Say Bye Bye To TBWA\C\D NY’s Creative Staff
February 20, 2008
Ian Reichenthal and Scott Vitrone have left TBWA/Chiat/Day/NY for Y&R. The pair is known for their Skittles and Starburst work, which we personally love. You know, Y&R better produce some groundbreaking working this coming year after stealing all these creative types including Tony Granger from Saatchi.
Vitrone told Creativity Online, who broke the story, that:
“We met [Y&R Global CEO] Hamish McLennan in Cannes last year and we just got to talking to him, and he just followed up. We had quite a few meetings with him. It was clear when he hired Tony, and from our conversations, he is 100 percent committed to great creative work.”
And the poaching isn’t over yet. Hamish told the magazine that:
“I think you’ll see more hires across the globe. We’ve taken a view about where we want to take the business and we want to be known for doing brilliant work for all the mediums. This is just the beginning.”
This is just the beginning of Y&R attempting to rebuild their agency. Lots of folks have taken a person from here, another from there to great success. Looking for a new gig? Call Hamish. We hear they’re paying top dollar.
Meanwhile, why don’t they just close TBWA\C\D New York? Isaac Silverglate and Jeff Anderson bailed last week for Droga5. Tony’s gone. Now, these two and let’s not forget that just last month, TBWA\Chiat\Day New York executive creative director Gerry Graf became chief creative officer of Saatchi & Saatchi’s [source]. Note to TBWA: dudes… take his name off your website, yeah? Meanwhile, somewhere Kevin Roberts is just seething that he didn’t snag Reichental and Vitrone, too.
Corey Mitchell, President of the New York office of T\C\D must have concocted an ulcer by now. Are there any creatives left in the TBWA\C\D NY office? The agency still has some bigwigs though. They recently hired Shane Ankeney from Doner to assume the new role of executive director of audience planning. He’s probably wondering if he made the right decision. Executive Director Strategy, Suzanne Powers, who is in charge of new business, should be you know… doing her job or alternatively, looking for an exit strategy. She might be thinking to herself right now - “I never should of left California.” Jamie Gallo, managing director, who was saddled with the Sprint account in 2006, is probably taking it all in stride. He’s seen worse and done a good job for Absolut lately.
Sigh. Seriously… can you imagine the email Mitchell is going to send to staffers tomorrow? Classic.
February 20, 2008 at 2:57 am
It’s simple really. TBWA/Chiat/Day NY and LA treat their people like shit. Appreciate your peeps and they might just stick around.
February 20, 2008 at 3:18 am
scott and ian were the only two people in the NY office allowed to do the great work. they had pretty much the rest of the agency there solely to do the shit that paid the bills and fired half of them recently. so hey, good riddance. I can’t say the LA office treats their people that badly.
anyone wanna take bets how long it will take for snickes and skittles to jump ship? I see a bunch of creative directors not taking summer holidays this year.
February 20, 2008 at 3:53 pm
they have some new thing called TBWA WorldHealth up there that’s pulling in pharma accounts. Headed up by 2 guys from direct, an account guy and a creative. They get the non-star creatives from the regular agency to work on the pharma too.
February 20, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Please Ian and Scott - please don’t make scam over there. Your talent is already well respected among your peers.
February 20, 2008 at 6:21 pm
What is ‘audience planning’? Is it the same as ‘connections planning’ and ‘engagement planning’?
February 21, 2008 at 2:08 am
pharma is where old creatives go to die.
at least that’s how it was, how we all thought it was supposed to be. so you didn’t manage to retire at 40, 45, 50 or 55, so you went onto a high-paying pharma account (every major agency has one), did some more or less okay to sucky tv and went home every evening stroke five. pharma is stable, pharma pays. it’s a nice thank-you to the old burnt-out people who were second fiddle behind people like graf in their youth.
but making the youngens do it? the ones who don’t get paid duck shite anyway? that’s just mean.
February 21, 2008 at 11:31 am
Of course there will be SCAM stuff with Mr. Granger. How much longer will that be awarded / rewarded ?
March 3, 2008 at 7:36 pm
I wonder if pumping up the creative in Y+R’s NY office will help their shithole San Francisco office.
March 26, 2008 at 5:54 pm
[...] Granger at the agency until this November, a full year after his resignation. However, now that Gerry Graf of TBWA signed onto to replace Granger in February, it seems that Roberts is willing to let his grudge go. [...]