BizSolutions along with its 120 employees in an effort to make an impact on the market. The shop has been rebranded Biz Tequila and falls beneath Nguyen's direction. Yeah. So. Good luck with that George.

Since, George's job is now open at the New York office of Da Frog... Hey planners, might want to dust off those resumes, yeah?

More: Strawberry Frog Reuses Cheesy Themes to Deliver Good Message

With the holiday season upon us, we can expect many, many, many cliched spots with big red ribbons, smiling white folk and fake winter wonderlands. Strawberry Frog has produced a Web site and 30 second spots that piggybacks off those ads, but pack a different (and much better) punchline.

In the first, a man leads his wife outside, and we see them in front of a garage. When he opens it, her eyes light up at what she sees. A sheep.

The campaign/Web site is for changethepresent dot org, a non-profit that wants to remind you that spending a ton of cash on a new car this holiday season is really friggin' selfish, and you should buy the less fortunate things they need to sustain themselves. Well, that's the quick version of the story anyway. Click here to learn more about this good cause. And click continued to see another spot similar to the one above.

More: "The Furor Over StrawberryFrog"

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Yesterday, Adweek gave CEO of StrawberryFrog Scott Goodson and his top notch head of planning, Chip Walker, a page to discuss how agencies could beat the recession. It's all very interesting, but what caught our eye is the comment war taking place right beneath the article.

Twenty-three comments grace the page. For Adweek, that's a whopper of a number. And what are they saying?

"...a truly game changing idea"? where would i go to get that? oh, at strawberryfrog, of course. just be careful you don't get gential [sic] warts as a result."

"I agree with MaryJ, these new agencies like Anomaly, Modernista, The Barbarian Group and Strawberryfrog don't have the experience or the cases of our big agencies. In times like these, you should only trust the big established agencies, they know best. What do these new agencies really have to offer?"

It's ugly out there. Under contention is the accounts that Da Frog holds. From our reporting, in 2008 the US shop won Sabra Hummus and Stacy's Pita Chips. There was also global brand, Mahindra.
Hmmm... but it seems like there's more to it than that. The nasty comments have a bit more vitriol to them. Are these just some angry ex-staffers picking apart Da Frog or is it just big agencies taking the piss out of a smaller one? Either way, it's entertaining and we can guarantee the comments will only keep coming.

More: StrawberryFrog Brazil wins Quaker Mexico
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The 2nd Dubai International Advertising Festival will take place from 15-17 March 2009. Who wants in?

The key note speakers: Bob Isherwood (Worldwide Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi), PJ Pereira (partner, Pereira & O'Dell) and Scott Goodson (CEO of StrawberryFrog).

Yeah, so they'll be blabbering. They'll be exhibitions and drinks, blah, blah. Here's the thing - if you attend, you'll be in Dubai, dude. It's the closest you're ever going to get to a real world version of Fantasia.
More: A Networking Op From The AWNY

According to a source close the situation, Strawberry Frog in Brazil won a piece of new business, Quaker Mexico, which used to be in the hands of BBDO (recall, the US biz was ripped from the hands of Element 79 recently).

Alexandre Peralta, who runs SF Brazil, answered a few questions about the win for us.

Matt: Who else was involved, how many rounds?

Peralta: Four agencies where involved: two mexican's hot shops and the El Cielo (Agulla Baccetti Argentina).

It was a very organized process with only two meetings: one meeting when they delivered the brief, and another one when we delivered our frog recomendation [sic] for the PepsiCo's Team.

Matt: What does this mean for PepsiCo?

Peralta: The importance of the pitch for the PepsiCo was big: 1) Mexico is the most important market for Quaker in (Latin America)— it is at least 5 times bigger than the Quaker's Market in Brazil. 2) Plus, the brand Quaker has a wordwide role for PepsiCo, since the company has been oriented for the "Performance with a Purpose" principles.

Matt: What does SF have to offer that BBDO couldn't (in your opinion)?

Peralta: (Quaker) were needing innovation. They bought SF because we really showed them more then a simple campaign: we showed them a Cultural Movement instead. Something strong enough to engage the mexican population in a cause.

Matt: What does the win mean for SF?

Peralta: This is another big leap for SF. We have the Frito Lay's brands True North, Stacys and Sabra in USA; we have the PepsiCo's foods brands Toddy, Toddynho, Coqueiro and Quaker in Brazil (conquered 4 mouths ago - where, by the way, the results of the work that has been made for Quaker has made PepsiCo very happy). And this win give us even more space to work with Pepsico in a global level.

Matt: Expected hires?

Peralta: We are hiring an Account Manager and a some new frogs that we must announce very soon. I will let you know very soon.

Confirmation from BBDO on the lost business could not be made by the time this story was published. SF will be handling all aspects of the Quaker campaign except for media buying.

More: "Update on the J&J Consolidation: Who's In and Who's Out"

Welcome to part two of digital conversation series!

David Bryant is currently the ECD of Interactive over at StrawberryFrog, but he's also spent time as the EVP, Executive Creative Director at DraftFCB; VP, Creative Director at Digitas (London and New York), Tribal DDB, Modem and Bartle Bogle Hegarty (just for good measure).

He once said in Creativity Magazine that: "The only downside of the interactive medium is us - the people. We're not being clever enough. I love the creativity of online. Its potential has been hardly tapped."

Now, who doesn't love the hell out of that? Since David spent years in both the UK and US machines, we thought it'd be fun to ask him about the creative difference that may be present. Other than reading the Scamp blog and having a crush on Jack Davenport, we don't know so much about what lies across the pond. David fills us in on the inhibition of the US and how the web has become a "super-socialite."

Are there any differences in the "creative culture" when it comes to the U.S. vs the U.K.?

"No difference really. The real cultural difference is between good and bad creative. Good creative shops are similar all over the globe. But bad creative places are infinitely variable in form.

The real difference is that in the UK is that you work long hours then drink heavily. In the US, you work long hours, then work more long hours. Neither are particularly good for creativity.

If you look at the most great creative shops, they do great creative work for any brief - banner campaigns, anything. Lean Mean Fighting Machine are a great example of this. The guys there could take a Google search term campaign for a staple supply shop and win an Oscar for best director. Or Your Majesty in NY - who I worked with on a recent Starbucks site. It's about perfectionism and standards no matter how small the job."

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From the over-flowing press release box... Kerry Stranman has jumped to be Group Strategy Director at StrawberryFrog from Leo Burnett. At Burnett, she was the SVP Planning Director where she oversaw consumer insights and strategy on Nintendo.

Chip Walker, StrawberryFrog's Head of Strategy said in the obligatory note: "We continue to build out our strategic capability with one eye on the present and one eye on the near future, to help our clients leap ahead."

Those Frogs always manage to get in some brand wording like "leap," "jump," or "skip." It's almost too much.

More: DaFrogs Win Hummus And Pita

WE HEAR THAT... without a review, StrawberryFrog has taken on a new strange pairing - hummus and pita chips. From two different companies. I'm not making this up. Rumors are that the agency has won Sabra Hummus and Stacy's pita chips. As our tipster pointed out: "What are the odds?" It's almost laughable. We contacted the agency, but as of yet, have had no response. We'll keep you updated.

More on the separation of church and state that's going on between Amsterdam Worldwide (formerly Strawberry Frog Amsterdam), SF New York, London and Mumbai.

We heard from SF CEO and Founder Scott Goodson yesterday, who said a three new acquisitions came at the loss of seven more junior folks. But a story by Darren Davidson in Brand Public's Global News Bulletin reports that the former Strawberry Frog has cut ties with the rest of the team.

"The change at the Amsterdam-based agency is part of a new positioning — 'Ideas without borders' — for the nine-year old firm, which specialises in pan-European and global campaigns for clients including Chevrolet, Opel, Panasonic and Asics Onitsuka Tiger."

Mr. Goodson made no mention of the June 19 story. Maybe you'd want to sweep this kind of press under the rug too.