16583: More White Holding Company Fire Sales…?

 

Mediapsssst at MediaPost reported former MDC Partners CEO Miles Nadal may collect more than $60 million by selling a collection of sneakers and up to 100 sports cars and vehicles. How typical for an ex-honcho of a White holding company to build a huge pile of shit via questionable acquisitions—then decide to start selling everything off.

 

Disgraced Ad Exec Nadal About To Make $60 Million Windfall

 

By Richard Whitman

 

Remember Miles Nadal? How could you forget, right?

 

He’s the disgraced former CEO of MDC Partners. In 2017, the SEC ordered Nadal to pay $5.5 million in civil penalties and banned him for five years from serving as an officer or a director of a public company as a result of his MDC-related shenanigans including failure to disclose millions in personal compensation.

 

Now he’s about to make another windfall: The Toronto Star reported this week that Nadal is auctioning off an Imelda Marcos-sized collection of sneakers and over 100 sports cars and other vehicles that are expected to fetch more than $60 million.

 

The items are being sold at an RM Sotheby’s auction in Toronto from May 31 to June 1, The Star Reports.

 

The proceeds from the shoe collection (estimated worth: $2 million) are said to be going to the Dare To Dream Foundation.

 

As for the far more valuable car collection, maybe Nadal should invest in Stagwell, which absorbed MDC via merger in 2021, now that there’s a competent CEO at the helm. 

 

16426: No Longer In The Concentric Circles Of Stagwell’s Inferno.

 

MediaPost reported Stagwell is selling healthcare agency ConcentricLife to Accenture Song for $245 million. Accenture once bid to purchase MDC Partners, which ultimately merged with Stagwell. So, ConcentricLife may manage to succeed where other White advertising agencies failed—ie, it is escaping from the hell of the arguably worst White holding company ever.

 

Stagwell Sells Healthcare Agency To Accenture Song For $245 Million

 

By Steve McClellan

 

Stagwell has reached an agreement to sell healthcare marketing agency ConcentricLife to Accenture Song for $245 million cash.

 

Stagwell said it is selling the unit as part of a streamlining effort to focus on “core digital services.”

 

Stagwell CEO Mark Penn said, “We believe Accenture Song will be a good home for ConcentricLife, consistent with their focus on growing presence in the healthcare and life sciences industry.”

 

Penn said the proceeds will be reinvested in digital capabilities across the company’s agencies, as well as in the firm’s AI-based product suite housed within the Stagwell Marketing Cloud. Proceeds could also be used for M&A.

 

ConcentricLife was founded in 2002 by Ken Begasse Jr., who heads the agency as CEO. Clients include Pfizer, Novo Nordisk and Abbott. It is headquartered in New York with offices in London, Atlanta, Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale and San Diego.

 

Stagwell gained control of ConcentricLife through its merger with MDC Partners in 2021 and then paid a little more than $8 million to acquire the 27% of the agency it didn’t already own.

 

David Droga, CEO, Accenture Song stated: “We believe that together with ConcentricLife we will create a powerful capability to shape the future of health experiences and provide a truly compelling proposition for our clients.”

 

Completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory clearance and other customary closing conditions.

15934: Poaching, Puffery And Perpetuating Poop.

 

Advertising Age reported 72andSunny hired CPB Global CEO Marianne Malina to serve as its first-ever North American president, charged with running the White advertising agency’s New York and Los Angeles offices. What makes the news dizzyingly dull is the way that players have drifted around via mergers and job shifts—essentially perpetuating Adland’s commoditization of creativity and talent. Can anyone really discern any difference between White holding companies (MDC Partners or Stagwell), White advertising agencies (72andSunny or CPB or GSD&M) and the White men and White women shuffling between it all? Stagwell Media Network should be renamed Stagwell Mediocre Network.

 

72andSunny Hires CPB’s Global CEO To Lead North America

 

Stagwell chief Mark Penn says plans for CPB will be ‘shared soon’

 

By Brian Bonilla

 

Stagwell’s 72andSunny has named its first-ever North American president to oversee both its New York and Los Angeles offices: CPB’s Global CEO Marianne Malina.

 

Malina, who will start her new role on Sept. 6, wasn’t immediately available for comment. It was unclear who, if anyone, will take her position at CPB, which Malina assumed 16 months ago with the goal of turning around the agency. As announced earlier, CPB will become part of the Stagwell Media Network.

 

When asked about plans for CPB, Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn said, “CPB is having a great summer as it integrates into the Stagwell Media Network, which reinforces CPB’s legacy as tightly connecting the creative idea with the media plan. We look forward to sharing more soon.”

 

The hiring of Malina is part of a new leadership structure that 72andSunny has been building with the goal of appointing more senior leadership positions to serve clients.

 

“I was always impressed with how she [Malina] sees the business and what she’s doing,” said Evin Shutt, global CEO of 72andSunny. “It was just a moment of like [Malina] set the table for CPB and kind of this new innovation and where they’re headed and what does she want next? What’s the growth opportunity for her?’ As I was sharing what we’re doing, she had interest and I had interest.”

 

Currently, 72andSunny’s New York office has around 150 employees. Its clients include Hubspot, Carl’s Jr. Legal Zoom, Comcast and Footlocker. The agency’s LA office has 250 employees and works on clients such as United Airlines, the NFL, Indeed and Marriott.

 

As part of 72andSunny’s work from home model in North America, Malina will remain in Austin but will travel to LA, New York, and client locations “frequently,” according to Shutt.

 

‘Disruptive time’

 

“This is a disruptive time in the world and we know that our value as a company is using who we are and creativity to give clients guidance and partnership and help them thrive and not just survive,” Shutt said. “As we’re doing that and as we’re going through change, we took a moment to be like, ‘What do clients need? What does the market need?’ And we think they want more senior leaders and marketers. We hear it time and time again.”

 

The move is a step away from 72andSunny’s prior structure, which involved president roles that were less “client-facing” and more internally focused, according to Shutt.

 

As a result, the agency is replacing its former New York and LA presidents, Brett Edgar and Teri Miller, who joined VCCP and Mother respectively, with managing directors. Laura Likos, who previously served as head of brand management, will now serve as the managing director of the LA office. A managing director for New York has yet to be named.

 

“In our old structure, the office president role was very much pulled internally into operations, into the deployment of talent and involved with clients but not as client facing as we’d like,” Shutt said. “The North American president role will be more outward-bound; that’s why we wanted a marketer like Marianne there. The managing director roles now get to really focus on the clients and the people doing the client work to make sure we have the right people in the right place and they’re growing.”

 

And one of those needs is high-level access and strong leadership.

 

“Look at what some of our clients have been through in the last few years,” Shutt said. “The NFL during the social justice and racial reckoning of the U.S. required senior leadership [that was] highly engaged. United Airlines is another one with the pandemic and airlines. That was hard. So again, it required the breadth of leadership to get deep and partner with clients.”

 

Struggles at CPB

 

Malina joined CPB in April 2021, after spending 16 years at GSD&M, with the hopes of turning around the once iconic agency that had been declining for years.

 

“I’m a builder. I’m not a manager,” Malina said in April of last year about her appointment. “The bigger the problem, the more I’m interested. What CPB has done for the ad industry in this century is epic. Every single person in this industry is using a page from their playbook. An agency that changes the way we do business, that’s what’s at the core of this brand. You put that into today’s culture, what’s going on now, this is an opportunity of a lifetime.”

 

However, CPB has continued to struggle, losing a number of its leadership team and clients like Hotels.com, Fruit of the Loom, and VRBO. In October 2021 Buchanan’s Scotch Whiskey tapped CPB to launch a Hispanic heritage Month campaign called “What Glory We Are.”

 

Currently, the agency, which once rented spaces in Boulder and Denver, is “100% remote” according to its website, and there are no job listings on LinkedIn.

 

Other new executive moves at 72andSunny include the promotion of Janisse Wong to head of finance and operations of 72andSunny North America and Keith Jamerson, formerly head of U.S. production at Stink Studios, being named an executive production director at 72andSunny’s content and media studio Hecho Studios.

 

The agency has been bringing on new talent over the past couple of years, including Damaune Journey as global chief growth officer; Heat alumna Elaine Cox as the ECD of 72andSunny New York; Lauryn Nwankpa as managing director of the agency’s purpose and impact consultancy Brand Citizens; and Ogilvy alum Simon Usifo as president of 72andSunny Amsterdam.

15497: The Penn Is Mightier Than, Well, Nothing.

On the meh merger of MDC Partners and the Stagwell Group, MDC Partners CEO Mark Penn said, “We expect our growth to be principally organic because 40 percent of our services will be high-growth digital. That supplants the old model, of 90 percent traditional advertising at MDC. By fundamentally changing the mix, we’re going to change the growth pattern and go after much stronger organic growth and reach up for bigger client relationships.”

 

Penn’s references to 40 percent and 90 percent add up to over 100 percent bullshit. His motivational mumbo-jumbo will undoubtedly inspire the “old model” shops in the new nuthouse network to accelerate their efforts to bail out.

15495: MDC Partners + Stagwell Group—A Tale Of Two Shitties.

 

Advertising Age reported MDC Partners and Stagwell Group are finally merging. So key White advertising agencies will try to buy their way out of a bigger pile of shit.

 

MDC And Stagwell Will Finally Tie The Knot

 

Combined company will have worldwide revenue of $2.1 billion

 

By Brian Bonilla

 

The long-awaited merger between MDC Partners and Stagwell has finally been approved following a special shareholders meeting held today. The combined company will be renamed Stagwell and will be traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

 

According to the Ad Age Datacenter’s Agency Report 2021, MDC Partners had 2020 worldwide revenue of $1.2 billion; The Stagwell Group had worldwide revenue of $888 million. The combined company would have notched 2020 worldwide revenue of $2.1 billion, which means that even combined with Stagwell, MDC maintains its 14th place ranking, just behind Cheil. The company currently anticipates that the transaction will be completed on or around August 2 this year.

 

Stagwell and MDC first announced the merger last December in a deal negotiated with the MDC board’s special committee. However, the meeting, which was initially scheduled for July 22, was changed after the holding companies restructured the terms of the deal following hesitance from some shareholders. The most boisterous opposition came in June from one of MDC’s largest shareholders, Indaba Capital Management.

 

“We are not able to sit by as Stagwell tries to secure what we view as a sweetheart transaction that deprives us and other MDC shareholders of significant value,” Derek Schrier, Indaba’s managing partner, said in the letter to Mark Penn, CEO of MDC Partners. “Given your apparent influence over various aspects of the proposed combination of MDC and Stagwell, we want to clearly lay out our concerns for you. Unlike MDC’s [board] special committee, you seem to have the ability to address our reservations if Stagwell truly wants to combine with MDC on fair and reasonable terms.”

 

Stagwell, MDC’s largest shareholder, issued its own statement to Ad Age challenging Indaba’s assertions.

 

“Indaba continues to demonstrate a lack of analytical rigor, an understanding of the process, or frankly the business combination and its financial and strategic benefits,” Stagwell Partner Jay Leveton said in the statement. “The trading price of MDC’s debt and stock are up significantly because of this transaction."

 

Under the latest terms of the merger, Stagwell will receive 180 million MDC shares, “a reduction of approximately 36 million common shares from the 216.25 million common shares” mentioned in the original December agreement, according to a statement by MDC Partners. As a result, the existing MDC shareholders (including Stagwell) will now own approximately 31% of the common equity of the combined company.

 

During an MDC earnings call in March, Penn stated the merger is the centerpiece of the company’s plan to become a top 10 marketing services company with state-of-the-art capabilities in digital and data.

 

A full tally of the votes for the six proposals included in the meeting will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, no later than four business days from now, Penn said in the meeting. He concluded the meeting with the following statement:

 

“Let me thank everyone involved, let me thank the shareholders for giving the go-ahead and approval,” Penn said. “[Thank you] for giving MDC a fresh start a new opportunity, combined with Stagwell for growth, a better balance sheet, better scale, and an opportunity to have an incredible mix of creativity and digital service that I think will win in the marketplace.”

15102: MDC Partners Earnings Release May Spike Employees Release.

Advertising Age reported MDC Partners saw a 28.3 percent drop in 2Q revenue versus figures from the same time last year. At this point, the White holding company would probably reconsider its agencies’ proposals to buy out of the sinking ship—just to generate some quick cash. The financial fiasco may also impact the amount of loot former CP+B CCO Ralph Watson hopes to collect from his lawsuit. The pathetic part is, everyone will blame the problems on COVID-19, as opposed to admit being a crappy and corrupt shithole.

 

MDC Partners Sees Sharp Revenue Declines In Second Quarter

 

By Lindsay Rittenhouse

 

MDC Partners reported on Thursday a 28.3 percent decline in second quarter revenue to $259.7 million from $362.1 million in the same period last year.

 

The holding company posted a 26.4 percent drop in organic revenue in the second quarter. In the U.S., second quarter organic sales were down 26.1 percent.

 

MDC said in an earnings release that it would not be providing guidance for 2020 “given the uncertainties in the global business environment arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

 

However, on an earnings call, MDC Partners Chairman-CEO Mark Penn said the company “continues to expect” organic revenue declines of between 10 percent and 15 percent for the year.

 

MDC Partners reported that it generated $82 million in cost savings in the first half but did not detail its measures. It’s unclear how many layoffs MDC has undergone since the start of the pandemic, but its agency Anomaly was the first to report staff cuts in March.

 

Penn said he was encouraged by several “solid new business wins” in the second quarter, including assignments from Budweiser, Skyy Vodka and Welch’s Food. Net new business wins in the second quarter totaled $20.5 million, according to MDC.

 

“After three months of clients paring budgets and delaying projects,” Penn said MDC is starting to see clients “restoring budgets and launching reviews.”

 

He also confirmed on the call that Anomaly picked up Coca-Cola’s North American creative duties, as was reported by Adweek on Wednesday. But incumbent Wieden + Kennedy remains on Coca-Cola’s agency roster. While its Portland office is currently not working on brand Coke, the shop’s New York office remains active on Coke-owned Vitamin Water and Sprite.

 

Anomaly’s role concerns Coke’s so-called “global charter,” which refers to global campaigns that local markets can use. Anomaly is behind an ad for Coke that debuted in early June that plays into the at-home cooking trend. And it is possible W&K Portland gets another crack at Coke soon. The beverage giant has a history of using various agencies at once. W&K has a history of doing Coke’s U.S. Super Bowl ads, and the shop could still get the chance to respond to a brief for the Big Game, according to people familiar with the matter.

 

On the earnings call, Penn declined to comment on the proposed merger of The Stagwell Group and MDC Partners. Announced in June, the merger of the two companies led by Penn would form a $2 billion agency group and is estimated to generate $35 million in cost synergies.

 

A special committee consisting of independent directors and external financial and legal advisors was appointed to consider the proposal. “The process is continuing along and they will make announcements as appropriate,” Penn said on the call.

 

Investors had been showing some optimism about MDC stock going into MDC’s earnings call, which occurred before the market opened today. MDC’s Aug. 5 closing price ($2.32) was its highest closing price since The Stagwell Group announced its merger proposal in June.

 

The stock today opened at $2.30 a share, after the earnings disclosure. MDC’s stock closed at $1.17 on June 24, the day before Stagwell, its largest shareholder, proposed a merger in which MDC would buy Stagwell’s agencies by issuing more MDC stock.

 

MDC Partners also broke out its non-media agencies into two buckets, referenced in its earnings report as Group A and Group B. The company declined to say what agencies are in which bucket, noting that the information would be included in a forthcoming 10-Q filing with The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

According to the report, the Group A network posted a 19.2 percent decline in organic revenue and Group B reported a 29 percent drop in organic sales in the second quarter.

 

Correction: An earlier version of this story inaccurately reported that Mark Penn warned of organic declines of 10 percent to 20 percent in 2020. He warned of declines of between 10 percent and 15 percent.

 

Contributing: Bradley Johnson and E.J. Schultz.

15036: Memorandum Addendum.

AgencySpy posted on even more memorandum and dummies from holding companies responding to the race-rooted issues that have ignited outrage, grief and protests around the world. Hey, where was this humanitarian concern during Black History Month?

14925: MDC Partners Honcho Mark Penn Playing Politics.

MDC Partners Chairman and CEO Mark Penn penned an op-ed titled, “Free Roger Stone”—wherein he branded the affair a “political prosecution.” The perspective will probably lead to criticism directed toward Penn, despite the fact that his political hobbies are common knowledge. Hey, it’s not like he was defending Miles Nadal. Then again, MDC employees would likely prefer to learn their leader is spending all of his time focused on turning around the struggling holding company.

14896: MDC Partners Excretes Anomaly-Led Pile Of Shit.

Advertising Age reported MDC Partners created an “alliance” between White firms that will be led by Anomaly—a White advertising agency that insists it’s not a White advertising agency. Creating an “alliance” between enterprises within the arguably worst holding company is like fabricating a boy band comprised of American Idol first-audition rejects. It’s a smorgasbord of suck.

MDC Partners Unveils New Anomaly-Led Agency ‘Alliance’

The network, chaired by Carl Johnson, includes Y Media Labs, Mono, Hunter, Relevent and Concentric Health Experience

By Lindsay Rittenhouse

MDC Partners announced it is forming a new Anomaly-led “alliance” to house some of its digital, creative, public relations and healthcare capabilities as part of a continued effort to bring its agencies closer together.

The alliance, chaired by Anomaly Founding Partner and Executive Chairman Carl Johnson, encompasses digital innovation shop Y Media Labs; design and branding agency Mono; consumer marketing communications, PR and digital firm Hunter; creative experiences shop Relevent; and healthcare agency Concentric Health Experience.

Johnson tells Ad Age that this decision does not stem from “a desire to have an integrated offering” but it’s rather a “people- and values-driven thing.” He says bundling capabilities to “have one of them, one of them and one of them,” is an “old model” that he called “lumbering.”

“The idea behind this is to try to take advantage of experienced agency leadership to help the success of MDC,” Johnson says, noting how inefficient it is for the holding company to manage “40-plus” separate shops. “These are the agencies I chose. I started with leaders I can relate to. Who’s got ambition? Who is smart and who do I want to be in the room with? Where does the growth lie?” he adds.

Y Media Labs is based in Silicon Valley and led by Co-Founder-CEO Ashish Toshniwal and Co-Founder-President Sumit Mehra. Hunter has headquarters in New York and London and is led by CEO-Partner Grace Leong and Partners Jonathan Lyon, Donetta Allen, Gigi García Russo and Erin Hanson. Minneapolis-based Mono is headed by Founders and Chief Creative Officers Michael Hart and Chris Lange and Founder and Managing Partner Jim Scott. Relevent is located in New York and led by CEO-Founder Tony Berger.

Johnson says the agencies will all continue to operate under separate P&Ls and there are no plans at this time to consolidate offices. “Anomaly is never moving out of this building,” he adds. Anomaly was founded in New York and now houses offices in Los Angeles, Toronto, London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Shanghai.

Combined, the new network houses 1,400 employees (Anomaly staffs 850 of those people). Johnson says his role as chair of the “alliance” will be to “provide counsel, rather than getting into the details of their operations.” He says the network’s agencies will be able to lean on the talent and capabilities of each other, as needed. For example, Johnson says Anomaly partners with Hunter on its Diageo business and is working with Y Media Labs on “intellectual property development.”

The move follows MDC having combined its media, data and technology agencies under one network in July, as Adweek reported. That shift saw the merging of its data, technology, CRM and addressable content agency, Gale, with MDC Media Partners agencies Allegory, Attention, EnPlay, Trade X Partners, Unique Influence and Assembly. Media trading consultancy Varick also joined that network, according to Adweek.

In December, MDC also announced a new network led by Doner, and chaired by its CEO, David DeMuth. That network includes PR firm Veritas; shopper marketing agency 6Degrees Integrated Communications; brand and ad shop Yamamoto; creative, technology and media agency Union; brand strategy and digital PR firm KWT Global; and luxury and lifestyle PR agency HL Group. Johnson notes that the recent Anomaly-led alliance will likely not be the last.

The formation of these networks coincide with MDC Chairman and CEO Mark Penn’s grand vision to consolidate real estate and foster greater collaboration among the holding company’s various agencies that also include 72andSunny, Forsman & Bodenfors and CPB. Penn took over MDC following a $100 million equity investment by Stagwell Group—the advertising, PR and data analytics holding company Penn founded in 2015—in the holding company last March.

Penn has been tasked with reducing costs and leading a turnaround at MDC, which faces $1 billion in debt. MDC’s stock fell 12 percent after the company reported in November a decline of 8.8 percent in revenue for its most-recent third quarter and revised its organic revenue expectations for the full year to anticipate a decline of 3 percent to 5 percent. MDC has not yet announced when its fourth-quarter earnings will be released.

14887: Buh-Bye, Bogusky.

Advertising Age reported CP+B Chief Creative Engineer Alex Bogusky has left the station. Again. Hey, there are a bunch of White advertising agencies in MDC Partners probably seething with jealousy that Bogusky was allowed to bail out.

Alex Bogusky to Depart CPB—Again

Move comes nearly 18 months after the founder’s surprise return

By Ann-Christine Diaz

Less than 18 months after CPB announced that Alex Bogusky was returning to the agency, the co-founder will once again be leaving the building.

CPB Partner and Chairman Chuck Porter says Bogusky made the decision to depart, citing the desire to reprioritize and focus more on family. “We spent 80 hours talking about it over a month,” Porter says. “It wasn’t an easy decision because there were a lot of things he liked, but he thought it wasn’t really fair for the agency if he wanted to reorder his life and not step away.”

Bogusky, says Porter, will not leave immediately but will transition out over the next few months.

In August 2018, eight years after the storied creative departed the MDC agency, CPB surprised the industry by announcing that it was bringing Bogusky back as co-founder and giving him the newly minted title of chief creative engineer. But the homecoming didn’t turn out as many had anticipated.

Bogusky, one of the few larger-than-life creative directors left in the industry, was known for breaking new creative ground for clients like Mini and Burger King. (Famously, he instructed his staffers to think of the press release and the story a campaign would generate before the media itself—an approach that’s now become standard practice in the industry.)

Expectations ran high with his return, since Bogusky stepped back in just as the agency was in reset. Earlier that year, CPB closed its flagship Miami office and two month after Bogusky rejoined, the shop shuttered its Los Angeles outpost. The return, coming at a time when agencies have been struggling to reinvent themselves in the face of shifting client needs and increasing competition from consultants, was heralded as something of a second coming.

In an interview with Ad Age, Bogusky said he intended to remain close to the creative because “it’s the quickest way to have a positive impact,” he said, and “if I don’t jump in on the work and with the teams, I won’t have a real sense of how to improve the process.”

But since then, there has been a dearth of bold, game-changing ideas at the shop. The agency produced some entertaining work, but arguably nothing more notable than what it had been delivering already. There was a co-branded campaign for Hotels.com and Poo-pourri to steer couples through their “first poo with Boo,” while another for Fruit of the Loom saw the brand creating a limited-edition tee, with fan and NFL star Alvin Kamara. Since he signed on, the agency took on global creative duties for Scotch whisky brand Ballantines and also added fast casual chain Noodles & Co. and North American construction company Sunbelt Rentals.

Outside of the work, the agency’s moves in the months after Bogusky’s return seemed like jargony press release fodder. There was the shop’s rebranding from CP&B to CPB, along with the introduction of a “leaner” and more “agile” creative process the agency branded as Gut+ and “Crisp Jam,” a product offering dedicated to project-based work promising to “get to big ideas fast.” Bogusky seemed to spend much of his time on a podcast, “The Woodshed,” about “demystifying the creative process.”

There were also a number of head-scratching stunts. In October of 2018, the agency and Bogusky announced “The Quitty Awards,” declaring the shop was dropping out of the awards circuit and encouraging other agencies to do so too.

He also challenged “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson and VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk to wrestling matches.

Observers believed that Bogusky’s re-entry would be the kick in the pants both CPB and the industry needed. Former and current CPB staffers believed he would bring new energy to a flagging shop. Gut Agency founder Anselmo Ramos, who at David helped to steer Burger King through a creative renaissance that seemed to follow in the footsteps of CPB’s work, said on Twitter, “This is like Steve Jobs coming back to Apple advertising version.”

Yet others likened it to an act of desperation,” with one former MDC staffer saying “It’s like Michael Jordan going back to the Wizards,” analogizing the comeback to an aging athlete trying to recapture the glory, way past their prime.

Given the agency’s output since Bogusky’s arrival, the latter might seem to ring true. But Porter says his contributions have been internally palpable. “He reorganized the creative department into a different, more efficient and effective structure for our clients—what we call ‘houses,’” he says. “He worked with data and analytics people we know toward creating a new methodology for planning and testing creative development that makes it more reality-based and empirically-based. It’s made our planning and creative quicker, smarter and more data-driven.”

Though we haven’t seen that yet play out in the work, “It was a complex process and I think that the results of that process are coming,” Porter says.

CEO Erik Sollenberg says that Bogusky didn’t return to do what he had done previously. “Based on his experience in startup and tech, his role was to look at our process thinking, at data. What he has been doing is changing the perspective of how advertising can be done. The effect will be long-term rather than directly digging into the creative.”

As to whether or not 18 months was long enough for him to impact the agency, Sollenberg says, “of course it would have been different if he’d stayed longer, but I highly respect his decision to live his life in a different way.”

For now, the agency isn’t looking to fill the position. Porter says Bogusky will still have an office at the shop where he’ll continue his personal projects and perhaps even do some consulting.

While parent company MDC has been making efforts to streamline and reorganize, Porter says that was not a factor in Bogusky’s decision to leave. “His relationship with MDC is really good, and when we began to talk to them about it, they encouraged him to stay to make this transition smooth.”

14862: Survey States The Obvious—Advertising and Media Industries Suck.

MediaPost Agency Daily reported on a study showing the majority of advertising executives think adland and media services are “going through a difficult time.” Did this revelation really warrant conducting a survey? The publication also noted 44% of executives in the study think adland and media services are “heading in the right direction,” 2% believe things are “going horribly wrong” and 1% declared the industry is “dying.” The 2% and 1% figures would spike dramatically if MDC Partners executives were polled—ditto executives trapped at WPP, Publicis Groupe, Omnicom, Havas and Dentsu.

Most Ad Execs Believe Advertising And Media Services ‘Going Through A Difficult Time’

By Joe Mandese

A majority of ad industry executives believe the advertising and media services business is “going through a difficult time,” according to findings of interviews conducted by Advertiser Perceptions in December.

The finding, part of a series of benchmark studies Advertiser Perceptions is conducting for MediaPost heading into and throughout 2020, is intended to create a baseline of how the ad industry looks at its current state and near- and long-term future on key issues including its own esteem, perceptions of other stakeholders (including consumers, potential talent, regulators, suppliers, etc.), regulation, self-regulation, ethics and the overall impact on society.

Detailed findings of this survey, including tabulated findings by advertisers vs. agency executives, as well as their views on what the ad industry can do to make itself more attractive to key stakeholders, will be published exclusively in today’s edition of Research Intelligencer, a premium MediaPost publication available only to subscribers.

Forty-four percent of total respondents to the Advertiser Perceptions study said they believe the advertising and media services industry is “heading in the right direction,” while 2% say it is “going horribly wrong,” and 1% said it’s “dying.”

14841: MDC Partners Excretes Humongous Pile Of Shit To Create Collectiveness Ca-Ca.

Adweek reported MDC Partners created a new agency network by combining a bunch of mediocre firms within the mediocre holding company—executing the popular corporate formula that thinks blending individual piles of shit should produce a massive pile of gold. Ironically, the poopy network will be led by a giant turd, Doner, the White advertising agency that failed in an attempt to buy itself back from MDC Partners. So, this scenario is the equivalent of a hooker being denied a request to leave her pimp—only to have the pimp put the hooker in charge of her own expanded whorehouse. Hookers and pimps, please don’t take offense to being compared to Doner and MDC Partners.

MDC Partners Forms New Agency Network With Doner at the Helm

Yamamoto, KWT Global and HL Group are now part of the new Doner Partners Network

By Minda Smiley

MDC Partners is combining seven of its agencies into a new network led by Detroit-based Doner, marking the latest shake-up under chairman and CEO Mark Penn’s leadership.

Called Doner Partners Network, the North American entity includes its namesake agency plus six of the holding company’s specialist shops: brand strategy agency KWT Global (formerly Kwittken); PR, influencer marketing and digital content agency Veritas; creative agency Yamamoto; shopper marketing firm 6Degrees; integrated agency Union; and luxury and lifestyle PR agency HL Group.

David DeMuth, CEO of Doner, will serve as chair of the network. Veritas CEO Krista Webster and Yamamoto CEO Kathy McCuskey will serve as vice chairs of Doner Partners Network.

According to DeMuth, each agency will retain its own identity and current leadership structure. He said bringing the various agencies under Doner’s umbrella will drive more collaboration between them, in turn helping the network tap into different capabilities depending on client needs.

“[Doner has] an over 80-year track record. We have a big client roster. But we don’t do everything, and our clients are looking for more and more specialized services,” he said. “We’ve already been collaborating with a number of these agencies, so this isn’t really a force-fit type thing.”

The move is the latest in a string of changes MDC Partners has made as of late in an attempt to make its various agencies and offerings more collaborative so they can each bring their individual strengths to client work and pitches.

Earlier this year, the holding company brought together media, data and technology capabilities under a new network that is still yet to be named. The network, which encompasses media agency Assembly, agency-consultancy hybrid Gale and a suite of other shops, is led my co-chairs Michael Bassik and Brad Simms. Bassik also serves as CEO of Assembly, while Simms is president and CEO of Gale.

The formation of Doner Partners Network marks the second major restructuring of MDC Partners under Penn, who took on the top job in March after his private equity firm Stagwell Group invested $100 million in the holding company. Penn said plans for another multi-agency network are in the works, and are part of his overall growth strategy for MDC Partners, which includes cost-cutting measures and forming networks like the aforementioned that provide a framework for its disparate agencies to work together as collective units.

“Collectiveness is a new thing at MDC, and it’s a critical element in a world in which clients need a diversity of services,” he said. “Chief marketing officers have changed what they purchase from just advertising and media to 10 or 15 services.”

DeMuth said Doner Partners Network has been in the works for about two months, and that the unit has already secured a new piece of business.

“We were able to pursue a very meaningful piece of business in the U.S. and win it,” DeMuth said, noting that the yet-to-be-disclosed win came as a result of a collaboration between Doner and Toronto-based 6Degrees.

DeMuth also said that Doner partnered with Code and Theory, a creative agency that’s part of Stagwell Group, to win Johnson & Johnson’s consumer health business in the U.S. earlier this year, a portfolio of brands that comprises Listerine, Tylenol and Zyrtec. The business had previously been with WPP’s Wunderman Thompson, and marked one of the first big wins under Penn.

Despite the momentum, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing at MDC Partners since Penn joined: Last month, the holding company reported a third quarter organic revenue drop of 7.5% and an overall revenue decline of 8.8% compared to the year prior. Penn, who earlier in his career advised President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has also found himself embroiled in controversy lately, as the Washington Post recently reported that he has been advising President Trump on impeachment matters. Three sources told the Post that Penn provided polling data and impeachment advice for the president during a recent meeting.

Penn denied the claims to Adweek, simply stating: “I’m not advising President Trump.”