Lost in all the hullabaloo of Suzanne Powers‘ departure from CP+B and appointment as EVP/chief strategy officer at McCann is what’s happening on the former’s end in the wake of the move. Our bad. As you may have read, CP+B is restructuring its planning department (or COG department as they call it), axing the global strategy officer position formerly held by Powers to start with. According to CP+B camp, under the new structure, the COG departments in each of the agency’s offices will report to an executive planning director designated for said office. CP+B is kicking things off by promoting Jason De Turris and Benny Thomas to EPDs for Boulder and L.A., with Miami and Europe appointments to be announced at a later date.

In addition, CP+B has launched a new initiative called Mixed Reality Lab, which will be led by nine-year agency vet  Wojtek Szumowski, who currently holds the title of EVP/group director of cognitive and cultural studies. What is Mixed Reality Lab? Well, according to CP+B’s rather poetic description, it’s “designed to continue to question convention, to prototype, experiment and examine the relationships between humans, technology and brands.”

Regarding the planning revamp as a whole, CP+B CEO Andrew Keller says in a statement, “At CP+B, we are constantly reassessing our structure, ensuring that we are meeting and exceeding our clients’ needs in every capacity, and streamlining and redefining as we see fit. This new structure really speaks to where we are as an agency, and the innovation and global strategic insights that we offer our clients are best delivered in this redesign.”

In October, CP+B Los Angeles and London took over AOR duties for UK-based betting/e-gaming service Paddy Power. Like our commentariat, we admittedly found this news a little dull. But, we did get to give mention to Paddy Power’s old agency, Big Al’s Creative Emporium, and all of the silly names for the different parties involved in the story were just a little too bizarre to ignore.

Well, as the above TV spot proves, the weirdness isn’t ceasing. As Paddy Power’s brand head Adam Perrin said when Crispin won the business, “We were blown away by the freshness of CP+B’s approach and their use of resource across the United States and Europe.” Was CP+B’s “fresh” idea marketing Paddy Power Bingo’s “Home Free Hotline,” as a way to make a quick escape from romantic encounters gone awry? It certainly seems that way.

So, gamblers, are you going to pick your online betting service based on its ability to blow up your mobile? Credits after the jump.

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