Agency Spy

Too bad that this 27-year old twosome are actually at the center of a media shit storm. You see, over at Creativity January and Scott are being credited with work they didn’t actually produce. The normally spot on journos at the mag must have been blind sided by the pair’s wildly Uniqlo vibe. A snippet from the article:

“When Vernon (art) and Ginsberg (copy) arrived in New York in 2004, it was to join Tribal DDB, where they worked on the bawdy “Shave Everywhere” online campaign for Philips’ manscaping appliance, the Bodygroom.”

First of all, Vernon and Ginsberg never worked at Tribal DDB. That would be DDB people. Big difference. This typo might have been a journalistic oversight. Shit, we do that all the time, but as many like to point out, we’re just a blog.

The duo won an Effie, while working at, yes, DDB for their wild posting campaign for the same brand, Bodygroom. They got some mojo for sure, but um…

“Shave Everywhere” was a much-lauded online campaign that took home a Gold Cyber Lion in Cannes and Pencils at The One Show and D&AD. Who wouldn’t want to take a little credit for it or alternatively, let a journalist give them some shine? However, just because you did wild postings doesn’t mean that you developed an entire online experience. Apparently, the pair sat in on one meeting where everyone got together to talk shop about the client. One meeting does not a website articulate, create or build. Steven Nesle (Tribal’s ECD) and Brook Lundy (the copywriter on Shave Everywhere) have got to be fuming that credit for their idea is going every which way. This is a small navel gazing industry. Did you guys think no one would notice?

The rest of the article has Vernon and Ginsberg rattling off the reasons why they make a good team. One reason is that they don’t take the business seriously. Maybe not, but seriously… You guys might want to write Creativity and get them to redact that whole paragraph there. It kind of looks like you’re complicit. People are talking. Think of your future and that other people take their work and this business very seriously. Another reason they work well together is that they have the ability to call bullshit on one another. So, hey… when you guys read this article - who called bullshit on who?

Too often credit is not given where credit is due. You’d think that creatives would at least correct journalists when this kind of stuff happens. Hos before bros? No, no… how about do the right thing? Yeah. That works.

Continuing our international theme today — seems Tribal DDB has appointed a new leader in China.

“Jit Hoong Ng (pictured) has been appointed as MD of Tribal DDB in Shanghai, replacing Diana Jim, who left the post and the industry six months ago.

Ng has over 15 years of experience in the new media and communications business. Most recently, he was MD of RMG Connect in Beijing for almost two years. He will report to Amanda King, Tribal DDB Asia-Pacific president, and Dick van Motman, president and CEO of DDB China Group.

“My role is to continue to work with our clients so that their creative digital solutions are engaging and spark interesting conversation in the digital space,” said Ng.”

Good luck to him — should be a fairly busy time for him to dive in with that whole Olympics thing slated to go off here soon.

Seems Ad Age has gone “digital” this week with the “Ad Age Digital Issue” (sorry if I’m late to the game on this — been a hectic one here.)

The usual load of crap is installed and it is a very quality attempt at garnering some good PR for all those agencies you love to hate (when most of them deserved to be ignored for the most part.)

Perhaps one of my favorites of the entire issue is the labeling of Draft as “an innovative place to work.”

Now, not to steal too much from George P. on this subject (him & Howard D. being best buds and all) — but are you serious? I think i’ll let George have his say in the comment section (if he gets around to it — but knowing his ever-expanding love for the company — and he probably has every mention of Draft on the web as a Google Alert — I’m sure he’ll chime in soon enough.)

Almost as bad is Digitas being #6 on “Digital A-List 2008″ — those who know it — generally know it as a shitty place to work — and everyone knows that they don’t have the first clue on how to service a client properly (feel free to quiz their GM or Amex clients some time…)

Of course, this thing has a payola feel to it all — Global Agency Network of the Year Tribal DDB didn’t even make the list (not that they necessarily deserved to, mind you), nor did R/GA (which is considered one of the best places to both ply the digital trade and turn out good work — i.e. Nike+, Verizon, Nokia, etc.)

You had to know that Howard sent Jonah a case of Effen-Effen to get on the innovative work place list, right?

*** EDIT:  The “payola” mention is a JOKE… ha-ha funny…ok maybe not that funny — but there was no intention for the term “payola” to ruffle the feathers of those mentioned in the article.  It is all my uninformed opinion anyway — libel is a tricky issue…. especially when opinion (of which this is not supposed to be a “news relevant mention”– remember “J-O-K-E”!)  Now I think I’ve killed that beyond recognition — have a great weekend!)

—–Original Message—–
From: Matt Freeman [mailto:********@tribalddb.com]
Sent: Sun 1/20/2008 8:31 PM
To:
Subject: Tribal Everyone

Global Agency Network of the Year.

I am very proud to announce that Advertising Age has named Tribal DDB Worldwide its 2008 Global Agency Network of the Year.

This marks the first time an interactive agency has ever won this award - and quite honestly, I can’t think of a more deserving bunch than all of you for this historic honor. Congratulations!

In addition to recognizing the collective accomplishments of Tribal DDB people all around the world - with 9 new offices, 31 significant new business wins, 72 major international awards and growth that out-paced even our own rapidly-growing industry - the articles also point to the close and collaborative bonds that are evident throughout our network.

Honestly, it is the praise of our People (not just our Product & Profit), that I found most wonderful.

Please enjoy your new email signature (you earned it) - as well as the lavish & wild celebration parties I am sure your management will throw for you this week.

I am very proud to work with you all.

Congratulations! (Again!)

Matt.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=123184 <http://adage.com/article?article_id=123184

http://adage.com/columns/home?section_id=291 <http://adage.com/columns/home?section_id=291

—–
MATT FREEMAN
Chief Executive Officer
Tribal DDB Worldwide
437 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022
******@tribalddb.com
tel:  212-515-8314
fax: 212-515-8664

________

Okay. Congrats to Tribal and all, but Matt… Do you not know how to put a link in an email? What’s with the clunky HTML? Your staffers can not be sending such long, dragging code as an email signature. Also, those links are head. Lucky for you, your lovely PR lady, Christina Cubeta, sent us the correct link. You can see it here. Sheesh. Congrats to Tribal.

From Sallie Schoneboom, a press liaison for NBC Universal, regarding Tribal DDB’s win of the scifi.com account:

“Tribal DDB New York will act as partner for digital marketing to SciFi. The development and maintenance of SciFi.com will remain an internal charge. The addition of Tribal DDB will not impact SciFi’s existing agency relationships.

As digital is increasingly an important communication channel in driving brand engagement and viewership of television programming, SciFi has added to our internal resources. We have brought on Tribal DDB to be our partner in fulfilling these marketing needs and are excited to work with a leader in the digital innovation space.”

Watch Tribal’s show reel above.

Tribal DDB has won the Scifi channel’s digital account. Spark will retain the site’s planning and buying business and Fallon will continue to handle their overarching media and strategy responsibilities.

You never hear to much about digital wins in the big presses. We’d like to start filling in the information gaps. So, if you work at a digital agency and want to give your shop props for winning an account, contact us via email [agencyspy at mediabistro dot com] or IM [agencyspy]

So, okay. What’s going on at Tribal DDB? Do you guys love it? Do you hate it? Details please. Pretty please? The comments section is always there for you or email us - agencyspy at mediabistro dot com or IM us at agencyspy

Tribal DDB has won some mock advertising award at Advertising Week. The hypothethical mission was that the current administration was handing out $500 million to an ad agency to rebrand America. Catch this - Mr. Reinhard, Chairman Emeritus of DDB Worldwide and founder of Business for Diplomatic Action was the brains behind the whole she-bang. Also in competition were two teams of students at the VCU Adcenter led by Rick Boyko and advertising agency Draftfcb. Tribal took home the “prize” after suggesting that the country create a team of citizen ambassadors under the banner, “A United States Of Mind.”

Tribal’s idea wasn’t a bad, one but, so… um… A DDB company won this thing right?

We called for a rebranding of America awhile ago, so we’re all for this concept. However, a little more open spirited and fair competition might be a good place to start.

READ MORE HERE

Oh yes… here’s the latest addition to our collection of agency recruitment videos. This one comes by way of interactive shop Tribal DDB. While it’s not as totally-fricking-out-there as the Avenue A/Razorfish spot, Tribal holds its own in the quirkiness department by employing the age old tactics of foreign languages and violence. We’re digging this video. It’s a fast pay off. Enjoy.

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