Accounts

After a review, Avis has hired Leo Burnett as its U.S. creative agency. McCann was the incumbent on the account. Avis Budget Group devoted nearly $30 million in domestic measured media to market the Avis brand between January and November 2011.

After a three-year run, San Francisco-based agency Pereira & O’Dell and the University of Phoenix are parting ways. The University of Phoenix spent $156 million in domestic measured media between January and November 2011.

Henkel Consumer Goods has shifted creative duties for its laundry and home-care brands, including Purex, Renuzit and Soft Scrub, to Pereira & O’Dell. Purex was previously handled by Energy BBDO. U.S. measured media spending for the brands was a combined total of nearly $30 million in 2010.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Ogilvy & Mather has hired Lee Newman, managing director at Wieden & Kennedy, Amsterdam, as its president.

David Rolfe is slated to join BBDO New York in March as its director of integrated production, reporting to David Lubars, BBDO’s chairman and chief creative officer. Rolfe comes over from CP&B, Boulder where he held the same title. CP&B does not plan to name a new director of integrated production. Instead the agency will name a director of video production in the next few weeks.

Ari Merkin, executive creative director at CP&B Miami, is also leaving the company. Merkin will still be connected to CP&B parent MDC Partners in a consulting relationship.

Deutsch LA has appointed Jerome Austria as EVP, group digital creative director for Volkswagen. Austria, who has been working for the agency on a freelance basis since 2011, was the creative behind the ‘The Bark Side,’ VW’s online teaser for this year’s Super Bowl spot through the agency. Prior to joining Deutsch, Austria was co-executive director of Wieden+Kennedy NY.

Energy BBDO has appointed Giovanni Settesoldi and Luissandro Del Gobbo as senior vice presidents, creative directors. The duo joins Energy BBDO after spending four years at Grey Paris as creative directors.

The Martin Agency has promoted Joe Alexander to executive creative director.

CP&B has promoted Mike Danko to associate creative director and Kate Hildebrant to executive producer.

DNA Seattle has hired Pete Hughes and Lianne Onart as associate creative directors.

Aude Gandon, the Paris-based L’Oréal worldwide account director at McCann Erickson, is leaving to join Publicis Worldwide.

Art director/designer Mark Beacock has left Lean Mean Fighting Machine to set up a new creative agency Turned Out Nice Again. He is joined in the new agency by partners Sam Willard and Tom Bur.

Directors/Production

Rabbit has signed comedy director Bobby Farrelly for his first-ever commercial representation.

Futuristic Films has signed documentary director Daniel Junge to its roster.

Green Dot Films has signed director Robert Jitzmark, who comes to the LA-based company from Hungry Man.

Accomplice has signed director Otis to its roster.

ONE at Optimus has added director Brian Johnson to their roster.

Robin Fryday has joined Nonfiction Unlimited for representation for spots and documentaries.

Caviar is opening a London office in a joint venture with UK-based Pulse Films, adding to the production company’s existing offices in Amsterdam, Brussels, Los Angeles and Paris. The move will make Caviar’s roster of directors available to the UK market. Sadie Ward at Pulse Films will act as head of sales for Caviar’s London office.

Motion Theory has announced that it has rebranded and will now operate as MTh.

The Sweet Shop has extended production services into Bangkok, Thailand, adding Claire Davidson to its executive team to lead the company in the South East Asian market.

Misc.

Droga5 has received several million dollars in backing from prominent investors who are trying to help the agency expand while retaining its independence. The investment was led by a private group headed by investor Henry Silverman and media mogul Bob Pittman, and is understood to be between $5 million and $10 million. The funds will be used primarily to expand the agency’s New York office, and to help Droga5 open its doors in a new market, most probably London.

Publicis Groupe has completed a share buyback to end its decade-long partnership with Japanese ad giant Dentsu. The Paris-based holding company bought a block of 18 million of its own shares from Dentsu for $848.5 million.

A year after exiting the top post at Y&R, Hamish McLennan joined News Corp., as executive VP, Office of the Chairman – a job created to help the embattled company forge ties with global brands.

Upcoming Events

February 9 – 19 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlin, Germany)

March 9 – 18 SXSW (Austin, Texas)

March 21 – British Arrows Awards (London, UK)

RSA Films’ latest project, The Re:Generation Music Project directed by Amir Bar-Lev is in theaters across the U.S. tonight. 

Chronicle opens at number one at the Box Office – RSA director Josh Trank is the youngest ever to helm a chart-topping movie. 

Sofia Coppola’s new spot for Marni at H&M, edited by Consulate’s Chad Sipkin.

Kanye and Jay-Z’s new music video, edited by Consulate’s Peter Johnson.

‘Eastbound and Down’ – back with Season 3.

Behind the scenes with superstudio on Ty Evan’s Chevy Kickflip Superbowl spot.

Check out The Chevy/OK Go music video, ‘Needing/Getting’, produced by Caviar Content.

Keith Schofield at Caviar Content is up for a Woodie.

Rabbit directing duo +jacksonkarinja’s new spot out of Anomaly for NBC Sports captures the intensity of athletic preparation.

‘The Grey’, behind the scenes with RSA’s Joe Carnahan.

Rabbit directing duo Loki’s Sundance award-winning documentary ‘Detropia’ puts Detroit back in the spotlight.

Get the lowdown on superstudio’s Cass Bird, profiled in Tmagazine.

Rabbit director Brent Bonacorso, with Absolute Post and Consulate editor Peter Johnson bring to life the inner-workings of the mind in this surreal Shots contender for CTIA, ‘Your Mind is a Wireless Place’.

Accounts

GlaxoSmithKline is moving the global creative account for Aquafresh toothpaste from Grey Group to TBWA Worldwide, which will manage the business out of London. In the U.S., Aquafresh spent $41.9 million on advertising in 2010.

Zimmerman has been named agency of record for Extended Stay Hotels following a review. Media spending for Extended Stay Hotels, which has 685 locations in the U.S. and Canada, is estimated at $17 million to $20 million.

AOL is searching for an agency to help it devise a new brand campaign in the hopes of reconnecting with consumers. It’s understood that the company is looking to award the assignment to an agency by early March.

MediaCom was awarded responsibility for Subway’s U.S. digital media efforts, taking over the business from Publicis Modem. Pizza Hut’s digital spending is expected to be about $25-30 million this year.

U.S. Cellular, the nation’s sixth biggest wireless carrier, has narrowed its creative agency review to incumbent Publicis & Hal Riney in San Francisco and Boston-based Mullen.

After a pitch between Venables Bell and Tribal DDB and DDB, Venables Bell has landed Intel’s biggest assignment this year: a global campaign for its ultrabook laptop processors. The resulting campaign, which will include TV, print, digital and outdoor ads, is expected to break in April and run through the fourth quarter of 2012.

The finalists in Bank of America’s global creative review were revealed to be roster shops BBDO, Hill Holliday and Digitas, as well as The Richards Group and a team from WPP Group.

Possible Worldwide and Grey’s Europe, Middle East and Africa division have formed a partnership that will see the two WPP shops collaborating on accounts, starting with shared client Procter & Gamble.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Matt Bonin is joining Ogilvy & Mather New York in the new role of chief production officer, from TBWA\Chiat\Day where he was executive director of integration.

Johannes Leonardo has hired Jenny Gadd to the newly-created position of head of integrated production. Gadd was previously executive producer at digital agency North Kingdom.

Bemis Balkind has appointed Elisabeth Lucas as creative director, Digital, and Adele Martin as senior project manager, Digital.

New York-based agency The Vidal Partnership has hired Gustavo Lauria as managing partner, chief creative officer. He was most recently creative director at La Comunidad in Miami.

Carmichael Lynch has promoted executive creative director Dave Damman to chief creative officer.

Y&R’s new North American chief, Carter Murray, has also been made CEO of Y&R New York. The current CEO, Tom Sebok, will be leaving the agency effective immediately. Sean Howard joins from Wunderman as general manager of the New York office.

Directors/Production

Strange Beast has signed director Sam Mason for worldwide representation.

New York/San Francisco-based Bodega has signed director and former agency creative Dave Merhar for commercial representation.

Directing collective Special Problems has joined The Sweet Shop for commercial and branded content work worldwide.

The Traveling Picture Show Company (TPSC) has signed director Enda McCallion for exclusive representation in the US.

Venice-based Mighty has signed directors Kim Nguyen and Hugo Menduina to its roster.

Click 3X has signed comedy director/DP team Josh Ruben and Vincent Peone, owners of j+v films, to its Click 3X live content division.

Director Daniel Junge has joined the roster of Futuristic Films

Jeff Scruton, former executive producer at MJZ, has joined Motion Theory as president and executive producer.

Design/Editorial/VFX

Pixomondo has hired Steve Pugh as an executive producer to help oversee projects from its Burbank office.

Crash+Sues, the Minneapolis-based hybrid VFX, animation, color correction and creative editing company, has appointed Sven Shelgren as executive producer.

Interactive

Tool has added web developer Jason Nickel to its interactive director roster. Nickel developed the ‘Take This Lollipop’ Facebook app with director Jason Zada.

Misc.

Publicis Groupe announced a 7.3% increase in revenue to $7.7 billion for 2011, leading to a record profit of $795 million for the year.

PepsiCo Inc. is cutting 8,700 jobs and boosting its marketing budget by as much as $600 million in 2012 as it tries to overhaul a struggling U.S. beverage business that is losing ground to Coca Cola. To free up cash for the new marketing investments, PepsiCo intends to reduce the number of agency partners on the beverage side of the business, where it plans to go from 150 agencies to 50.

DDB is seeking a new business development chief amid the exit of Brandon Snow. Snow, who assumed the role of U.S. director of business development in August 2008, is returning to his former employer, the National Basketball Association.

Anomaly, Budweiser’s global brand agency, is getting ready to open in Toronto. The office is expected to be up and running by April.

Upcoming Events

February 9 – 19 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlin, Germany)

March 9 – 18 SXSW (Austin, Texas)

Accounts

Kraft is once again changing up its roster, handing Saatchi & Saatchi creative duties for Kool-Aid and Capri Sun, brands previously handled by Ogilvy. Between January and November of 2011, Kraft spent between $35 million and $40 million in domestic measured media on Capri Sun, and about $20 million on Kool-Aid.

Independent shop Profero will handle global digital duties for Tresemme, The assignment does not appear to affect Tresemme’s lead creative agency Mullen. Measured media totaled $58 million for Tresemme in the year ending November 2011.

Italian casual-dining chain Bertucci’s has tapped SapientNitro as its agency of record, a move that’s part of a larger overhaul for the Boston-based chain.

MillerCoors is bringing in roster agency Saatchi & Saatchi to assist DraftFCB on a new campaign for the struggling Miller Lite brand. DraftFCB has been the brand’s lead creative agency since 2009.

McCann Worldgroup, via its health-and-wellness practice HumanCare, has been awarded consumer creative duties for several Merck brands. McCann HumanCare is now the lead agency for all of Merck’s respiratory brands, including Nasonex, Singulair and Dulera. Nasonex was previously handled by BBDO, while Dulera was previously handled by DDB.

Hewlett-Packard is looking for a global creative agency to handle marketing for its personal computing division. The company parted ways with Goodby Silverstein & Partners in November, and roster agency Twofifteen McCann has been handling the work since then.

Agency Creative/ Producers

AKQA is opening an office in Paris with Nike as its founding client. The creative team at the Paris office will be headed by Peter Lund as creative director, and Nicolai Smith as associate creative director. Both will report to James Hilton, chief creative officer at AKQA Europe.

DOJO San Francisco has hired John O’Hea as a creative, reporting to Geoff Edwards and Mauro Alencar. O’Hea was previously an art director/ACD at Goodby Silverstein & Partners.

Jean Batthany has joined the Chicago office of DDB Worldwide as senior vice president and group creative director, leading work on the Safeway account. She was most recently creative group head at Merkley & Partners, New York.

Directors/Production

Lost Highway Films has added director Elma Garcia to its roster.

Director Ian Kammer has joined Bueno Films for exclusive U.S. spot representation.

Directing collective Special Problems has joined The Sweet Shop for commercial and branded content work worldwide.

Recommended Media has signed director Sinuhe Xavier for U.S. commercial representation.

The directing team of Adam Brodie and Dave Derewlany, (Adam & Dave), has signed with Los Angeles-based production company Arts & Sciences.

Design/Editorial/VFX

Absolute Post New York has appointed Melanie Wickham as executive producer, while her predecessor, Sally Heath, has moved to the role of joint managing director, working alongside Andy Barmer in the company’s London office. Wickham was previously a senior VFX producer at The Mill and an EP at Animal Logic, Sydney.

New York and Philadelphia-based Bigsmack has hired animator/designer Wonhee Lee as creative director.

New York creative studio Charlex has promoted director/CD Ryan Dunn to executive creative director.

RhinoFX founder Vico Sharabani and Alex Frisch, co-founder of Method Studios have teamed up to launch COPA (Co-Op of Artists), a collective of VFX artists working in the commercial and feature film space.

Interactive

Digital shop Layer One Media has opened a new office in Chicago. Jason Reimer, who joined the company two years ago, will be creative director, with Brody Buss as president and Ryan Janecek as director of business development.

Misc.

The Gunn Report released its annual results for 2011, with Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam scooping the top agency spot and BBDO earning agency network of the year.

The Walt Disney Co has acquired a controlling stake in UTV, India’s largest media and entertainment company. UTV is the leading television producer and broadcast network in India.

Cannes Lions announced the addition of the Young Lions Design Competition to the 2012 International Festival of Creativity. The new competition will see teams of two briefed to work on a special project on behalf of an appointed client. Within the allotted 24 hours, competitors must produce a logo/brand identity, a 150-word description of how the brand identity fits the brief and a 150-word description of how the brand would evolve.

Upcoming Events

February 9 – 19 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlin, Germany)

March 9 – 18 SXSW (Austin, Texas)

Accounts

Following a long review, San Francisco-based Union Bank N.A. has chosen hometown operation Eleven as its new advertising agency of record.

As part of its ongoing effort to cut costs and agencies, General Motors has consolidated its $3 billion global media-buying and planning account with Aegis’ Carat.

Just months after launching, The Bull-White House has landed on the Unilever roster. The agency will handle lead creative duties for Slim-Fast, including TV, print, digital and experiential.

Fallon has been named lead creative agency for chicken chain and sports bar Buffalo Wild Wings without a review. The incumbent, Atlanta-based shop 22Squared, is losing the creative portion, but will retain the media planning and in-store promotion duties. Buffalo Wild Wings spent $60.7 million on measured-media in the U.S. from January through October 2011.

The four finalists for Applebee’s lead creative agency are CP+B, KBS&P, Publicis Dallas, and Kansas City-based Barkley. Total media spending on Applebee’s is around $135 million a year. McCann, whose New York headquarters has handled the business since 2007, is not defending.

Outdoor TV manufacturer SunBriteTV has hired independent shop The Buddy Group as its digital agency of record.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Chris Cereda has been appointed chief creative officer at Translation. Most recently, Cereda served as executive creative director at KBS&P.

Seattle-based agency Wexley School for Girls has hired Todd Grant as a creative.

Amalgamated has added two creatives to its team: Coral Garvey joins as design director from Anomaly, where she was an art director/designer, and Jake Dubs joins as a copy writer from 72andSunny.

Brooklyn agency Big Spaceship has appointed Mark Pollard as VP of brand strategy. He was most recently SVP, director of planning innovation at Saatchi + Saatchi NY.

JWT London has promoted executive creative director Russell Ramsey to one of three new executive partners at the agency, alongside James Whitehead and Joseph Petyan. All three will be equally responsible for the running of the agency, replacing Guy Hayward who left JWT at the end of last year.

Directors/Production

Epoch Films has added Martin Aamund to its roster for commercial representation.

The Directors’ Bureau has added music video director David Altobelli to its roster.

Blink has signed director Paul Minor.

Original has signed director/cameraman Mark Dektor for exclusive representation in the United States.

Nexus has added directors Kris Hofmann and Philippe Gamer to its roster. 

Ben Tricklebank has joined Tool’s roster as interactive director.

The directing team Rhett & Link have joined the Synthetic Films roster.

B-Reel creative director/partner Oscar Tillman is rejoining the digital production company’s New York office. B-Reel NY has also named founding partner Petter Westlund chief creative officer, and promoted Patrick Ehrlund from art director to creative director.

Design/Editorial/VFX

Jay Lichtman has joined VFX studio MassMarket as managing director. Lichtman was previously executive producer at Method Studios.

Wild(child) Editorial has hired Argentinian editor Diego Panich.

David Garber has joined international visual effects company Pixomondo as executive producer of Motion Graphics.

Editor John Maloney has joined the roster of BlueRock.

Interactive

Kris Longo has joined Bonfire Agency, New York in a new post, vice president for advertising sales and business development.

Digital agency Rokkan has appointed Zach Newcomb as the agency’s first executive account director. Newcomb was previously director of new business at CreateThe Group.

Misc.

Jackie Kelman Bisbee of Park Pictures will be chairing the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show this year.

After what was tantamount to a full-court press by web companies and internet users, congressional backers of the antipiracy legislation SOPA and PIPA have decided to shelve the bill for the foreseeable future.

Sasha Savic has joined MediaCom, New York, as chief executive, a new post. He was previously chief operating officer at Havas Media Group North America.

Patti Clifford, formerly a chief human resources officer in the Financial Services sector, has been appointed global chief talent officer at Arnold.

Spending for ads online in the U.S. will exceed spending for ads in newspapers and magazines in 2012. Online ads in 2012 are predicted to total $39.5 billion, up 23.3 percent from $32 billion last year, while print ads will total $33.8 billion, down 6.1 percent from $36 billion last year.

Ad spending in all American media this year is forecasted to reach $169.5 billion, up 6.7 percent from 2011.

Droga5, New York is Creativity’s Agency of the Year 2011.

Upcoming Events

January 19 – 29 Sundance Film Festival (Park City, Utah)

January 20 – 26 Slamdance Film Festival (Park City, Utah)

March 9 – 18 SXSW (Austin, Texas)

Accounts

Target dropped longtime agency Wieden & Kennedy. In 2009, Wieden, which had been on Target’s roster for years, was made the retailer’s first lead agency without a review.

Health-care giant Aetna has launched an agency review with an eye towards consolidating the number of shops that handle media-buying and planning, direct marketing and digital duties. The company currently works with Havas’ Arnold on creative, which is not part of the review.

Walgreens is reaching out beyond its lead creative agency, Chicago-based Downtown Partners, for creative and branding help. In 2010, Walgreens spent about $212 million, down from $228 million the prior year.

Sibling agencies Critical Mass and Downtown Partners are set to pick up advertising duties for the Illinois Lottery. The account was previously handled by Energy BBDO, which had originally won the Lottery account in 2009.

Burger King is adding two new agencies — Mother, New York and a new Ogilvy affiliate agency called David — to its U.S. mix.

Bank of America with $1.55 billion in ad spending in the U.S. alone, has embarked on a review with an eye towards reformulating its brand positioning.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Wieden + Kennedy New York has tapped Lora Schulson to lead content production, replacing Gary Krieg, who is leaving after 14 years at the agency. Schulson most recently served as co-executive director of content production at Y&R, N.Y.

JWT North America has hired two new digital creatives to join the WPP shop’s leadership team: Jeff Benjamin, who is a partner at CP&B and Mike Geiger, chief digital officer and associate partner at Goodby Silverstein & Partners.

Former Deutsch EVP Eric Springer has joined creative think tank Pitch as chief creative officer (CCO).

GSD&M has hired Glen Sheehan as senior vice president, group creative director.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky has hired two new creative teams in its London office under new ECDs Ben Walker and Matt Gooden. Ben Carey and Henrik Delehag, and Bertie Scrase and Christen Brestrup.

Steve Hayden, vice chairman of Ogilvy, retired just before Christmas.

Cheil USA has made two new senior creative appointments: Adam Wohl joins as group creative director, and Kaare Wesnaes, former director of creative development at AKQA, joins as director of creative technology.

Directors/Production

RSA Films has announced the return of Director Baillie Walsh for commercial and music video representation in the US and UK.

Motion Theory has added Swedish team Marlind & Stein to its directorial roster.

Brooklyn-based Greenpoint Pictures has added new directors Nick&Ben and Rodney Ascher to its roster.

Mike Maguire has signed with Biscuit Filmworks for commercial representation worldwide except for Canada where he continues to be handled by Suneeva.

Independent Films has added Matt Smukler to its roster.

Director Seyi Peter-Thomas has joined Station Film.

Director Paul Gay has signed with O Positive for US commercial representation in the U.S.

Tool has added Benjamin Weinstein to its live action directorial roster.

Washington Square Films has signed Margin Call director J.C. Chandor for exclusive representation in its commercial division.

Home.corp has added Oscar-nominated visual effects director Nick Davis to its roster for commercials representation worldwide.

Original has signed director/cameraman Mark Dektor for representation in the U.S.

Nola Pictures has added director Greg Ramsey to its roster.

Design/Editorial/VFX

VFX studio Absolute has hired Melissa Stephano as senior producer and Kevin Couture as senior CG artist/lighter.

VFX studio Light of Day has hired Kristen Barnard as head of production. She previously worked as a producer at JWT, BBDO and Darcy.

Frank Effron has rejoined Cut + Run as an editor after a brief stint at Sitch.

Interactive

Integrated production studio Utopic has appointed Heather Mitchell as post executive producer.

AKQA has promoted Pierre Lipton to executive creative director, leading the creative department in its San Francisco office.

R/GA New York has appointed Chris Bradley as executive creative director. Bradley, who will work on MasterCard, comes to R/GA from Big Fuel.

Misc.

Eastman Kodak company, one of the Pioneers in both analog and digital photography, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

YouTube, in partnership with Scott Free Productions is launching a film festival that will play out online and send 10 finalists to the Venice Film Festival.

Alexander Payne’s The Descendants won the golden globe for best drama.

Upcoming Events

January 19 – 29 Sundance Film Festival (Park City, Utah)

January 20 – 26 Slamdance Film Festival (Park City, Utah)

March 9 – 18 SXSW (Austin, Texas)

The Bark Side: A teaser (!!) for Volkswagen’s 2012 Superbowl commercial, helmed by Keith Schofield of Caviar Content, goes viral.

Lazarov, a short film by Paranoid’s Nieto premieres at Sundance.

Accounts

McCann Erickson has lost its Lufthansa global creative business to independent German shop Kolle Rebbe.

Best Buy has added CHI & Partners and Wunderman to its roster of lead agencies. The shops will be responsible for the development and production of digital and social-media programs, as well as weekly promotional vehicles and Best Buy business unit campaigns.

Novartis has chosen Starcom as its agency to handle the more than $600 million global media account.

Following a seven month review, Toys R Us has selected OMD to handle media buying and planning, as well as various digital tasks. Toys R Us has a marketing budget of more than $100 million. MEC, which has worked with the retailer for six years, failed to retain the business.

Mullen and client Panera Bread Co. are parting ways amid what the agency calls creative differences.

New York Life has selected Euro RSCG as the company’s new agency of record. Euro won the account over TBWA\Chiat\Day and Carmichael Lynch. The New York Life AOR responsibilities were previously handled by Taxi, which did not defend.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Draftfcb has promoted Javier Campopiano to regional creative director general for Latin America.

R/GA New York has appointed Steve Whittier as executive creative director. Whittier, who will work on the Nike account, was most recently integrated creative director at Y & R.

Jason Fund has joined StrawberryFrog, NY as strategic community director, working on Jim Beam. 

Johannes Leonardo has hired Andrea Gustafson as head of design.

Directors/Production

Director Jon Barber has joined production company Interrogate for US representation.

Design/Editorial/VFX

Visual effects/design house MassMarket has added executive producers on both coasts, naming Nancy Nina Hwang to serve in its New York office and Elexis Stearn in Los Angeles.

Venice boutique publicVFX has made two new hires: flame artist Max Harris, and Michael Shelton who joins as head of 3D.

Pixeldust Studios, the Washington DC and New York-based digital animation and visual design studio, has hired Dianna Costello as executive producer.

Interactive 

Digital agency Firstborn has hired Toby Marlow as senior producer, managing creative projects for Sony, which awarded its make.believe business to Firstborn in September. Also joining Firstborn is producer Leo Seely.

Misc.

Volkswagen’s “The Force” by Deutsch, was the most-viewed ad on YouTube in 2011.

According to Kantar Media’s latest ad-tracking report, television has proved resilient against the general slowdown in total U.S. advertising spending over the first nine months of the year. Total U.S. ad spending in the third quarter ebbed to a tiny 0.4% gain over 2010 for the July-September period. But the television sector registered a 3.2% gain for the same quarter. Procter & Gamble Co. remains TV’s biggest spender overall, even with a 6.9% decline over the nine-month frame to $1.2 billion.

A group of ’60s-era creatives from DDB – Chuck Schroeder, Don Blauweiss, Ed Griles and Sid Myers – have launched a new marketing firm called Senior Creative People that will focus on the 60+ demographic. 

Accounts

Anheuser-Busch InBev has chosen McGarryBowen and Translation for Bud Light marketing after a lengthy review. The agency will handle lead creative duties for Bud Light, and work in concert with Translation Advertising. Anheuser-Busch InBev spent more than $276 million in measured media on Bud Light in the U.S. in 2010. The two agencies beat out a host of shops believed to include Droga5, CP&B, as well as longtime incumbent DDB.

Ogilvy & Mather has picked up global creative duties for Philips after a review. Three other shops contended for the business: Leo Burnett, TBWA and DDB, the incumbent. Philips spends about $40 million on measured media in the U.S. and more than $100 million globally.

Droga5 has won creative and strategic duties for Amstel Light. Amstel spent $10 million in measured media last year.

Droga5 has added more business from Puma in the form of its Teamsport unit, making the agency the global AOR for the entire account and marking the end of Puma’s relationship on this account with Syrup.

Visit Florida, Tallahassee, the official tourism marketing corporation for the State of Florida, selected the Miami office of SapientNitro as its lead agency of record. The assignment had previously been handled by the Miami office of DDB Worldwide.

Euro RSCG Chicago has picked up U.S. CRM duties for Sony PlayStation.

Unilever is launching a global review of its $6B-Plus media account just over two years after completing the last one.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Wieden + Kennedy announced the addition of four new partners: Portland ECD Mark Fitzloff, Global Interactive ECD Iain Tait, London Managing Director Neil Christie and Portland Managing Diretor Tom Blessington.

Steve Weinswig joined R/GA as vice president and managing director of the San Francisco office.

Grey Group has appointed Lucas Panizza as executive creative director for its Grey and G2 operations in Argentina.

Former Ogilvy North America Chief Digital Creative Officer/N.Y. CCO Lars Bastholm has been appointed Chief Creative Officer at Cheil, a newly created position. Bastholm will be based in New York and will partner with newly appointed Cheil USA CEO Dave Weaver to relaunch Cheil’s One Agency as Cheil Worldwide’s new U.S. flagship, Cheil USA.

101 London has hired Augusto Sola as partner and creative director.

Deutsch New York has promoted seven of its creatives to the role of vice president: Judd Counsell, Donovan Goodly, John Heath, Rich Kolopeau, Cindy Kridle, Katherine Moncrief and Chip Rich.

WPP is creating a new boutique agency for Ford’s Lincoln luxury model. The as-yet-unnamed agency will be based in New York and will be open for business effective Jan. 1^st. Automotive consultant Cameron McNaughton will head the agency as president, reporting to Satish Korde, CEO, Team Detroit. Jon Pearce will serve as chief creative officer.

Ogilvy & Mather is opening a new international agency called David that will be headed by Gaston Bigio, Ogilvy’s regional creative director, and two Ogilvy Brazil execs, CEO Fernando Musa and VP Creative Director Anselmo Ramos. David will officially open with offices in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires in January 2012, with a New York office planned for later in the year.

Directors/Production

Producer Kevin Matusow has launched a new production studio, The Traveling Picture Show Company (TPSC), based in Los Angeles.

Bueno Films, the production house headed by director/cinematographer Albert Kodagolian and executive producer Chris Crawford, has hired Annie Hanlon as executive producer.

European Director Jon Barber has signed with Interrogate for US representation.

Design/Editorial/VFX

VFX studio Absolute NYC has appointed Dan Dixon as head of CG.

Character animator Anders Beer has teamed up with Brickyard VFX co-owners Dave Waller and Geoff McAuliffe to launch General Gau, a hybrid animation/production company that will be based out of Brickyard’s Boston office.

ShootersNYC has hired veteran editor David Smalheiser.

Interactive

Facebook and Heineken announced a worldwide partnership agreement, collaborating on digital campaigns for Heineken brands. Financial terms were not disclosed. As part of the deal, Heineken will gain access to new Facebook products.

Misc.

After resolving its labor dispute last month, the NBA is renewing three of its major long-term partnership deals – with Anheuser-Busch InBev, Gatorade and AutoTrader.com.

Adweek’s annual Agency of the Year report named mcgarrybowen U.S. agency of the year, BBDO global agency of the year, and AKQA digital agency of the year.

TBWA\Chiat\Day and TBWA\Media Arts Lab earn SHOOT’s Top Ad Shop Of 2011 Honor.

Check out Jake Szymanski’s new skits with Will Ferrel for Old Milwaukee beer.

With two new spots for Cracker Barrel, Paranoid’s Nieto creates a magical breakfast voyage for Euro RSCG/Chicago.

Nike Jordan takes flight with Dwayne Wade in Ringan Ledwidge’s latest spot out of W+K.

Accounts

Telecom giant Sprint is severing ties with Goodby Silverstein & Partners, its creative agency since 2007. Digitas will serve as the new primary agency for the Sprint brand, managing brand strategy, advertising, digital, offline media, digital buying and analytics. As part of the move, Publicis is creating a new dedicated unit, dubbed Team Sprint, to run the Sprint account. It will be led by Digitas President Tony Weisman. Although the digital agency will be leading the account, creative network Leo Burnett will also be part of Team Sprint.

A year after hiring indie shop David & Goliath to handle creative work for Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, parent company CKE Restaurants has moved the account to 72andSunny, without a review. The combined budgets for both restaurant chains in 2010 was $63.6 million in domestic measured media.

Lands’ End is searching for an agency. The review is believed to include both creative and media duties. The brand is looking to overhaul its marketing and increase its media outlay to $20 million, from $6 million in 2010.

After a three-month-long review, Bayer is consolidating all media duties with WPP’s Mediacom, replacing Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Initiative. Mediacom had already handled global duties, and it now adds the U.S. business. In 2010, Bayer spent around $300 million on measured media in the U.S. and $800 million globally.

After a two-month review, MediaVest has been named media agency of record for Cox Communications, replacing a number of local shops. The account has an estimated $75 million to $100 million in measured media spending.

Mattel is searching for an agency to supply creative ideas to help market its games business. Mattel currently has no lead shop handling that portion of its account.

Swedish carmaker Volvo is moving to a new global advertising structure. As part of the shift, it will dismantle “Team Volvo” and move lead global duties to Arnold. The move means Arnold becomes the agency of record for Volvo in both the U.K. and in China.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Michael Boychuck is moving to Leo Burnett Worldwide from SK+G in Las Vegas, where he served as ECD. At Leo Burnett, Boychuck will be senior vice president and creative director. Boychuck is joined by his creative partner, Mark Moll who will also be SVP and CD.

Paulo Coelho has joined Pereira & O’Dell as associate creative director.

BFG 9000 has hired Google Creative Lab alum Laura Janness as head of planning, Dean McBeth, formerly of Wieden + Kennedy Portland as director of digital creative and former Coca-Cola global communications manager Kelly Donahue as account director.

The VIA Agency has named Jason Lucas, previously senior creative director at BBDO New York, as Group Creative Director, digital.

Deutsch NY promoted five group creative directors to executive VPs. The new EVPs are Morgan Caroll, George Decker, Liz Gumbinner, Paul Kekalos, and Jeff Vinick.

Jason McCann has been named creative director in AKQA’s New York office. McCann was previously VP, co-executive creative director.

R/GA has hired Steve Weinswig as VP/managing director to head its San Francisco office.

Directors/Production

Jonas Arnby has joined HSI Productions for representation in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

Chelsea Los Angeles has hired Jonathan Gribetz as an executive producer.

Gentlemen, the directing duo comprised of Brett Snider and Billy Federighi, has joined GO Film.

Uber Content has signed director Molly Schiot for global representation.

Design/Editorial/VFX

Editor Erik Carlson has signed with Volt for exclusive representation, marking the launch of creative editorial at the VFX/Motion Design studio.

Township & Company, a multi-disciplinary design, animation, and visual effects studio, has launched in Canada as a sister company to Axyz.

FLUID NY has launched an audio post studio, “Mr. Bronx,” and added David Wolfe to the position of Lead Mixer and Engineer.

Effective January 2, Steve Morrison will become general manager of Foundation, Chicago, and serve as its lead editor. Morrison has spent the past five years at Draftfcb, Chicago, heading up Inside Job, the agency’s in-house editorial shop.

Interactive

Ginny Golden has joined Wieden + Kennedy Portland as interactive creative director on the agency’s Procter & Gamble account. Golden was previously a creative director at the Washington, D.C. office of AKQA.

Montreal-based director Vincent Morisset has joined Unit9 for interactive representation.

Misc.

In an effort to streamline its relations with music publishers, YouTube has acquired RightsFlow, a New York start up that processes royalties for the music industry. Through the deal, YouTube will gain a system for processing royalty payments to tens of thousands of publishers whenever music is included in a video that is played on the site.

Wieden + Kennedy Portland was awarded shots magazine Agency of the Year.

JCPenney has hired PMK-BNC, an entertainment and consumer PR agency, to help refresh the retailer’s image.

Two firms, ZenithOptimedia and Group M, have released revised global forecasts for ad spending that suggest less growth in 2012 compared to what was predicted earlier this year.

Y&R has signed a lease to move to 3 Columbus Circle from 285 Madison Avenue around the middle of 2013.

Upcoming Events

December 13                AICP Foundation Holiday Party (New York, NY)

Accounts

Maine-based Via Agency has been selected to handle lead ad duties for Perdue chicken after a 40-year relationship with Deutsch and predecessor shops came to an end. Perdue in 2010 spent about $18.8 million on U.S. measured media.

After two and a half years of working with Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, RadioShack is looking for a new creative shop.

Diet Coke’s account for North-West Europe is up for grabs, as Coca-Cola seeks new agency relationships to help push the brand’s collaboration with the fashion world.

Merck Consumer Care, a unit of Merck & Company, chose Publicis Worldwide to handle three creative assignments with combined spending estimated at close to $50 million. The assignments are for Miralax in the United States, the Dr. Scholl brand in Latin America, and a prospective new product in the United States. Publicis Worldwide joins Euro RSCG Worldwide on the global Merck Consumer Care agency roster.

Heineken is consolidating global media planning and buying at one agency, and is pitting roster shops Publicis Groupe’s Starcom MediaVest and WPP’s MindShare against each other in a review that will be completed by mid 2012.

Coca-Cola announced that Ogilvy Latina will be the lead agency for a new, global Cultural Leadership assignment.

Agency Creative/ Producers

David & Goliath Los Angeles has appointed Todd Grant as creative director.

DOJO San Francisco has appointed Edwin Veelo as senior creative.

McCann New York has hired Adam Ulvegärde and Robert Lund, a creative team from Forsman & Bodenfors in Sweden, as creative directors on McCann’s IKEA business.

Saatchi & Saatchi Australia has appointed Damon Stapleton as executive creative director. Stapleton joins from TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris in Johannesburg.

Johannes Leonardo has hired Luca Grelli as creative director working on clients including Google, Bacardi, Chanel, Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch InBev.

RKCR/Y&R has hired DDB’s Toby Talbot as executive creative director, replacing the outgoing ECD Damon Collins. Talbot is currently the group ECD of DDB New Zealand and regional creative director for DDB Asia Pacific.

Colorado-based Sterling-Rice Group has promoted Wade Paschall to group creative director. Before joining SRG, Paschall was a group creative director at Arnold Worldwide where he oversaw all creative work on the Jack Daniel’s account.

After an 18-month stint at independent Cramer-Krasselt, Anne Bologna is headed to MDC Partners to become a managing director at the holding company.

Venables Bell & Partners officially opened Lumberyard, a studio that will produce advertising and content to be used in digital and traditional media channels. The San Francisco ad agency has hired Deva Ferar as director of content development to manage the new operation.

Directors/Production

Believe Media has added French director Lionel Mougin to its roster.

The Famous Group has signed John X. Carey for live action directing.

Director Paul Iannacchino has signed with Washington Square Films for commercial representation.

Director Philippe Andre has joined Biscuit Filmworks for North American commercial representation.

Executive Producer Andrew Traines has joined The Sweet Shop to helm the US operations as Managing Director.

Director Mr. Hide has signed with @radical.media for commercial representation.

Design/Editorial/VFX

Bi-coastal production company Stardust has named Tania Staykova executive producer of its New York office.

Nice Shoes, the NYC-based design, animation, visual effects and color grading studio, has appointed Kristen Martini as managing director.

Spontaneous has hired VFX artist Ed Manning as CG supervisor based in its New York office.

Interactive

CP+B has appointed Tom Markham as digital creative director based in its Boulder office. Markham comes to CP+B from Lowe Worldwide where he was global digital creative director.

Misc.

WPP has entered a deal, subject to regulatory approval, to acquire public-affairs and government-relations firm The Glover Park Group.

Time Warner has hired Laura Lang, chief executive of the digital-ad firm Digitas, to run its Time Inc. magazine-publishing division, the nation’s largest magazine company.

Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam was awarded the Eurobest Film Grand Prix for Heineken’s ‘The Legendary Making of the Date’. Tribal DDB Amsterdam was named Interactive Agency of the Year.

Upcoming Events

December 13                AICP Foundation Holiday Party (New York, NY)

‘Where is your line?‘, an interactive short film for The Havens Crisis Center by Rattling Stick’s Sara Dunlop picked up 4 golds at the British Arrows Craft Awards, including Best Direction.

Accounts

BBDO, New York, will be the creative agency for Foot Locker, as well as sibling brands Lady Foot Locker and Kids Foot Locker, and has also picked up holiday creative work for the Foot Locker brand in the U.S.

 After 11 years with Austin, Texas-based GSD&M, Kohler has put its kitchen and bathroom creative account into review. Kohler last year spent about $24.5 million in measured media.

New York State has a new ad agency: BBDO was selected to handle the “New York Open for Business” global marketing push recently launched by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Health-focused retailer GNC has chosen Durham, N.C.-based McKinney to serve as its new creative agency.

Digitas, Boston has been hired by Dunkin’ Donuts to handle loyalty marketing.

Arc Worldwide has been awarded creative and digital duties for Foster’s, Molson Canadian and Sparks. The win came without a review. Foster’s creative was previously handled on a project basis by Digitas. Digitas remains the digital agency-of-record for Miller Lite, and continues to handle other project work for the brewer.

For its expansion in the U.K. market, Carnival Cruise Lines won’t be using its U.S. agency, Arnold. The contenders for the $10 million UK assignment are M&C Saatchi, RKCR/Y&R, and Karmarama. 

Agency Creative/ Producers

Profero New York has hired Damian Claassens as head of creative. Claassens joins from Publicis Modem, New York, where he headed up creative on the agency’s LG Global account; prior to that, he was group creative director at AKQA New York.

DDB has appointed Simon Higby from DDB Stockholm to head up the creative department at DDB Copenhagen.

DDB Chicago has hired Argentinian creative team Ariel Abramovic and Bruno Acanfora from BBDO in Argentina to be associate directors.

Denver-based agency Karsh Hagan has promoted Matt Ingwalson and Sean Topping to creative directors.

Directors/Production

The Sweet Shop has hired Andrew Traines to helm its U.S. operations as managing director.

MRB Productions has signed Stephen Gyllenhaal to its roster as a commercial director.

Production and design studio The Department of the 4th Dimension (The D4D) has added actor/director Eric Stoltz to its roster.

Jeff Scruton, longtime executive producer at MJZ, has parted ways with the company.

Design/Editorial/VFX

Hollywood post studio Cinelicious has hired VFX supervisor and lead flame artist Ben Looram and is launching Cinelicious Take Out, a new model of ‘pop-up’ style visual effects and color creative delivered to any location.

Interactive

Publicis Modem has named Brian Skahan executive vice president, managing director of the digital agency’s New York office. Skahan was previously chief technology officer at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Skahan replaces Hyo Young Yeon who left for the digital design consultancy, Fjord, where he was appointed president for its US offices.

Misc.

Netflix announced that it would partner with Fox to revive “Arrested Development” five years after its distributor pulled the plug on the series. New episodes will stream exclusively to Netflix subscribers starting in 2013.

Droga5’s Puma “After Hours Athlete”, directed by Ringan Ledwidge, scooped the Grand Prix and two golds at the Ciclope International Advertising Craft Festival.

Upcoming Events

November 28 – 31         Eurobest Advertsing Awards (Lisbon, Portugal)

December 13                AICP Foundation Holiday Party (New York, NY)

Accounts

JC Penney is bringing in Peterson Milla Hooks to work on its general market creative account, an account that for the last five years was handled exclusively by Saatchi New York.

Heineken USA is launching a creative review for its Amstel Light brand. The move ends a four-year run working with the Dallas-based Richards Group.

Dick’s Sporting Goods, which has traditionally handled its $60 million creative account in house, is looking for an agency.

Avis Budget Group has issued an RFP for its Avis advertising business, which McCann Erickson won in 1999. In 2010, Avis spent $1.6 million on measured media advertising – down from nearly $28 million as recently as 2007.

DDB has terminated its global contract with Anheuser-Busch InBev, freeing the agency to pursue other beer brands.

Grey has won creative ad duties for Mike’s Hard Lemonade after a review. Grey takes over the account from the New York office of Havas’ Arnold, which chose not to defend.

Bridgestone Corp. has selected Optimedia as its media-buying and -planning agency for the Bridgestone and Firestone tire brands. The selection follows a review in which a number of large media shops were competed for the more-than-$100-million account.

Agency Creative/ Producers

BBDO Minneapolis President/CCO Denny Haley is retiring. He will be succeeded by Neil White.

Anomaly has opened an office in Amsterdam, and appointed Hazelle Klonhammer, most recently md of Grey Amsterdam, as managing director.

California based Vitro has merged with the NYC Shop SKINNY to become Vitro New York, with a combined total of just over a hundred staffers.

McCann Worldgroup has appointed Fred Schuster to lead its new global creative production company (formerly known as EXP), reporting to Nick Brien, chairman and CEO. Prior to joining, Schuster was CEO of RedWorks, Ogilvy’s global integrated creative and production company.

Teddy Lynn has been appointed the first director of content at BBDO, New York. He will work closely with chief creative officer David Lubars to bolster the agency’s branded entertainment offerings.

Ron Shamah, who led business development at the SapientNitro New York office was promoted to vice president and managing director.

Directors/Production

Station Film has signed Borderline Films, the partnership of Antonio Campos, Sean Durkin and Josh Mond, for commercial representation.

Slim Pictures has added director Ludovic Schorno to its roster.

aWHITELABELproduct has signed director Alison Chernick for global representation.

Tool has joined forces with UK-based production company Mustard.

Believe Media has added French director Lionel Mougin to its roster.

Director/cameraman Marcus Stevens has joined The Artists Company.

Design/Editorial/VFX

New York based Animation Production company Blacklist has added director Saiman Chow to its roster for US representation.

Global VFX and digital studio, MPC, has announced the recent appointment of Justin Lane as managing director at its New York office.

Simon Mowbray has joined international visual effects company Pixomondo as a creative director.

Interactive

Walmart is dropping R/GA as its digital agency of record after a three-year relationship. The Martin Agency will now manage all digital-marketing needs.

U.K.-based digital agency LBi has acquired youth-marketing shop Mr. Youth for approximately $40 million.

Trailer Park has hired Adam Hauck as executive producer for its Interactive TV, Menus and Content division.

Digital Pulp has appointed Mitchell Caplan as partner and managing director.

Misc.

DraftFCB has appointed Peter Drakoulias global chief of staff, a newly-created position.

Penn State University’s Board of Trustees has enlisted Omnicom Group agency Ketchum for crisis communications counsel.

HBO, Sports Illustrated and Endgame Entertainment have partnered to develop a documentary series exploring how sport has shaped American culture. The series will air on HBO in 2013.

Weber Shandwick and a sister agency have both given up a PR account for Kellogg Co. only weeks after being awarded it, due to an apparent conflict of interest.

BBDO New York won Agency of the Year at the annual London International Awards.

For its 2012 event, Cannes has announced a new award category: mobile creative work.

Upcoming Events

November 28 – 31         Eurobest Advertsing Awards (Lisbon, Portugal)

December 13                AICP Foundation Holiday Party (New York, NY)

Accounts

Ikea is expanding its relationship with McCann, New York, now tasking the agency to overhaul the retailer’s website.

Casual dining chain Applebee’s is looking for a new creative agency. The incumbent, McCann Erickson, will not participate in the review. The chain spends more than $100 million annually on advertising.

Liqueur brand Grand Marnier is looking to increase its digital presence and has tapped Culver City, CA-based The WOO as its first-ever digital AOR.

After a review, Cramer-Krasselt Chicago has been selected to handle the estimated $50 million integrated account for the amusement park company Cedar Fair.

RAPP New York has been awarded digital creative duties for baby food/products brand Gerber.

After a year-long review, ExxonMobil has consolidated global advertising duties with Universal McCann for media, while global creative will largely be handled by BBDO Worldwide. Spending is estimated at $300 million.

Goodby Silverstein has resigned its remaining Hewlett-Packard business, ending a 16-year working relationship.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Thom Gruhler, previously president of McCann, New York, has been appointed global managing partner at McCann Worldwide.

After a ten-year absence from the TBWA network, Laurent Janneau has returned to assume the title of worldwide managing director for the agency’s global Infiniti account.

After 35 years at DDB, Bob Scarpelli will officially step down at the end of this year.

Mark Moll is moving from New York to Chicago to assume the title of SVP/creative director at Leo Burnett.

Directors/Production

Directing duo dom & nic have signed with Station Film for U.S. representation.

Design/Editorial/VFX

Lauren Bleiweiss has been hired as executive producer at Final Cut New York.

The Armory, a new company representing a collection of directors and designers in high-end visual effects, live action, motion graphics, branding and design, launched in Los Angeles.

Jill Silberstein, formerly executive producer at Mother Productions, has joined New York-based Sound Lounge as executive producer.

Misc.

Chris Franklin of Big Sky Editorial won the HPA Award for Outstanding Editing of a Commercial for Ogilvy’s American Express “Curtain”, directed by Bryan Buckley.

Paris-based ad holding company Publicis Groupe and one of its clients, France Telecom-Orange, are setting up a new venture capital fund to finance digital-age startups. The two companies said they would invest an initial $200 million, and intend to invite undisclosed others to invest another $200 million.

Disney Interactive Media and YouTube have signed an agreement to invest $10 million to $15 million developing three original video series for distribution on Disney.com and YouTube.

EMI Group Ltd has been sold in two parts for $4.1 billion. Universal Music Group has agreed to buy the recording division for $1.9 billion. The publishing division in charge of songwriting copyrights, was sold to Sony/ATV, for $2.2 billion.

Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has become the biggest entertainment launch ever with an estimated $400 million in sell-through revenue and more than 6.5 million units sold in North America and the U.K. in the first 24 hours of its release.

Upcoming Events

November 8                         UK Music Video Awards (London)

November 8 –10                 Ad:tech Conference (New York)

November 11                       Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase (Shanghai)

November 28 – 31             Eurobest Advertsing Awards (Lisbon)

Congrats to Caviar’s Daniel Wolfe and So Me on their UK Music Video Awards!

Congratulations to Kohle Yohannan who took home The Lucie Award for Photography Curator/Exhibition of the Year for “Beauty Culture” at The Annenberg Space for Photography!

Accounts

Famous Footwear has named Y&R, Chicago its new creative agency after a review. The company has about $31 million in measured media.

Mike’s Hard Lemonade is reviewing ad agencies less than two years after handing the account to ArnoldNYC. The measured media spend in 2010 was $10.2 million.

Anheuser-Busch InBev has picked Starcom USA to handle U.S. media-planning and research duties after a review that included six agencies.

After a review, Philips has divided its more than $100 million global media business between MPG and the incumbent, Carat.

McLaren, the sports car company that was launched last year, has announced a global review.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Three months after taking up a senior post at Ogilvy, New York, John Kottmann is moving to DDB. In his new role, Kottman replaces James Lou who served as both U.S. Chief Strategy Officer and head of strategy for DDB Chicago. Lou will now focus on the U.S. full-time.

Digital agency Blast Radius has appointed former StrawberryFrog creative director Serena Connelly as ECD, East Coast and Mark Waggoner, formerly of Razorfish joins as ECD, West Coast.

Johannes Leonardo has hired Aaron Phua as creative director.

Creative director Judith Grey has left KBS+P.

Y&R New York has hired Rick Liebling into the new position of Creative Culturalist, with a brief to provide clients with greater context and understanding of how people are creating and participating in culture. Prior to joining Y&R, Liebling was director of digital strategy at Coyne PR.

Grey Amsterdam has appointed Marika Zijp as creative director.

San Francisco-based agency Eleven has hired Mike McKay, formerly of BBDO, Saatchi, and Goodby Silverstein, to serve as a partner and its first-ever chief creative officer.

Pittsburgh-based agency Brunner has named Rob Schapiro as executive creative director. Brunner was most recently senior vice president, creative director at the Martin Agency.

Grant Smith and Rick Ardito are returning to BBDO New York on the AT&T account under Greg Hahn.

Directors/Production

Rattling Stick, the U.K. production company founded by directors Daniel Kleinman and Ringan Ledwidge together with president Johnnie Frankel, will open an office in LA this month. Feature and commercial producer Jennifer Barrons joins as Partner/EP.

Andy Garcia has signed with Dark Light Pictures for representation as a commercial director.

Independent has added director Ed Sayers to its roster.

Chicago-based Radar Studios has hired director AK and visual effects duo COPA.

Editor Adam Zuckerman has signed with First Wave for commercial representation.

Uber Content has added Director Keith Rivers to its roster for global commercial representation.

Design/Editorial/VFX

Red Car has signed Josh Towvim.

Interactive

Publicis Groupe, Paris, is aligning Digitas Health and Razorfish Health, with the Publicis Healthcare Communications Group. Digitas Health and Razorfish Health will operate as stand-alone units inside Publicis Healthcare.

Misc.

McCann Global Health, New York, is being formed by McCann Healthcare Worldwide and will be based in a unit of the agency, the RCW Group. The group will specialize in public health education efforts.

Omnicom Group has acquired a majority stake in Mudra Group, India’s top agency.

Beattie McGuinness Bungay announced the launch in London of BMB Media, a joint venture with Omnicom-backed agency Goodstuff Communications.

In an attempt to build a more advertiser-friendly product of professional-quality video, YouTube announced its entry into original programming. The video site has partnered with content creators to launch 100 new video channels. The partners include Hollywood production companies, celebrities and new media groups that will produce mainly niche-oriented videos. YouTube is advancing $100 million to the producers who will share ad revenues with the site.

DOC NYC, Morgan Spurlock and Grey New York announced the creation of Launch PAD, an initiative designed to help connect documentary filmmakers with prospective brand partners.

Canon unveiled a new high-end digital video camera called Cinema EOS.

Upcoming Events

November 8         UK Music Video Awards (London, UK)

November 8 – 10 Ad:tech Conference (New York, NY)

Rattling Stick’s Ringan Ledwidge directs ‘Life Story‘, a powerful new spot for children’s charity Barnardo’s out of BBH.

Uncle Lefty has signed RSA Films and Rattling Stick.

Congratulations to Daniel Wolfe, AG Rojas, So Me and Edouard Salier on their UKMVA nominations.

Accounts

Marriott has selected WPP’s MEC as its new global agency of record for media buying and planning. McGarryBowen will continue to lead global creative, but MEC will lead media planning and buying for all brands worldwide, for all forms of media including digital. The company spent $86 million on U.S. measured media in 2010.

Online vacation-rental marketplace HomeAway has picked Omnicom Group’s GSD&M to handle creative and media duties after a review. HomeAway’s measured media spending is likely to total somewhere between $10 million and $15 million.

EBay is circulating a request-for-proposal to a number of agencies as it looks to ramp up its presence in the digital and social-media arena. In 2010 the company spent $82.7 million on domestic measured media, $52.6 million of which was spent on internet display.

Y&R, Chicago, has picked up advertising duties for the YMCA after a review, according to people familiar with the matter. Last year, the Y upped its U.S. measured-media spending by 15% to $7.8 million.

Asics, the Japanese sportswear brand, is holding a review of its estimated £50 million global advertising arrangements. The changeover won’t officially take place until after the brand finishes up its efforts for the 2012 Olympics in London. Asics’ current agency roster including Vitro (which handles U.S. efforts), Dentsu (Asia/Japan) and 180 Amsterdam (2012 Olympics project) are all currently involved in meetings regarding the review here in the States.

Agency Creative/ Producers

TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles has hired creative director Karl Dunn who will partner with fellow creative director Tito Melega on the Nissan account.

James Dawson-Hollis and Bill Wright, formerly executive creative directors at CP&B, are joining OgilvyWest as chief creative officers.

180LA has hired Jean and Devin Sharkey as a senior creative team. Previously, the duo were at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

Venables Bell & Partners has hired Cris Logan, previously an art director at Goodby Silverstein as design director. Lee Einhorn has been promoted to creative director.

Directors/Production

Epoch Films has signed filmmakers Tom McCarthy and Daryl Wein for commercial representation.

Design/Editorial/VFX

Optimus has promoted Mike Berg to editor.

Misc.

Publicis Worldwide has tapped brand strategist Jeremy Holden to serve as its first chief strategy officer in its New York office. Most recently, Holden was a partner and director of account planning at McKinney.

WPP reported revenue growth of 9% for the third quarter of 2011, to $3.95 billion.

Interpublic Group of Cos.’s quarterly profit hit $208.1, due in large part to the company’s sale of a portion of its stake in Facebook.

Havas reported group revenue up 5%, to $541.8 million.

Upcoming Events

November 8         UK Music Video Awards (London, UK)

Watchoo hiding in there?? Keith Schofield’s new music video for Duck Sauce, ‘Big Bad Wolf’.

Caviar Content’s AG Rojas drops a new music video for Emile Sande ft. Naughty Boy, ‘Daddy’.

Rabbit directing team Black Swan transforms a group of meerkats into a dapper, tuxedo-clad crew in this new spot for Renault.

Accounts

General Motors has invited four holding companies — Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, Interpublic Group of Cos. and Cheil Worldwide — to compete for global creative duties on Chevrolet. GM does not disclose worldwide ad spending for Chevrolet, but the 2010 worldwide ad spending for GM was $4.3 billion.

Luxury cruise line Crystal Cruises has chosen Y&R California and MediaCom West, as its new lead creative and media shops after a three-month review.

Diamond Foods, which recently acquired Pringles from Procter & Gamble, is reviewing media-buying and planning duties across its global portfolio of snack foods. The company’s budget is said to be between $80 million and $100 million, the majority of which is expected to go to Pringles.

Winemaker Constellation Brands has chosen 180 Los Angeles as its creative agency of record for the Robert Mondavi and Kim Crawford wine brand portfolios.

Oxfam America, Boston, chose Hill, Holliday, Boston, to serve as agency of record.

Real Hip-Hop Network, a new cable channel that is part of SSM Media Ventures, hired Berlin Cameron, New York, to help introduce the channel. Spending is estimated at $15 million.

Coca-Cola North America has selected 360i to handle social-media monitoring for all of its brands.

Paddy Power, a U.K.-based online betting entity has appointed Crispin Porter + Bogusky its agency of record for the £7m account.

McKinney has won creative duties for Ruby Tuesday restaurants after a review. It’s the second agency change for the chain in the span of six months. Spending on measured media in 2010 was approximately $12 million.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Gerard Caputo is joining Ogilvy & Mather New York as senior partner and ECD on the American Express business, among others. Caputo moves from Crispin Porter Bogusky, where he was ECD for its Miami office.

McCann Erickson has recruited Hank Summy, most recently head of SapientNitro’s New York office, to join as president of McCann North America.

Independent agency Marc USA has tapped former DraftFCB exec Mark Modesto to serve as president of the agency’s Chicago office. Former DDB creative director John Immesoete, will become senior VP, executive creative director.

R/GA has hired Tony Effik, formerly senior VP, strategy and analytics for Publicis, to serve as managing director of its media & connections department.

Rohan Young has Joined StrawberryFrog Amsterdam as executive creative director.

StrawberryFrog New York has appointed James McKinnon as business director for the Jim Beam account.

Leo Burnett Chicago has hired Alex Fuller as design director.

Blast Radius New York has appointed Silvia Cavalcanti to the role of senior strategy director, and Blast Radius Seattle has recruited Tyrone Samson as associate creative director.

Former TBWA executive Travis Britton has been appointed executive creative director and a principal of Cutwater. Christian Hughes has been appointed managing director and a principal.

After 15 years at Draftfcb Chicago, Chris Pultorak is assuming the newly created position of SVP, integrated brand leader on the Capital One business at DDB. Matthew Schabdach, formerly of JWT, joins him as account director.

Brooklyn agency Big Spaceship has hired Alasdair Lloyd-Jones into the new role of partner & chief operations officer. He joins the agency from San Francisco agency, Cutwater, where he was co-president & chief strategic officer.

Directors/Production

Los Angeles-based Boxer Films has signed Italian director Igor Borghi for U.S. commercial representation.

Interactive

Alive & Well has formed a partnership with New York based creative technology shop, Fake Love for integrated, experiential and new media work.

Saatchi & Saatchi division Team One has hired Jod Kaftan as director of experience design.

Misc.

Omnicom Group posted double-digit profit and international revenue growth in the third quarter of 2011.

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners won three gold medals at the 2011 Jay Chiat Awards for Strategic Excellence. Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Droga5 and R/GA each won two golds.

Michael Wolff has left his job as the editor of the trade publication Adweek. He will be replaced by the publication’s executive editor, Jim Cooper.

After months of being courted by technology giants and TV signal providers, online video service Hulu is no longer for sale.

Microsoft has finally closed its deal to acquire Skype for $8.5 billion.

Meredith Corp has taken a minority stake in its biggest agency to date, London-based Iris Worldwide.

Upcoming Events

October 6 – 20 Chicago International Film Festival (Chicago, IL)

October 26 – 27 AICP Conference (New York, NY)

November 8         UK Music Video Awards (London, UK)

Accounts

Procter & Gamble has selected Omnicom’s Ketchum as its global and North America external relations agency of record for Gillette, replacing 20-year incumbent Porter Novelli.

DDB has been cut from the Bud Light review, marking the end of a 30-year relationship. Agencies said to be involved in the review include CP&B, McGarry Bowen, Droga5 and possibly others. Bud Light had more than $276 million in measured media spending in 2010.

Rolls-Royce has selected Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners as its first agency of record for marketing communications in North America.

Shoe brand Onitsuka Tiger appointed Culver City, CA-based agency Pitch its global agency of record.

JWT has won a project from global giant Johnson & Johnson to create ads around J&J’s global sponsorship of the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil. The project will last three years, with annual revenue estimated at more than $10 million.

HTC is holding a review of its estimated $160 million global advertising business as it looks to increase marketing support for its products. HTC will appoint a lead agency to oversee the global business, but local shops will be retained. The Taiwanese company is understood to be holding meetings in Seattle with agencies including the US incumbent, Deutsch LA, and the pan-European incumbent, Mother.

Crown Imports has named GSD&M as agency of record for Pacifico and Victoria beer, two small Mexican imports that Crown wants to grow into mainstream offerings.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Havas opened Totality, New York, an agency that will specialize in multicultural marketing campaigns. Totality will absorb Euro RSCG Latino, and be led by the two executives who had run Euro RSCG Latino, Leo Olper, chief executive, and Mauricio Galvan, chief creative officer.

San Francisco agency Eleven Inc. has hired Anastacia Maggioncalda as executive producer.

Wieden+Kennedy has added two new hires to the digital department of its Portland office, appointing Pierre Wendling as director of interactive production and Matt O’Rourke as interactive creative director.

Carmichael Lynch has hired Michael Rogers as associate creative director on its Subaru of America account.

Marla Kaplowitz is to succeed Lee Doyle as North America CEO of MEC. She will report to MEC global CEO Charles Courtier and join the agency’s global executive committee, effective immediately.

Directors/Production

Supply & Demand Integrated has added Matt Lenski to its directorial roster for commercial representation.

Thomas Beug, previously an agency producer at Droga5, has signed with Skunk for US directorial representation.

Station Film has signed Alek Keshishian for US representation.

B-Reel Films has added Swedish director Anders Forsman, formerly with Popcore, to its roster.

Director Jason Harrington has joined Paydirt for representation in the US, UK and Japan.

Misc.

Spending in the US for mobile advertising this year will increase to $1.2 billion, from $743 million last year. $4.4 billion is predicted by 2015.

Publicis Groupe is launching a division that will license software to clients to manage consumer relationships in social media and mobile. The division, called CRM365, will target smaller businesses who can license its software as a service in addition to the typical clients of agency holding companies, and will be led by Digitas’ former global chief marketer Seth Solomons who has moved over to the sister agency to become CEO.

MDC Partners is making its first deal involving a public relations agency outside of North America. Kwittken & Company, which entered the MDC stable in September 2010, is acquiring 100 percent of Epoch P.R., which is based in London.

A consortium of Hollywood studios and consumer-electronics companies launched a cloud-based movie service called UltraViolet, which allows consumers access to movies they own across devices via a digital locker. Apple is currently in negotiations with several Hollywood studios for its own movie cloud service that would allow consumers to buy films via Apple’s iTunes and access them on any Apple device via its iCloud online locker.

Upcoming Events

September 30 – October 16 New York Film Festival (New York, NY)

October 3 – 7 Advertising Week (New York, NY)

October 6 – 20 Chicago International Film Festival (Chicago, IL)

October 26 – 27 AICP Conference (New York, NY)

Accounts

Saatchi & Saatchi has been awarded creative advertising duties for Kraft Food’s Trident account after a global review. Kraft spent more than $21 million on measured media on Trident in the U.S. in 2010.

Gree, a Japanese mobile social gaming company, chose Duncan/Channon, San Francisco, to introduce the Gree brand in the United States. Spending was not disclosed.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Co: Collective has hired four new team members, Darrell Whitelaw, Margaux Ravis, Tom Hull and Katie Stricker.

Jonathan Bellinger has joined JWT New York as digital strategy director. He was previously director for social media at Ketchum.

Patrick Scissons joined Grey Canada, Toronto as chief creative officer.

Jimmy Smith has departed TBWA/Chiat/Day, L.A. to launch Amusement Park Entertainment, a co-venture with IPG that will focus on transmedia storytelling and branded content.

Fred Schuster has been appointed CEO of McCann’s global production unit, EXP.

Mullen has hired Amy Neuser as creative manager.

DDB New York has hired Sonya Grewal as group creative director on the Hertz and Empire City accounts, and Dave Tomkins as associate creative director working across all accounts.

CHI & Partners has appointed creative team Jeff Anderson and Isaac Silverglate as executive creative directors based in New York.

Directors/Production

B-Reel Films has added Swedish director Anders Forsman to its roster.

Design/Editorial/VFX

SiblingRivalry was opened by veteran creatives Mikon van Gastel and Joe Wright. Van Gastel worked at Imaginary Forces, and started companies AVSO and Offspring. Wright was previously an executive creative director and partner at Trollbäck & Co. They are joined by executive producer, Maggie Meade, formerly ep of @radical’s Design/Digital division.

Mario Stipinovich has joined The Mill NY’s design division as a creative director.

Interactive

Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam has set up a digital production unit, The Dam Armada, made up of creative developers and designers focused on digital products.

New York digital agency Firstborn has added Roxana Zegan and Adam Rubin to its team as creative directors.

Misc.

CollegeHumor Media announced the launch of Jest.com, a website targeted toward the 18-49 audience that will produce original content and aggregate videos—including full-length television shows—from around the Web.

TED’s second annual Ads Worth Spreading initiative will open submissions on October 15th.

Rhapsody has signed an agreement to acquire Napster from Best Buy, uniting two cloud music players amid escalating competition in a growing market.

Digitas and CP+B’s work for Amex OPEN won Best in Show at MIXX.

Interpublic Group of Cos.’ MediaBrands has acquired Seattle-based social-media-shop Spring Creek Group.

Upcoming Events

September 30 – October 16 New York Film Festival (New York, NY)

October 3 – 7 Advertising Week (New York, NY)

October 6 – 20 Chicago International Film Festival (Chicago, IL)

October 26 – 27 AICP Conference (New York, NY)

A Hindu deity or the new Rhyme phone? Check out this new spot for Verizon mobile directed by Paranoid’s Edouard Salier and posted by Absolute.

Caviar’s Kirsten Lepore is a shots Magazine New Director!

Which is the greatest NBA team of all time? Directed by Caviar’s Nick Jasenovec, basketball legend Michael Jordan invites viewers to join in on the debate in this new spot for NBA2k12.

Rabbit’s Kevin Fitzgerald directs a visual epic spanning time and the globe in his new spot, Old Mutual “Pearl”.

Accounts

Pizza chain CiCis has awarded Publicis, Dallas its $26 million marketing account after a review.

Bank of New York Mellon named Doremus, New York its global agency of record. Spending is estimated at $10 million to $15 million.

Anheuser-Busch InBev is once again looking to make changes to its agency roster. The company is looking for a U.S. media shop to handle research and planning in tandem with their in-house Busch Media Group.

Bayer’s U.S. media account is in the early stages of a review. The company spent $546.7 million in U.S. advertising in 2010.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Matthew Bull, former worldwide chief creative officer of Lowe, has teamed up with Andrew Whitehouse, a founder of South African agency FoxP2, to launch a new shop in New York. MDC is taking a 51% majority stake in the agency, dubbed The Bull-White House. Bull and Whitehouse are joined by Lee Davis, previously a group account director at Wieden + Kennedy, NY and new business director at JWT New York. The agency launches with a beer brand from AB Inbev and social media company Syncapse as its first clients.

Carter Murray, previously chief marketing officer and a worldwide account director at Publicis has been appointed president and CEO of Young & Rubicam North America.

McCann New York has promoted Sean Bryan and Thomas Murphy to executive creative directors, the first time the agency has named a creative team as ECDs.

Arnold KLP has appointed former Naked and Mother creative Jim Thornton as its new executive creative director. He will be responsible for leading the agency’s integrated creative product.

McKinney has promoted Liz Paradise to executive vice president/group creative director.

Mullen has promoted Dave Weist and Tim Vaccarino to executive creative directors at its Boston headquarters.

Lee Doyle is stepping down from his role as CEO of North America at MEC.

Deutsch LA has hired Shannon McGlothin, former creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, as executive VP/group creative director.

Directors/Production

Hornet has signed animation director Julia Pott for commercial representation.

Commercial production studio Pictures in a Row has hired Roger Hunt as executive producer and signed the directing duo DarkFibre for representation in the U.S. market.

B-Reel Films has opened a new office in London, appointing Phillipa Allen as executive producer.

Dutch directing collective PostPanic has signed with Savage for representation in North America.

Editorial/VFX

Gravity has named Emmy Award winner J. John Corbett as its new VFX supervisor/design director.

Interactive

Interactive advertising revenues totaled a record $14.9 billion in the first half of 2011, a 23.2 percent increase over last year. Digital ad spend growth has out-performed every other category measured.

Misc.

The Martin Agency has started a unit devoted to marketing to mothers around the world. About 10 employees are involved with the unit, named the Mom Complex, which is also making use of freelancers in other countries.

YouTube is finalizing contracts for its first of more than a dozen “channels” featuring regularly scheduled content on themes such as fashion and sports.

Amazon entered the tablet market with its Kindle Fire, a seven-inch color tablet that runs on the Android OS and offers wifi access to all of Amazon’s digital content.

Upcoming Events

September 30 – October 16 New York Film Festival (New York, NY)

October 3 – 7 Advertising Week (New York, NY)

October 6 – 20 Chicago International Film Festival (Chicago, IL)

Real life meets miniature railway in Thierry Poiraud’s new shots Contender out of Paranoid Paris, Tomorrow on Track Today.

Accounts

Ancestry.com selected Duncan/Channon, San Francisco, to develop a campaign that will run in television, print and digital media. Spending is estimated at $40 million.

Esurance, San Francisco, chose Leo Burnett, Chicago as its new agency of record. The Esurance assignment, with spending estimated at $100 million, had previously been handled by Duncan/Channon, SF.

Nestle has moved lead creative duties for coffee brand Nescafe from McCann to Publicis Worldwide.

Universal Music Group selected MediaCom as its agency of record in the U.S. The company intends to double its media spend in the US to 30-40 million dollars.

Benjamin Moore is conducting a review to find a replacement for its agency of five years, Cramer-Krasselt. The paint company spent about $8.3 million on U.S. measured media in 2010.

Molson Coors has fired CP&B’s Canada shop after a seven-year relationship, apparently after finding out CP&B in the U.S. is pitching for Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light account.

Jägermeister has hired LA agency Mistress to work on the brand in the US. The ad budget has not yet been determined, but it is likely to be significant.

WPP’s Mindshare has retained its Royal Caribbean media account following a competitive review. The company is looking at a budget range of $50 million to $60 million, on par with its measured media spending of past years.

GNC is conducting a creative search process to find an agency to replace the Arnell Group. GNC wants to transform the company from a niche player known for selling vitamins to one more broadly associated with health and wellness. The contenders are McKinney, 22Squared, Doner, Walrus and Cramer-Krasselt. The account has an estimated budget of more than $50 million.

Merck & Co. has selected four finalists, Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis, Grey, and Deutsch, in its global creative review of three over-the-counter brands, including Dr. Scholl’s and Miralax. Collective media spending on the assignment is estimated at $50 million.

Three agencies await a decision in Chobani’s creative review. The finalists are Arnold, Leo Burnett, and Grey. Chobani is expected to ramp up media spending to about $30 million.

Agency Creative/ Producers

McCann New York has hired former BBDO New York production chief Brian DiLorenzo into the new role of chief production officer. DiLorenzo, whose role is effective from October 17th, will lead the agency’s integrated production operations and content development.

Ogilvy chief creative officers Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin, are leaving the network’s Toronto office after 13 years to launch a new venture dubbed “Swim”, a training ground for both ad creatives and clients.

Two years after joining Omnicom Group’s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Erik Vervroegen is returning to Paris to take on the post of international creative director at Publicis Worldwide.

Ralph Watson, formerly of BBDO New York, has been hired as executive creative director and associate partner at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in Detroit.

Four former Wieden + Kennedy creative, Jamie Kim, Rick Chant, Barney Hobson and Alex Bennett-Grant, have teamed up to launch We are Pi, a new creative shop in Amsterdam.

Erwin Penland, Greenville, S.C., part of the Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies, is expanding into New York and will be based in the Hill, Holliday office there. Hill, Holliday New York and Erwin Penland New York will operate separately but share back-office functions.

Al Kelly, chief creative officer at Euro RSCG New York is leaving the agency.

Deutsch New York has appointed Adam Chapman as SVP, director of creative technology.

Directors/Production

ACNE Production has added Australian director Samuel Bennetts to its US roster.

Tool has signed Tribeca Film Festival award-winner Alma Har’el.

Editorial/VFX

Editor Nick Tomnay has returned to Wild(child) for commercial representation.

New York-based Outside Edit + Design has hired Smoke/Flame artist, Tristian Wake.

Misc.

Facebook is on track to earn $3.8 billion in advertising revenue for 2011 – more than double 2010 earnings.

Google+ opened to the public and introduced a slate of enhancements and new features.

Nielsen disclosed a TV ratings glitch that it said has been generating incorrect data for most of this year’s GRPs.

The Grey unit of the Grey Group is forming a global division that will specialize in advertising for health-related products and services to be called Grey Healthy People. The foundation of the new division will be health-related accounts with billings estimated at $500 million that are already handled by Grey.

Rosie Arnold, creative director and partner at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, has been elected president of D&AD and will oversee the organization during its 50th anniversary year. Neville Brody has been voted D&AD vice president.

Facebook announced major changes to its service at its annual f8 conference in San Francisco. The current profile page is to be replaced with Timeline, a feature that allows users to keep a historical record of everything they’ve done and to compile a catalog of everything they’re interested in. Facebook also announced new partnerships with entertainment and media companies such as Netflix, Spotify, Vevo, and the Washington Post that will allow users to read, watch, or listen to content right inside of Facebook itself.

Upcoming Events

September 21-25 Woodstock Film Festival (Woodstock, NY)

September 30 – October 16 New York Film Festival (New York, NY)

October 6 – 20 Chicago International Film Festival (Chicago, IL)

Accounts

Under Armour has selected CP&B to serve as its new creative agency, focused on marketing its basketball footwear. The award of the $10 million account marks the first real review for the company to date.

After 15 years at Dieste, PepsiCo is moving most of its U.S. Hispanic beverage business to Alma DDB and LatinWorks. Pepsi spent only $1.3 million on Spanish-language network TV in 2010, but following the agency changes, that spending is expected to increase.

Wireless broadband provider Clearwire has named independent Horizon Media as its new media agency of record. Clearwire is expected to triple its marketing budget to more than $60 million in measured media.

BMW added KBS+P unit Ramona to its agency roster and appointed Sanders\Wingo to handle diversity marketing efforts for MINI.

Agency Creative/ Producers

Mullen is making Alex Leikikh the president of its flagship Boston office. Longtime CEO-President Joe Grimaldi will now become CEO-chairman.

Grey New York has appointed Dan Kelleher as executive creative director.

Wieden+Kennedy, Portland has won the primetime commercial Emmy Award for Chrysler’s “Born Of Fire” directed by Samuel Bayer of Serial Pictures and edited by Tommy Harden of Joint Editorial.

Sophie Kelly has been appointed president of The Barbarian Group. She was previously partner and managing director at StrawberryFrog. TBG has also picked Jill Nussbaum as executive director for product and interactive design. Nussbaum was previously ECD at R/GA.

Steve Doppelt and Steve Kashtan have been appointed executive creative directors at Euro RSCG New York.

Brazilian duo Fabio Abram and Braulio Kuwabara have been appointed creative directors at TBWALondon.

McCann North American President Robert LePlae is leaving the agency.

Harold Sogard has been appointed chairman of Publicis & Hal Riney, a new position at the San Francisco agency, effective September 19.

Arnold Worldwide has appointed Dave Dugan of BzzAgent chief commercial officer.

Deutsch LA confirms that it’s bringing on Trevor O’Brien and Nathan Pitzel as executive creative technology director and executive integrated producer, respectively.

Creatives Stuart Harricks and Siavosh Zabeti have joined Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. Harricks comes aboard as creative director after departing Young & Rubicam, New York.

Eron Broughton, previously a senior art director at Saatchi & Saatchi Australia, has been appointed David & Goliath’s new associate creative director.

Directors/Production

Commercial director Bruce St. Clair has joined production company Hello!.

Robb Fischer has signed with STORY.

Oliver Fuselier has joined Tool as executive producer.

Director/DP Brendan Williams has joined Passport Films for U.S. representation.

Editorial/VFX

Craig Leffel has been appointed director of production of ONE at Optimus.

Interactive

Longtime former employee and Microsoft exec Jeff Lanctot is headed back to Razorfish as chief media officer.

OneRiot, a startup that targets mobile ads based on social data, has been acquired by Wal-Mart.

Misc.

Publicis is buying Schwartz Communications, a public relations agency with offices in Boston, London, San Francisco and Stockholm.

MDC Partners is to announce the acquisition of majority stakes in two specialty agencies, Concentric Pharma Advertising and Laird & Partners. MDC is estimated to be paying $20 million for the majority ownership stakes in both agencies, with additional considerations based on future performance.

The Art Directors Club has elected Benjamin Palmer of The Barbarian Group as its new president.

In preparation for the launch of its upcoming tablet, Amazon is in talks with book publishers to launch a Netflix-like digital book service that would allow premium customers to rent e-books.

Advertising spending is still increasing, according to a report by Kantar Media, but the rate of growth has slowed as sectors such as autos, telecom, department stores and food companies have pulled back their spending.

Midrange restaurant chains are looking to rebrand as the economy wanes. Ten chains—which collectively spend about $160 million a year in media—have reviewed their creative accounts this year, and most are still in play.

In an effort to challenge Google, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft are reportedly going to start selling ad inventory on each other’s sites.

Twitter has officially begun inserting ads from brand marketers that you might not follow into your tweet stream. The first companies to leverage the new platform are Disney, LionsGate, AMC Theaters and Yahoo!.

Nielsen has unveiled a push to turn the new online campaign ratings system it developed with Facebook into the online equivalent of the TV industry’s GRPs. Nielsen plans to make its so-called NOCR (Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings) the currency for online advertising buys.

Mother is launching its first for-profit book, a children’s fiction title called “Operation Alphabet”. With future titles expected to follow, “Operation Alphabet” is part of a larger concept called the Ministry of Letters that will be developed into a series of books, apps, a roadshow and other products based around bringing the alphabet to life.

Upcoming Events

September 8 – 18 Toronto Film Festival (Toronto, Canada)

September 20 AICP Show (San Francisco, CA)

September 21-25 Woodstock Film Festival (Woodstock, NY)

September 30 – October 16 New York Film Festival (New York, NY)

October 6 – 20 Chicago International Film Festival (Chicago, IL)

Accounts

JetBlue has picked Rokkan to be its lead digital agency. The airline is switching digital after six years with Brooklyn-based Huge. JetBlue spent $17.6 million in U.S. measured media last year with $6.4 million going to internet display advertising.

Doner has won the agency-of-record account for Perkins restaurants after a review. Perkins’ U.S. media spending in 2010 was approximately $11 million.

New York State has launched a search for an Agency of Record for what is expected to be a $50 Million campaign.

Crown Imports is handing creative advertising for Corona Light and Modelo Especial to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners after a review.

Optimedia has been awarded Pizza Hut’s $217 million U.S. media account after a review.

After more than 20 years at Porter Novelli, Procter & Gamble is considering other agencies to handle public relations for Gillette. P&G spends an estimated $4 million to $6 million on PR for its Gillette brand.

Coca-Cola North America is searching for an agency to help it with social-media monitoring.

Agency Creative/ Producers

The chief creative officer of Lowe & Partners, Matthew Bull, is exiting the network to pursue a personal project.

72andSunny has named creative directors Jason Norcross and Bryan Rowles partners.

Kevin Phillips and Steve Street from Ogilvy, Sydney have joined VIA as creative directors.

Greg Crossley, previously head of design at Y&R, joins VIA as creative director of brand design.

John LaMacchia and Simon Foster, from Ogilvy, New York have joined AMV BBDO as creative directors

TBWA\Chiat\Day LA has promoted Jayanta Jenkins to global creative director and Brent Anderson and Steve Howard to group creative directors on its Gatorade account.

Renato Fernandez and Gustavo Sarkis from Almap BBDO Brazil have joined TBWA\Chiat\Day LA as associate creative directors.

Keith Ciampa from Goodby, Silverstein has been appointed the new executive creative director at Tribal DDB San Francisco.

Renata Florio has been appointed Chief Creative Officer of Wing.

Michael Houston, previously global chief marketing officer at Grey, has been tapped to run the agency’s flagship New York office as Managing Director.

Directors/Production

Director Danny Boyle has joined Compulsive Pictures for exclusive spot representation in the U.S.

Park Pictures has signed directorial duo Terri Timely for representation in the U.S., U.K. and some European markets.

Director Steve Ayson has signed with MJZ for representation and management in the U.S., U.K., France and Amsterdam.

Directorial trio Nobrain has signed with TWC films.

Interactive

Karen Monahan is joining @radical.media as managing director of Digital + Design.

Misc.

Yahoo has fired CEO Carol Bartz and announced a strategic review to revive growth. CFO Tim Morse will serve as interim CEO.

Five months before the Super Bowl, NBC has nearly sold out all of its most valuable football inventory. Spots are selling for a record $3.5 million.

Upcoming Events

August 31 – Sept 10 Venice Film Festival (Venice, Italy)

September 2 – 5 Telluride Film Festival (Telluride, CO)

September 8 – 13 IBC Conference (Amsterdam, NL)

September 8 – 18 Toronto Film Festival (Toronto, Canada)

September 20 AICP Show (San Francisco, CA)

September 21-25 Woodstock Film Festival (Woodstock, NY)

September 30 – October 16 New York Film Festival (New York, NY)

October 6 – 20 Chicago International Film Festival (Chicago, IL)

Accounts

Ignite Social Media has been named Chrysler’s its Social Agency of Record.

Arnold Worldwide has been appointed as the Boston Bruins’ Agency of Record.

CHI & Partners has won Burger King’s U.K. and Ireland ad business.

Pharmaceutical company Merck has launched a Global Creative Review.

Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R has been chosen to handle the Vodafone UK advertising account.

Au Bon Pain selected Pandemic Labs has been named Au Bon Pain’s Social media AOR.

Agency Creatives/Producers

Rick Webb is leaving his Chief Operating Officer post at The Barbarian Group.

Brian Martin has been named Chief Executive Officer of Amalgamated.

Keith Cartwright has left his post as Group Creative Director at the Martin Agency.

Jim Riche has been named Executive Producer of Ntropic, which is opening an office in New York.

Tony Cordero has joined Frog/San Francisco as Creative Director.

Colin McRae and Tony Vazquez have been promoted to Group Creative Directors at Draftfcb/San Francisco.

Dick DeLange and John Keeler have joined R/GA as Global Planning Directors for Nike and Walmart, respectively.

Bud Caddell has taken on the role of Invention Strategist at Deutsch/LA.

Chad Stoller has left his post as EVP, Director of Digital Strategy at BBDO/NY.

Frank Pichel has joined Thornberg & Forester as Creative Director.

Karen Monahan has joined @radical.media as Managing Director of Digital and Design.

Jack Lipton has left his post as SVP, Group Director, Account Management.

Steve Doppelt has been named Executive Creative Director for Euro RSCG/NY.

Kerry Feuerman is no longer with TBWA\Chiat\Day LA.

Mark Pavia has joined Chicago-based Starcom USA as EVP, Digital Managing Director.

Joshua Teixeira has been promoted to Director of Strategy for Big Spaceship, while David Gillespie and Karina Portuondo have joined as Senior Strategists.

Sav Banerjee has joined Rokkan as Executive Strategy Director.

Chris Dallan has joined DDB Canada/Karacters Design Group as Director of Branding and Design.

Directors/Production

Andy Tennant has signed with Grand Large for US and international representation.

Jodi Terwilliger has joined HUSH.

Kamp Grizzly has joined the roster of Wild Plum.

Michael LaBellarte has signed to the roster of digital media company, Utopic.

Randy Hackett has joined the roster of No Smoke.

Derin Seal has joined Mothership.

Editorial/VFX

Dan Bryant has joined Whitehouse/Chicago as Executive Producer.

Blake Huber has returned to Brand New School to serve as Flame Artist/Lead Compositor for its East Coast studio.

Ntropic has opened a New York office and hired Digital Domain alum Jim Riche as EP of its L.A. operation.

Interactive

WPP has acquired Rockfish Interactive.

Misc.

Fletcher Gensamer has launched a direct marketing agency called Gensamer & Company.

Upcoming Events 2011

August
31-Sept. 10 Venice Film Festival (Venice, Italy)

September
2-5 Telluride Film Festival (Telluride, CO)
8-13 IBC Conference (Amsterdam, NL)
8-18 Toronto Film Festival (Toronto, Canada)
20 AICP Show (San Francisco, CA)
21-25 Woodstock Film Festival (Woodstock, NY)
30-October 16 New York Film Festival (New York, NY)

October
6-20 Chicago International Film Festival (Chicago, IL)

Accounts

McGarryBowen has won United Continental.

OMD has won Sony’s Asia-Pacific media buying/planning business.

Leo Burnett has been named Agency of Record for Cincinnati-based financial services company Fifth Third Bancorp.

Wexley School for Girls was named Agency of Record for Mexican fast food chain, Taco Del Mar.

Zimmerman has resigned the Captain D’s Seafood account.

Agency Creatives/Producers

Marc Sobier has been appointed Global Creative Director of Y&R/NY.

Chris Cancilla has joined Tri3ect/Chicago as Executive Creative Director.

Chris Ford has joined Draftfcb/San Francisco as Chief Creative Officer.

Roy Eventov has been named Creative Director for Gravity Digital.

Andrew Kobliska has joined Bigsmack’s new NY office as Head of Marketing and Business Development.

Curt O’Brien has left his role as Vice President, Director of Content for BBDO/San Francisco.

Stephen Davis and Jill Hurd have joined VIA/Maine as Copywriter and Traffic/Resource Manager, respectively.

Wes Beyrent has been named Vice President, Director of Creative Technology for Publicis/Dallas.

Richie Grantham and Katie Lewis-Hepp have left StrawberryFrog’s New York office.

Jim Nelson has parted ways with Carmichael Lynch.

Bob Traino has left his role as Group Director of G2’s Business Development Team.

Paul Rearden has been named Executive Creative Director of Whybin/TBWA/Melbourne.

Three new creative hires have joined Fitzgerald & Co/Atlanta: Marc Linveldt as Executive Creative Director and Mitch Bennett and Wes Whitener as Creative Directors.

Christine Bridger has been appointed Vice President, Creative for Critical Mass/Chicago.

Robert Anderson has joined Big Fuel Detroit as Executive Vice President, Managing Director.

Jason Clement and Robert Swartz have joined Deutsch/NY with the titles of SVP, Group Planning Director, Digital and Innovations and SVP, Group Planning Director, respectively.

Ted Kohnen (Vice President, Marketing), Sue Guerrero (VP, Account Services) and Mike Ruby (Creative Director) have been made partners at Stein+Partners Brand Activation (formerly Stein Rogan).

Directors/Production

Directing duo Cousins (Jordan Sharon and Keith Hamm) have signed with Paranoid US.

J.J. Adler has joined the roster of Tool of North America.

Richie Keen has signed with Superlounge.

The Sanchez Brothers (Carlos and Jason Sanchez) have joined the roster of Partners Films.

Benjamin Lee Gordon has signed with Gartner.

Giles-Lovell Wilson has joined the roster of Short Films.

Editorial/VFX
Shannon Pettini has joined Splice/Minneapolis as Creative Director.

Paul Abatemarco and Daniel Marsh have signed on as Creative Director and Director, respectively, of MPC Creative’s U.S. division, based in LA.

Chris Kiser has been promoted to Head of Production for Click 3x, while Jon O’Hara has joined as Senior VFX Producer.

Vi Nguyen has joined Thornberg & Forester as head of 3D and VFX Supervisor.

Upcoming Events 2011

August
31-Sept. 10 Venice Film Festival (Venice, Italy)

September
2-5 Telluride Film Festival (Telluride, CO)
8-13 IBC Conference (Amsterdam, NL)
8-18 Toronto Film Festival (Toronto, Canada)
20 AICP Show (San Francisco, CA)
21-25 Woodstock Film Festival (Woodstock, NY)
30-October 16 New York Film Festival (New York, NY)

October
6-20 Chicago International Film Festival (Chicago, IL)