Agency Spy

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!)

Every 29 minutes this past Leap Day, management at Digitas handed out gift certificates, lunch passes and cash at random. Seventy employees walked away with some sort of good will gift. Why? Rolanda Harrison told Fox News that:

“It’s okay to take lunch. We work really hard. Sometime [sic], it’s okay to get out, take lunch, revive yourself, you know come back. Your employees will do more for you.”

We love free stuff and we’re down for agencies giving their employees a little schwag. For realsies, who doesn’t love lunch on the company? Yet, doesn’t it make you wonder what’s going on with the news? And this folks, is why we watch the BBC. Seriously.

Digitas sounds like so much fun. The New York office recently held a competition to see which of their staffers could get down 30 chicken McNuggets fastest. Teams were comprised of 2 people: 1 eater and 1 saucer. Oooh…. yum! That’s solves our daily, mind bending question about what to have for lunch.

We’re always interested in peeking inside of ad agencies. Luckily, shops keep uploading videos to YouTube that offer often shaky vids of their interiors. Today, it’s Digitas. Some staffer has uploaded four short pieces that give a clear view of the cube maze available at one of the Digitas offices. They seem like they’re having a good time, but Office Space anyone?

Want more? You can also check out the Chicago office of Digitas at their MySpace page and naturally, their Facebook, too.

Nick Pahade, president of Publicis Groupe’s Denuo, is outta there. Pahade is heading over to some company called GSI Commerce, which is an e-commerce and online merchant tech provider. He’ll be leading their marketing services team.

AdWeak pointed out that this is the second high level departure for entrepreneurial horizons. “Omnicom Group’s top digital media executive, Sean Finnegan, said he would depart to join Vibrant Media, a fast-growing ad network, as chief marketing officer.”

Is that a new trend? Think not. What we do think is that Denuo was the big shit before Publicis picked up Digitas. Maybe he misses running the the go-to shop. In that Google/Publicis pairing, it’s Digitas CEO David Kenny who is the liaison. Hmm… which came first - Pahade leaving or the choice of Digitas/Kenny to head up the exchange program?

Quite possibly, Pahade, who started Beyond Interactive in 1995, may just be jonesing for a smaller pond with less rules, which offers him more direct control of the ship. Either way, good luck to him!

It’s a video kind of day it seems. Here’s Digitas’ play on The Da Vinci Code highlighting their upcoming staff meeting… on floors 6 and 10… where something big is going to happen. Uh-huh.

Publicis today announced a new agency model that will incorporate many arms and legs including: Starcom, Arc, Digitas and Leo Burnett to work on accounts. This new arm is to be called the Insight Factory. While the agencies will retain their own identities, only a few employees being drafted from each unit to work on the new venture. It appears that clients have a choice as to whether they want to sign on with Insight. Jack Klues, the chairman of Publicis’ media operations, is to oversee the process.

The shop is shifting to a collaborative, open architecture organization “delivering right-size, right-time solutions to clients.” Talk about industry speak… It sounds like they’re just going to throw this thing at the wall and see if it sticks. Why not? The ad industry is in need of a shake-up.

The press release goes into even more jibberish: “The new model, unprecedented in the advertising and marketing industry, draws on a wide range of cutting-edge Publicis Groupe resources to transform the creative process, powering it with deeper, actionable human insights, a wide range of new digital tools and real-time production capabilities.”

The New York Post ran a story this morning about how a hug in the workplace is making a comeback in service oriented and creative industries such as advertising. Really? Are you guys at Grey “hugging it out?” In any case, reporter Brian Moore lays out how and when is the best time to reach over to hug your co-worker or client.

David Lavietes, VP/Planning Director over at Digitas came out to Moore as a hugger. Yup, that’s right. He’s into the hugging. He told The Post that he thought that the: ‘“de-WASPification” of the workplace has a lot to do with the touchy-feely trend. When different ethnicities become better represented in the workplace, ambivalence toward hugging diminishes. “The reality is that most of these other cultures are more physical, and hug a lot more,” says Lavietes, who also sees a “backlash against the sexual harrasment stuff” that’s made offices too sterile.”

Lavietes didn’t let The Post print that he worked for Digitas. Instead the paper credits him as a planning director for a Manhattan based advertising firm. If he wouldn’t let them attach his company, then we’re wondering why he thought it was a good idea to drop such a crazy quote at all. Most of these other cultures? Who are you talking about David - Indians, Koreans, women or Carebears? Oh and the sexual harassment stuff? That’s still happening. See here and here.

Can someone tell us what happens at the All-Staff party/event/award’s ceremony is at Digitas? Is this chick Audrey really serious when she calls it a prom? Anyone got pictures? When is it?

We’ve been watching these audition videos and now, we’re just crazy curious. Email us at agencyspy at mediabistro dot com.

A tipster sent us a sugary sweet link to a video on YouTube from interactive agency Digitas. It’s so overloaded with saccharine that we just realized we have a cavity in our lower left cuspid. Did you know that Digitas gives away an award each year to the employee who is “The Heart Of The Company?” Oh barf. However, we’ll admit that the winner, Jully Hong, is super cute. She even starts crying during her acceptance speech. The whole spot comes complete with a tinkly little soundtrack and post-acceptance speech interview with Hong’s parents (we shit you not) in which dad says, “Even though you’re thirty, you’ll always be my little girl.”

Do you work at Digitas? We’re just kind of wondering who lost out to Ms. Hong. We’re also definitely wondering who the chick is giving Jully the award. Email us at agencyspy @ mediabistro dot com

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