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.

Happy Monday all, Strawberry Frog joins the list of agencies to layoff a few, but not in the same way others have.

Our investigation started with a tip that SF laid off "25 percent" of its New York staff, and the CFO quit. A quick e-mail to agency Founder and CEO Scott Goodson revealed that seven "junior" staff were "released" to make room for three "senior" staffers.

They include Jon Wall and Barry Smith, meaning they left AKQA. They're set to begin July 1. Enjoy your stay, fellas.

Update: As for (former) CFO Kerry Quinn left SF, as in quit, to work with long-time colleague Steve Hardwick, president Grey New York, says our anonymous spy.

Update: We hear two of the "firings" were not junior people, but change seems to be for the best. Good luck y'all.

More after the jump.

continued...

In the wake of what seems to be a shift in the tide of what European countries hold the most appeal in terms of global marketing, StrawberryFrog appears to have taken notice. The shop has moved it's global operation from Amsterdam to New York las year. It's Amsterdam office was bought out and has since rebranded as Amsterdam Worldwide (headed by CEO Brian Elliot).

Amsterdam once deemed the "European Advertising Capital" has all but lost that crown. This Amsterdam Weekly article references just how quickly Amsterdam's buzz has died down. It makes mention of the difficulties of finding young creatives there. And, while some still find Amsterdam inspiring, others think it's become too expensive and rests too much on its laurels.

StrawberryFrog seems quick to recognize that and has made the adjustments necessary to sustain a more global company. Last year, SF moved headquarters to New York and is moving its European operations to London. They are working with partners there to identify talent and global clients. And while their global business is currently being run from their NY office, SF has over $2 mil of global advertising running in Europe. StrawberryFrog, founder and CEO, Scott Goodson mentions that SF has also won a lot of new global business.

It's no secret that StrawberryFrog has been successful by being smart and ahead of the game. They've been one of the most talked about shops since their inception in 1999. Goodson says, "I think it's fair to say that in today's ever changing market you need to stay entirely agile while remaining focused on delivering innovation, strategic and creative excellence." And that's exactly what StrawberryFrog seems to be doing. I see this as just another smart move on their list of good calls.

Note: Corrections were made to reflect some inconsistencies in the original post.

WE HEAR THAT... Da Frog is making a play into serious digital work. So far the agency has been keeping it pretty traditional, experiential, viral, and sometimes underground but with the recent edition of David Bryant from Digitas and once of DraftFCB, something had to pop off.

The water cooler is rife with rumors that StrawberryFrog has landed an account that is heavy on social media and digital capabilities. They apparently defeated agency of the year, AKQA, for this major client last week. What in the world...????

Can someone please cough up who the client it is? Merci.

Scott Goodson of StrawberryFrog loves the media. Did you notice he's always showing up in the Google News results? Today, Goodson is out in front for proclaiming that "India will reinvent the way marketing is done globally." Whether you agree or disagree, Goodson's agency is deeply ensconced in the country now that they've picked up the account for the auto arm of the corporate giant, Mahindra Group.

This comes with a bit of doing good as Mahindra is heavily invested in the future of young girls in India through their non-profit, Nanhi Kali Launches. Da Frog has launched GirlSmiles.org in an attempt to get non-profits, who generally rely on large scale paid placements to spread their message, to use cheaper, more agile technologies instead. The site is one of those mini-window, iSite things that hangs out in the corner of your screen.

As AdFreak pointed out, those who have checked out the Modernista site will immediately feel at home with its functionality. This is one of those collective unconsciousness things where people are picking up on the same tech innovations. Da Frog created theirs around the same time Modernista was developing their version. And somewhere, I believe Deep Focus has used this protocol, too. What this really means is that these agencies are paying attention to innovations happening in real time. Sweet. Three agencies on the curve? Who would have thought...?

There's been a lot of talk about whether advertising agencies are up to the job of handling social media. Remember this:

"Clients are placing more emphasis on mastering social media but find their agencies ill equipped to help them succeed in that space, according to a new survey?"

Agencies are trying to get it together with every shop trotting out some form of social technology or media buying on a social media site no matter the campaign. Consider McCann's weak attempt with Applebee's. Just get on the band wagon, guys! Don't think. Use YouTube!

The latest addition is StrawberryFrog's new website for their client Scion. The agency has launched a social networking campaign titled Scion Speak.

“Scion Speak is one of the best examples of tan integrated Social Media brand campaigns in the market today. It targets existing owners to stoke their passion for the brand and spread the word about the brand,” says Kevin McKeon, Executive Creative Director of StrawberryFrog. “Most social media campaigns are promotional, as in ads on Facebook, we wanted to do something completely different. We wanted to use the existing Scion fan base as our own media channel, with the aim of reducing Scion’s investment on conquering new customers and increasing the passion for the brand among its core fan-base. Scion Speak does just that.”

Scion Speak.com is a "new symbolic language that allows individuals within the Scion enthusiast community to create their own visual fingerprint that represents their lives and their passions."

Hmm... wanna check it out? Let's go. So... here we are at Scion Speak where users can create a crest, check out other folks work and then watch some videos. Not a bad idea considering that it allows users to extend their image across the brand, which Scion owners love to do. Owners are notoriously community oriented. On the current Scion website, owners can already create a mini-toy version of their car. They can upload pics of their ride and watch videos featuring Scion's users across the country. They can also compete against one another as the "top dawg" enthusiast club and check out Scion radio.

So, question - why is this addition by StrawberryFrog so flat? Users create the crest, download it and then post to the gallery. Yawn. Once you've done that, then what? You can't send it to your friends. You can't download it to your phone. Car owners can save it at the largest size (21 x 16) at a resolution of 96 that is to small for print (minimum is 150), which means you can't put it on your automobile. Why? Scion users are big on making their vehicle their own. That's kind of the thing they love about the brand. Hunh... What else? Now what?

The concept of creating a new language for Scion owners is genius and Da Frog has the right imagery, lexicon and attributes for Scion users on the website. Yet, it's pretty uniform. The language could have been built out by users themselves. Scion owners have their verbiage sort of like the Urban Dictionary. Why isn't there a Wikipedia like attachment where owners can create the Scion dictionary - visually and with words?

At the least, make it Facebook and MySpace friendly. You know, make it easy for folks to cross platforms with the crest? Spread the language? There should be a button that will automatically upload it to your website if you're using a blogging software like Wordpress. Why can't owners order stickers, print quality products for their use? Why isn't this crest attached to other Scion brand messages like music through a widget? Where's the mobile or fun, game angle, basically the meat of this thing?

It ain't bad, but it also isn't badass. Scion is a brand that's willing to take risk, break the rules. Da Frog should of taken advantage of that and created an outstanding social media campaign that stood out, made some noise.

This is a much larger conversation. Stay tuned for part deux.

Disney is "is looking for BIG ideas that break the traditional movie-marketing concepts," according to a document issued to agencies that Brandweek got its hands upon. This brief goes on to say that Disney "will pay $50,000 for your time and own all your ideas and concepts." Agencies preparing for presentations in this project based review include Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners; Droga5, StrawberryFrog and Wieden + Kennedy, Cutwater in San Francisco; and DraftFCB in Chicago.

Rewind. Excuse us? For $50K, you get totally powned. They want to own your ideas, forever and ever and ever. Make millions of them, while you struggle to pay the staff who created those awesome concepts. Other brands have gone this route including Hilton, and Kraft. We're not against brands attempting to own your ideas. That's business. This is the jungle baby. In many cases, maybe some of these folks just want to add Disney to their roster, boost their agency profile and so, lie down for the lion. Two unnamed agencies pushed back. We're going to guess one was Droga. We applaud whoever they were. However, this is a no-no. Don't do it! If you guys go in for this, then Disney knows it really does hold the industry by the balls. Other brands will follow suit and, and, and... this is the way it has always gone. It's cyclical and totally depressing.

Seriously? You guys are gonna go for this? Yes, it's great to have Disney on the client list and yes, maybe you have some groundbreaking idea for movie marketing you want out in the world, but you guys are willing to set the course of I.P. ownership for the rest of the advertising business?

Main entry: Sell Out

Pronunciation: \ˈsel-ˌaut\

Function: noun

Date: 1859

1: the act or an instance of selling out 2: something sold out; especially : something (as a concert or contest) for which all tickets are sold 3: one who betrays a cause for personal advancement.

We very rarely use the word sell out. It no longer applies in many instances considering the time we live in, but in this case? SELL OUTS!

Something else totally depressing? Julie Roehm is involved. Back from the media cyclone, Julie was contacted to help pick the initial list of agencies. She was on the phone calls for the agency briefings, but supposedly, is no longer involved in the process. This just gets ickier and ickier.

Kirshenbaum Bond recently won the Mega brands account. Da Frog had resigned the account. Just like you, we always wonder why agencies resign accounts. Was it a frustrating CMO? Was lack of cash? Normally, you never find out, but today, Scott Goodson has posted his agnecy's reasons for kicking Mega to the curb.

Read it all here.

Kirshenbaum this. Kirshenbaum that. Why is it that every time we turn around this week we hear Kirshenbaum. Kirshenbaum nails Avon! Kirshenbaum unload its new Wendy's spots! Mega Brands, maker of Mega Bloks and Rose Art, has shifted its estimated $20 million creative and media planning account to Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners after StrawberryFrog resigned the account.

You may have seen Da Frog's last effort for the toy maker. If not, check out the quirky spot above titled, "Creativity to the Rescue." We don't get if these were for the adults or the kids or what the companion site was like. It's cute and all, but we kinda feel like we're missing something here that helps one make sense of the video. Anyway, AdWeak is reporting that Kirshenbaum's first work for the brand will hit the airwaves in time for the back-to-school shopping season.

As if the big US automakers need any more competition, India is bringing their autos Stateside. Mahindra will be the first line of Indian-made vehicles to hit the U.S. market. However, the distributor for the automaker said that tens of thousands of light pickup trucks annually will be assembled on US soil. Ohio to be exact. Americans will be able to choose from among three Mahindra vehicles: the Scorpio, a luxury SUV; and a pickup truck offered in both two-door and four-door models. All three will use diesel engines. By 2010, their hybrid will be available, as well.

The company is well known as an international tractor maker, but folks are wondering if Americans are ready to purchase a car from India. We say, "hell yeah." A large junk of Americans are quite willing to buy cars from overseas vendors, especially once you step out of the out heartland and don't these pics above look suburban warrior ready? Plus, in these days of recession, and with diesel engines posting a 20 to 40 percent better mileage rating than comparable gasoline engines, if the price is right...

StrawberryFrog has been named the AOR, so we'll see how they handle all these issues. Side note: StrawberryFrog was also appointed AOR for the international Mistubishi Motors, which is part of DaimlerChrysler.

Comments over at the car blog Jalopnik range from the dubious to the downright thrilled:

"So does that mean when some Indian fellow is upset with his Mahindra, he will have to call a customer service rep in Ohio? Im no Alanis Morriset [sic], but I think thats what they call Irony.."

"It's smart to go after the professional market first, where hard numbers have a chance at trumping brand bigotry.We'll see if it's as good as they claim, but a small diesel 4x2/4 pickup that gets over 30MPG and can take a beating? They could make a nice little niche for themselves."

"hell, i drive an average of 300 miles a week for business, in a car (mazda 3) and only average about 28mpg because of the loads. give me a cheap diesel pickup, 4x4, and still 30 mpg and ill take one in a heart beat."

" these guys are dreamin if anybody is buyin for over $10,000 with $20,000.... i'd buy a 5 year old dodge diesel first"