Agency Spy

Wow. We are depressed. One of our favorite bloggers, Copyranter, has called it game over:

“It takes too much of my time and too much of my life to publish every day.”

Now where will we turn when looking for early morning puns and double-eged pleasantries? We have got a feeling this isn’t going to be a faux-out either. Copyranter is no Jay-Z, no fame whore. When he says he’s done, we’re positive he means it. Sigh. Shit. He shall be missed. He shall be very missed.

Stanley Hainsworth, VP Global Creative at Starbucks, has reportedly left the brand to start his own agency. No idea what he’s going to call it - Hainsworth + Co., perhaps? You know Stanley. Take a look at the image over there. Come on? That hair? It’s like legend.

Stanley spent several years at Nike as a creative director and then spent some more time at the Lego Company as their global creative director. Hainsworth is a singer/songwriter, author, actor, director and producer - a real renaissance man. He was a co-founder and director at the Rita Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles as well as a founder and producer of BOOM Productions in New York City.

Want more info on Hainsworth? Scott Goodson, head toad over at StrawberryFrog, recently interviewed Stanley on his blog. When asked about his greatest lessons learned, Stanley replied:

“It’s never right the first or second time. Always the third . . . but then you go back to the first version and realize that you were right after all.”

Damn straight. Good luck to Stanley. It’s a rough world out there.

WPP’s dedicated Dell business unit, still tentatively titled “Project DaVinci” six weeks over the deadline for the name change, has firmed up its creative leadership for the Asia-Pacific region ahead of its official launch date of 1 May.

According to sources, the unit has hired two executive creative directors, to head its consumer and business-to-business hubs respectively in the region.

In the Singapore B2B headquarters, Alfredo Rossi comes aboard as ECD. Rossi joins from Ogilvy & Mather New York, where he spent 11 years, most recently as senior partner and creative director.  Meanwhile, the Beijing consumer hub has hired Mike Shackle from TBWA\Singapore to lead creative.

Well that is settled there for now — of course, still no global CEO or the 500+ missing others to get to the stated 1,000+ employee goal in the next two weeks before they are to officially start cranking out work for the client.

Rumours are that they are currently furiously interviewing for several people to fill out the roles for the EMEA region — which will be regionally headquartered in London — but like everywhere else, having trouble finding people to sign on.

In case you missed it, Brian Collins has swung back into action setting up his shop inconjunction with The Martin Agency. His first HUGE piece of business has been working with the agency on the Al Gore branding and advertising campaign.

Collins’, one time leader of the Brand Integration Group over at Ogilvy, has named his new agency Collins. The New York Times did a spread on Brian’s logic for the Gore’ logo design. Regarding Collins, The Martin Agency is on the record as saying:

“In his new company, Mr. Collins will take a more radical approach to finding solutions for brands looking for innovative ways to connect in a new landscape. “It’s an open frontier, ready for revolutionary thinking,” said Mr. Collins. “Unfortunately, old-school advertising relegates designers to the tail end of the creative process–if we’re there at all. We will flip that equation on its head, placing design–and the customer’s real experience–at the beginning, the center and the end of everything we do.”

Love him or hate him, the man is a survivor and that logo is damn good.

Addendum 11:43 AM, April 8, 2008:
Oh christ! I knew this idea of the “me” and “we” reminded me of something! It’s the recent Converse spot from Anomaly! Wow. Is that the collective unconscious working or a total bite? We shall never know.

A minute ago, Adweek began posting interviews with the dog dawgs in a video series right up front on their homepage. We would have embedded them here for your viewing pleasure, but alas… the magazine is still working out the kinks.

This week, Brian Morrissey interviewed Bob Greenberg of R/GA. Greenberg is so ready for his close-up with straight up, safe advertising answers, but we did find his inspiration source, architecture, to be a nice window inside his cranium.

Kamau High did Kevin Roddy, ECD BBH North America, who said that this is the time to get into advertising, as the boundaries between print and TV and everything else are collapsing around us. We agree. He rates BBH’s last year as not their best, but certainly a B+.

One complaint, if you let these people use this as a platform for their agency, they will. Joyce King of McCann just went wild there. They all have Directors of Communications who are schilling that story 24 hours a day. Please. Spare us.

There are other videos for your viewing pleasure if these two dudes don’t strike you. Cross your fingers that Adweek can where no advertising magazine has gone before and pull a Barbabra Walters on these heads - ask the tough questions and get real answers. In fact, if you had the chance - what would you ask the big dogs of the business? The comments section awaits you.

Swear. I love Bob. Here’s his last missive to the troops sent last Monday:

“Here’s a Thought from Bob Scarpelli

One of the speakers at our Co-Creativity Conference in Beijing last fall was Jennifer Wen Ma, an artist who is the youngest member of the Beijing Olympic Committee. Ms. Wen Ma leads a group of artists who are creating the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

She acknowledged the daunting challenge of creating a show that will “stun the world”. It will be watched by billions of people around the globe and will be China’s “face” to the world during the Games.

Now that’s pressure.

She talked about dealing with the expectations of her “client”, the full Chinese Olympic Committee.

Her first instinct was to completely defy those expectations and do something that had no connection with Chinese history or the “expected” icons.

But then she said something that I thought was very insightful and could be a lesson for us as we continue to break new ground in the work we’re doing for our clients. She said, “Working within expectations is sometimes as important as defying expectations” because “if we want to defy expectations, we have to know what they are.”

Later this year at the Beijing Olympics, Jennifer Wen Ma will certainly challenge the notion of what an Olympic Ceremony should be. But she will also do it by “working within expectations” to find a brilliant new solution that will stun her clients and the world.

Good advice for us, too, as we work in new ways everyday with our clients.

Bob Scarpelli
Chairman
Chief Creative Officer”

Recession shemession. Everyone wants their own shop. Ex-CD Jason Fretwell of AMV BBDO London, George Bryant, managing partner and Jackie Stevenson (the former managing director at Craik Jones Watson Mitchell) have been making moves to get theirs off the ground. The latest news is that the trio is looking to copy the Anomaly model of business - whatever that may be. Apparently, they’ve already holding interviews, have a client under their belt and are looking for office space. We’re sure there’s a name for this operation, but we haven’t heard it yet. Anyone?

You know how Phillipe Starck came out of the closet to proclaim that design was shit?

“I was a producer of materiality and I am ashamed of this fact. Everything I designed was unnecessary. I will definitely give up in two years’ time. I want to do something else, but I don’t know what yet. I want to find a new way of expressing myself … design is a dreadful form of expression.”

He also said he would retire in two years. That reminds of us when Jay-Z was all like, “I’m outta the game.” He released a record a year later. It’s also like when Godard denounced film, then started making movies again years later. Starck will be back.

Riddle us this… why don’t advertising gurus ever proclaim that, “I’m ashamed to sell fattening kids series to the children of America! Advertising is dead!” When is like, Jeff Goodby, gonna lose it and exit the business crazed and babbling? Hmm… maybe not Goodby, but someone has got to do it. Any takers? Think of the book you’ll write.

So, um… check this out, yeah? George Parker, the bullying, brilliant brute of a blogger, has been taking meetings with Droga5. Yes, David Droga’s, Droga 5. Why you ask? A little birdy (GP wouldn’t respond for comment) told us that George is the latest addition to a roster of consultants the shop employs. One has to wonder… how much does George charge for a bit of wisdom laces with sweet sticky vitriol?

We hope the Mr. Parker is telling them what shit Honeyshed has turned out to be. How the site tries so hard to be cool that it has completely missed the mark. How they should really think about revamping the entire site’s content to actually, you know, be cool. Oh wait, he already did that. That explains everything doesn’t it? Parker should just curse out everyone who he thinks can pay his bills. Surely, they’ll do like David Droga and pony up the cash.

Jeff Goodby has put fingers to keypad and penned an obit for the departed Hal Riney for AdAge.

“Riney loved characters, individuals, people who thought for themselves. I’m not so sure he loved mankind all that much in the larger sense. He was famously grumpy and irascible. But to get inside his friendship was to be in one of the most predictable places imaginable. He was able to capture optimism about this country that bordered on sentimental. In this place were all too many dogs and pickup trucks and distant harmonicas on the wind. It was an unrealistically nostalgic portrait, but I’m convinced that Hal believed this optimistic readiness was still inside each of us somewhere, even today. It was something that, as an American, you wanted to believe in so badly it ached.”

It’s really quite lovely.

“Someone asked me yesterday how Rich and I feel about having him gone, and I thought of John McEnroe saying that when Björn Borg retired from tennis, the game wasn’t fun anymore. Not that we’re John McEnroe; we’re more like Ray Spencer, the third man on my high-school tennis team who could surprise you now and then. But Riney was certainly the Borg of his time, whacking those hard topspin things at you mercilessly. Just try coming to the net.

I miss it already. And it’ll only get worse.”