Agency Spy

Interesting bit of gossip we received via the tip box over the weekend — and on yet another very slow news day:

Why hasn’t the potential new ECD at TBWA signed the contract?

Well it seems they cannot find a good school for his kids. TBWA is trying to buy their way into some of NYC’s most prominent private schools — apparently unsuccessfully so far.

Nice to see that the ECD candidate is putting the welfare of his kids’ education at the forefront of their requirements — probably because all the hours they’ll be putting in at the job, they’ll never see them aside from vacations

So word on the street is that Marty Orzio, the CCO of EnergyBBDO in Chicago, has resigned. We are waiting on confirmation from the powers that be at BBDO — but we’ll see what happens.

A bit from EnergyBBDO’s website & PR people on Marty’s career:

“Marty Orzio began his professional life as a high school English teacher. He made a career change at 28, going to work in the direct-mail department of Wunderman Worldwide. His next job was at Lowe&Partners,where he rose from copywriter to executive vice president to creative group head. Prior to joining BBDO,he was executive creative director at Merkley Newman Harty. His clients have included Forbes,Citibank,Sprite,Diet Coke,BMW Motorcycles,United Healthcare and Partnership for a Drug Free America. His work for Mercedes Benz has won virtually every industry award,including a Gold Lion at Cannes.

Some notable campaigns developed under Marty: new Altoids (”A slap to the cerebellum”), Canadian Club (”Damn right your dad drank it”), Orbit, Jim Beam, Aleve Super Bowl spot (with Leonard Nimoy), Lifesavers

New business gained: Dial (includes Dial for Men, Right Guard), Brinker, Beam, White Sox, U.S. News & World Report, LaSalle Bank, expanded global responsibilities on Bayer and Wrigley.”

I’ll start the speculation — we’ll we see Marty escape to NYC like all the other Chicago creatives lately — or perhaps he’ll join the carousel and end up replacing say….Mark Figliulo — the dude at Y&R that is apparently on the verge of joining TBWA \Chiat Day in NYC as the grand poo-bah of all things creative.

UPDATE:

Apparently Marty is bailing out to spend more time with the wife in NYC.

Jim Hyman and Greg Braun, the gcd’s, are going to the main ship until a replacement is found (there will be an “aggressive search” apparently) and they’ll be in charge of the golden boys over there Frank Dattalo and Mike Roe

One of our kind tipsters has alerted us to the fact that Y&R San Francisco has been shitcanned from the current review on the Dr. Pepper account.

That would seem to leave on of independent Droga5, MDC Partners’ Cliff Freeman and Partners and Interpublic Group’s Deutsch/LA in the running for the account — which about a month ago was descibed as only a “creative project” and that Dr, Pepper was not up for full review at that time.

So not sure if it is just for the creative project or the entire account — but bears watching given the general unstable state of Y&R these days.

We’ll continue to monitor the situation and feed updates as they come in….

In early October, we reported that Kansas City ad agency Bernstein-Rein was in a bit of trouble after losing the USAA account. At the time, the agency made no indication that they would be dropping bodies. But, we hear that… in a one day bloodbath, BR laid off somewhere around 20 creatives this week.

Our source tell us it that the lay-offs went something like this: “They were told at the beginning of the day that it would be pretty ugly and that they would be called in one by one. So, in the creative bullpen, the day was comprised of people sitting nervously by their desks waiting for the phone call pulling them into the office to be fired. It went on all day. Just imagine, sitting in an office for at least 8 hours wondering who is next. Just waiting to see if you are next while seeing your friends fired one by one all day. It was reportedly hell.”

Sounds like it. The agency declined to comment. We were pulling for BR to keep it together. We like ‘em. Alas… We also hear that… bodies will also be falling from the account side over the next few weeks.

Read More: Breaking! McCann Is Up To No Good

Everyone is buzzing about the impending advertising news from Facebook. It’s being billed as mind shattering with a lead up to the announcement that like a summer blockbuster. And just like a big, expensive, CGI’d-to-death summer film, we hear that… all that news is going to be no big deal. One source told us that their company had a “top secret” call breaking Facebook’s new plan to them early. Apparently, it isn’t all that earth shattering that it will completely change their advertising and their abilities.

We’re guessing that all the speculation about user generated data is spot on. The social networking site really probably just going announce some data mining system that won’t win them an Oscar, may prove to be entertaining.

ValleyWag is reporting that Facebook’s Flyers program might also turn out to be the real star of the show. “Like Google’s AdWords, Facebook’s Flyers Pro charges per click. Unlike Facebook’s old Flyers, which only let advertisers target small groups like students and alumni of a particular college, Flyers Pro lets advertisers target by city, gender, age, relationship status, employer, educational level, political views, and — are you listening, Google? — keywords. Facebook, of course, has the data, freely given by its users to target to those characteristics. And Facebook now promises “detailed reporting” –”

Read More: Fallon UK’s Next Commercial No, we’re talking about the Bravia series.

It seems that Federated Media (the online ad network that was involved in the Microsoft pay-to-play scheme and who also had a crooked advertising conference and who is hated by many, many folks) is about to face some stiff competition. The unconventional media agency The Happy Corp (which is helmed by ex-ad exec Doug Jaeger and management whiz man Matt Spangler) along with super cool website Coolhunting and a third party (an ad sales network?) are setting up an East Coast based online rival.

Looks like they’re staffing up. One of the sources for this posting pointed us to their job listing looking for an advertising executive. Hell, there’s an equity offer in there, too. The copy confirms our tipsters stories:

“The company is a partnership between three media companies specializing in digital publishing, media consulting, creative design and branding. Newly formed, the ad network consists of several popular online publications serving niche content to a highly desirable audience of creative professionals, affluencers and urban independents”

We’re looking for more info. Federated Media and its owner John Battelle have long been up to shady practices and without returning acceptable results for the blogs on its network. We’ve contacted the known parties involved to see if we can get a launch date, clients or other details. We’ll keep you posted.

Two lovely tipsters have told us that new agency Goodness Mfg., which is just setting up shop in Venice California and was founded by few ex-employees of Crispin Porter is actually partially funded by the hot shop. We’ve written an email to Brian Rekasis, who worked at CPB and W+K, but have yet to receive a response. We’ll keep you updated as we know you guys want the info. The search term “Goodness Mfg.” is always in our top ten. If you can confirm or deny these tips, let us know at agencyspy at mediabistro dot com. Work that fake Gmail account kids.

More: The Future Of Consumer Generated Media?

UPDATE: August 2nd, 2007 at 3:30 pm - More Bodies Fall At Fallon Including Pat’s

We wrote a piece this AM about Fallon and Saatchi & Saatchi’s new deal to create a new division together called the SSF Group, which is really a way to save Fallon’s sinking profit margin. Read it here. A tipster has provided us with their thoughts about Fallon’s downfall, which include some scathing details about The Buchner brothers. This is a MUST READ: Read the rest of this entry »

We’re looking for a few good friends and by friends we mean, you do us a favor and we’ll do one in return. Come on… you know how many people are reading this thing now? Yeah. We’re shocked too, but it’s a lot. So… Got a tip, an email, a memo, a rant, some hijacked creative, secrets and truths? We’re dedicated to making advertising a little more fun. We don’t sleep. Anonymity guaranteed. Send us whatever, whenever at agencyspy at mediabistro dot com

We hear… that beauty brand Dove, who won big at this year’s Cannes awards for its Evolution spot, is taking the concept to the big screen. With the assistance of Edelman subsidiary Matter (one of those little known “entertainment agencies”), Dove is in the process of shooting a full length documentary with Diane English directing. Seems that no one is sure where this baby is going to air - theaters or cable TV (gawd, we hope it’s not Lifetime). Doesn’t matter really. Cheers to Dove for taking their real beauty campaign straight to the masses.

Besides that, Dove is also apparently a heavy investor in Ms. English’s directorial debut - the soon-to-be released remake of The Women starring Meg Ryan, Jada Pinkett Smith, Eva Mendes and Debra Messing.

We’re not sure what Dove is getting out of being an investor in the film. Is it product placement or just sponsorship? Wouldn’t the latter be interesting? Big brands sponsoring major films. Hmmm….

More: Not into Dove? Why Jeep, BBDO And Cutwater Are Only Kinda Fun
Or, how about WTF? Does Your Girlfriend Bore You Shitless?