Agency Spy

When it rains, it pours. These things come in threes. Insert your own adage here. Turns out that Publicis West has laid off somewhere between 8-10 people from across a wide swath of department. We hope that whoever these folks are get back to work soon.

This move is not due to a client loss. The lay-offs seem to be based on the shop shifting itself towards more digital and brand experience initiatives. Hunh. Interesting.

 

The art director from Publicis West, Nicholas Francisco, is still missing. Investigators recently sought a search warrant to compel his cellphone carrier to release his phone records, but a judge refused to sign the warrant as their is no evidence of a crime. Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart said: “Being missing is not a crime.”

Luckily, T-Mobile has released his records voluntarily. Hopefully, this will lead to further clues as to where the twenty-eight year old father could be.

Again, donations to the family can be directed to the Nicholas Francisco Family Fund at any national Washington Mutual branch.

[source]

Sadly, the search for Art Director, Nicholas Francisco continues. On Monday, police located his car outside the Heritage Condos on South 340th Street at about 10:20 a.m.

Francisco was last heard from on Wednesday on his way home from work, according to the his family, and a $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to his discovery. There has been no activity in Nicholas’ e-mail or bank account since he vanished.

His wife gave this plea, which had us desperate to help even though we’re on the other side of the country: “I am begging everybody, begging everybody to please, please help me find my husband because I cannot live my life without him,” said Christine Francisco.

Just awful. Again, if you have any information, please contact THE SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT AT 206-625-5011!

Mauro Alencar, an award-winning digital executive will take over as Publicis Modem West’s executive creative director, which is a new position for the agency. The thirty-two year old most recently worked as Organic’s West Coast executive creative director. Previously he worked at AKQA, where he led the digital launch of the Xbox 360. That’s no small feat. Alencar has also done some time at Blast Radius, JWT and won Lions, Clios and a prize at The New York Film Festival.

Mauro’s already updated his Linkedin profile to reflect the jump. He also has a bit of a digital mission statement in his summary:

THE WAY I SEE THINGS
The digital convergence of medias opened-up an unlimited array of possibilities for reaching a consumer wherever he/she is, and for bringing him/her relevant experiences and information about a product or service. For me, the world has always been digital, but not cold or impersonal. I like to use virtually any kind of reference, be it TV, Movies, video games, books, Bottle Labels, etc, to develop innovative and rich creative work focused on providing a better experience to consumers.
Also, I’m always trying to gather people with the same vision for my team. I work hard to build an environment where they can have the opportunity to develop a creative interactive work that is not limited to the browser screen. A place that truly wishes to develop an outstanding creative work by exploring all the possibilities created by the conjunction use of all medias available and seeking for new ways to explore them

Ah Publicis West… Just what is going on over there? David Camp (pictured above), who was a marketing exec for Windows Mobile, has joined the shop to assist in growing their T-Mobile business.

Scott Foreman, Executive Business Unit Director, has been running the T-Mobile account phenomenally well for years. Evidenced by the fact the T-Mobile has been a client … FOR YEARS and holds up a lot of the financial weight over there. From what we hear, Scott is one of the few decent human beings in managment over at Publicis West, so what gives? There’s no mention of Camp reporting to Foreman, which they never forget to mention in the ad rags. Hell… we’re just looking out for the good guys.

One astute reader brought up a good question. What exactly does Randy Browning (CEO and chairman of PW) mean when he says, “It’s going to be fun to de-Microsoft him?” Everyone knows that Publicis West has a bad reputation when it comes to treating their employees like human beings especially since Kevin Kehoe was forced out. We’re not talking about the work, folks. We’re talking about inter-office life. Let’s see… there’s the sex scandals of course. There are also the comments left on message boards like this one: “As far as Publicis West, I know a guy who’s worked there for a years. Hated it then, hates it now.” Or, this one from Yelp.com: “I’ve been at positions at Publicis West for over a year. As of right now, Publicis West officially sucks!” Or - wait… this one, too: “It takes forever to promote well-deserving employees.” Screw it - just go read the long chain in the comments section of a post about Publicis NY and West here.

We’ll add the disclaimer that some people love their agency and some always hate it. You gotta look at these things over the long term, but you know… the long term doesn’t look so good for PW. As usual, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

We mentioned a bit ago that Sony was (rightfully) looking for a new agency. Despite the PS2 being the number one gaming console, the company needs to contend with the recent rise of Nintendo and Microsoft’s gaming units, as well as what Adweek is nicely calling an “erosion” in core brand attributes. You know… after the blogosphere cried bloody murder over their recent PS2 India ads and the consumer backlash against the PS3, you gotta think this is a good move for Sony. The RFP reads:
“For the first time in its history, the company finds itself in a catch-up position with the next-generation consoles [e.g., Xbox 360 and Wii],” the document noted. “While the PS brand health is still strong and the PlayStation brand is still believed to deliver a ’stimulating experience’ that ‘pushes the boundaries,’ it has become more of a safe choice. These indicators are pause for the company to reassess its strategic road map for managing its brand and products over the next ten years.” Blah, blah, blah… you get the picture.

So who got this RFP? Publicis & Hal Riney in San Francisco and Publicis West in Seattle; Interpublic Group units DraftFCB in San Francisco and Deutsch/LA; WPP Group units Grey in San Francisco, Young & Rubicam, and JWT in San Francisco; and independents 72andSunny in El Segundo, Calif., and RPA. Looks like the incumbents TBWA/Chiat Day are going to pony up to the plate too, but you know Sony just asked them out of courtesy. We’ll see what happens. The final decision can be expected in October.

More: Salaries At Publicis

Or, Ad Agency Anomaly Is Going To Be Rich Bitch

Everyone has an insane story about working in the biz. We’ve decided to query some of our favorite ad execs to get their best nightmare/fabulous experiences set in HTML for all time. Names have been changed to protect the tattlers. It’s like, doctor/patient privilege. We’ve also done our very, very best to confirm the truth. And now, we present…

Inter-Office Sex For CEOS

“I think that interoffice dating isn’t that scandalous, so everyone get over yourselves for falling victim to the inevitable office hook-up. When I worked at Publicis West the CEO got involved in a scandal. He was caught boinking a low level Account Service employee in his office… by his wife! She apparently threw the hussy’s clothing into the shared bathroom to retrieve. Naked. Then the hussy was quickly promoted right before Randy Browning and Kevin Kehoe cleaned up shop. The account service kids from that era laughed when recollecting how the hussy’s kids referrred to the CEO as Uncle at an all-office picnic.”

Golly gee. We should have worked at Publicis.

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