12870: RAPP HR BS.

Adweek published an interview with RAPP EVP of Human Resources Carolyn Doud, who discussed how she hires. It’s always nice to see an HR wonk share hiring tactics without mentioning diversity. A quick peek at RAPP’s executive leadership says all you need to know about the White advertising agency’s commitment to inclusion.

Agency HR Head on Creative Hiring and Talent as the Ultimate Differentiator

RAPP’s Carolyn Doud discusses how she hires

By Patrick Coffee

Specs

Current gig Evp of human resources at RAPP

Previous gig Executive director of global talent acquisition and management at Avon Products

Twitter @DoudCarolyn

Age 42

Adweek: What led you to the agency world after working in consumer products with Avon and ConAgra Foods?

Carolyn Doud: A lot of things came together at once for me. I started my career as part of a professional services practice, but I was always drawn to consumer marketing and, after going client-side, I got excited about working for companies that are constantly looking to evolve. That’s what took me to my positions at ConAgra and Avon, which was about being a member of a truly global organization. When I started thinking about the “next thing” for me, the idea of being in a great creative environment that places a high premium on talent to differentiate itself from the competition was a top priority.

What about RAPP in particular appealed to you?

Now is a great time for the type of work that RAPP does; it’s about being really smart regarding both the consumer and your clients. RAPP is particularly well-positioned because of its legacy in data, and we have something unique among agencies in my mind because we are focused on making sure that our clients differentiate themselves through the experiences they provide and the connections they make with their customers. As a talent manager, joining a company that inherently understands the role that user experience plays in creating a reaction and response behavior for consumers is a sort of panacea. Now, I want to build an environment where creative people can be successful.

How does HR/talent management differ at a creative agency versus a consumer goods company?

There’s a tendency to focus on the client (for the right reasons) as opposed to internal teams, and some agencies may not adapt quickly enough in that respect. That’s not to minimize the importance of leaders because for me it’s a gift when someone becomes a great manager of people with an eye for talent. Talent really counts. Yes, the focus needs to be on the clients—but let me give you the tools and structure to make sure you and your team can be successful. We are without question developing our point of differentiation (which is our people) ourselves by taking them through a series of experiences that broaden and deepen their perspective so they can think about clients’ issues in an evolving way. That’s what’s so interesting about the creative business: It’s driven by a breadth of perspective. At the same time, there’s a realism in the agency world while the corporate side is too profit-driven. This industry in particular has the ability to have a much more authentic conversation with consumers because everything we do has to have a purpose beyond profit. Bottom line: If our people are not successful, then our agency is not successful.

What do you look for in new hires?

From a leadership perspective, what’s important is a balance and a sensitivity to the importance of people and personal development as part of how they would grow the business. The work is absolutely what we do, but the people are how that work happens. I always focus on how someone reads: Are they informed, do they produce content and are they heavy communicators with their teams? At the end of the day, we are a business and there is a very specific focus at any agency around creating value for clients. So I am interested in not only understanding a candidate’s subject matter expertise but how they think about growing the business and how they maintain the ability to look at things through a lens other than that which they have lived.

If I’m applying to work at RAPP or another creative agency, which aspects of my experience should I focus on?

I would say absolutely focus on a connection to the business that we’re in and an understanding of how the organization has to operate to be successful. I’m all about purpose over process and looking outside what everyone else is doing. I look for people who are courageous enough to say, “This doesn’t make sense.”

12869: Is GumboLive Mumbo Jumbo?

Adweek reported on GumboLive, an organized effort to recruit outsider talent created by Momentum Worldwide in New Orleans. Given that Gumbo has strong connections to Black culture—and New Orleans has a large Black population—it would be interesting to learn if the initiative has diversity-related goals. Based on the accompanying photograph depicted above, GumboLive appears to be an exclusive stew.

To Attract Outsider Talent, One Agency Cooked Up a New Approach in New Orleans

GumboLive looks to break the recruiting cycle

By Gabriel Beltrone

Before Nate Sutter worked in advertising, he was a professional yo-yo-er. Sponsored by Duncan Yo-Yo, he traveled the country performing tricks at toy stores, children’s hospitals and schools. He then spent a year and a half apprenticing as a body-piercing artist, and after that worked as a bartender in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood. That is where, in 2012, he met someone from GumboLive, a creative think tank that had recently opened in town.

An ad job sounded interesting, recalls Sutter, 27, “so I just applied.” Sutter’s twisting career path represents just the kind of unconventional background GumboLive was designed to attract. Owned by Interpublic Group’s Momentum Worldwide, the initiative has quietly operated for the past three years with the mission of drawing fresh, millennial talent from beyond conventional sources like portfolio schools.

“The market is changing so dramatically if you look at how we as marketers and advertisers communicate … but if you look at agencies, the way we recruit is still pretty much the same way it’s always been,” says Chris Weil, CEO of Momentum. “We trade people back and forth from agency to agency. And then when we need some new talent, we hire somebody, a junior copywriter or a junior account person, and we put them on a small account in the corner and then have them fight their way up.”

As chairman of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) from 2012 to 2014, Weil was involved with talent research at both the trade group and Momentum, putting him in a prime position to diagnose why more people don’t put advertising at the top of the list when picking a career path. “Part of it is just the pure pressure or the monotony as you come up,” he says. “You’re jamming it out and trying to bill the hours so that you can then move up and get to the point of what this industry is all about, which is creativity and ideas.”

GumboLive has turned that problem on its head. Staffers don’t have to worry about time sheets or account management. Instead, they focus on cranking out big-picture ideas on a wide range of fast-turnaround briefs for brands forwarded on from Momentum and sometimes its sibling agencies. “It could be anybody from Coca-Cola to American Express to United Airlines,” notes Weil. “And the client may not even know that these guys are working on it.”

Momentum isn’t the only agency going outside the industry for talent. In 2011, 72andSunny launched 72U, a 12-week creative residency designed for non-ad professionals (recent participants included an architect, an audio engineer and a Ph.D. who’d studied gender roles in remote fishing villages in Spain). The agency has gone on to hire 21 full-time staffers and six freelancers out of the program’s 48 graduates. Maria Scileppi, 72U’s director, says the larger mission is to help participants grow creatively and professionally, emphasizing collaboration, experimentation and “creating a safe place” for what she calls, affectionately, “wonderful weirdos.”

GumboLive’s 15 or so staffers (who get “competitive compensation,” according to Momentum) tend to rotate on 18- to 24-month cycles—though three years in, Sutter is the notable exception. In addition to being an ideation resource for the entire Momentum network (Weil recalls one quarter in which they turned around 85 briefs), GumboLive staffers are plugged firmly into its new-business machine. Sometimes, that means producing spec ideas to pitch to clients. Others, it means Momentum execs fly down to New Orleans for blue-sky brainstorming sessions. Prospective clients can buy sessions, too. New York-based Westfield Corp., which operates shopping centers in eight states, bought one, reports Weil, “and they’re a client now.”

To be fair, GumboLive doesn’t discriminate against those with formal ad training or experience—the current class includes a couple of art directors and Miami Ad School grads. But it does skew toward the eclectic. To land his job there, Sutter cooked up an elaborate sample strategy to rebrand a wine company around Gen Y consumers. A colleague, Ben Johnson, 26, joined the shop this past May after bootstrapping Big Charity, a feature-length documentary about the controversial closing of Charity Hospital following Hurricane Katrina. One of three co-producers on the film, Johnson also composed the score. Earlier, he worked on HBO’s Treme for two seasons, helping source, sign and manage musicians.

And before she landed at GumboLive in March of this year, Sophia Osella, 24, studied philosophy at Rhodes College in Memphis, where she produced a concert series featuring musicians like Rosanne Cash at Elvis Presley’s pre-Graceland residence, which is owned by the school. Osella thought she would end up in politics, law or video production, but now hopes to pursue a career in market research.

As for GumboLive’s first class (2012-14), half moved on to jobs in the industry. Call it millennial wanderlust, but Sutter—even with his boss, GumboLive managing director and former NBC integrations exec Ann Egelhoff, sitting in on this telephone interview—won’t commit to the advertising business for the long haul. “Totally, totally something I’m considering,” he says. “I feel it’s a field where there’s a lot of really good work to be done.”

12868: Pseudo Thought Leader 1.

Pseudo Thought Leaders is a MultiCultClassics feature presenting the pathetic pontifications of self-absorbed blowhards in the advertising industry. This is the first installment.

Campaign published a meandering manifesto by incoming D&AD President and Havas Creative Partner Andy Sandoz, who declared, “I believe that our ideas can shape worlds and the ones that will have the greatest impact will be born out of technology.” Um, is this Havas drone on the same page with Havas Heir-CEO Yannick Bolloré, who thinks the industry talks too much about digital and technology? Sandoz implores advertising people to “release the idea” with courage and conviction. Somebody needs to release Sandoz.

Release the idea: A manifesto by D&AD’s new president

By Andy Sandoz

Setting out his manifesto for creative innovation, the incoming president of D&AD, Andy Sandoz, urges us to remove our self-imposed shackles, embrace technology and release the idea.

I believe that our ideas can shape worlds and the ones that will have the greatest impact will be born out of technology.

To shape worlds means to have a meaningful effect on the life around us. Great ideas have always done this – moveable type, the engine, the internet. Great brands also – Greenpeace, Airbnb, Dove.

Technology is the opportunity to innovate how we do things, to progress. In digital technology, we have seemingly limitless opportunities. Digital technology is a platform for ideas. It enables things to happen. Quickly. Supporting both big and small ideas, it allows growth and sharing – we can have the same idea at the same time. Technology is all about ideas.

But an idea doesn’t have to be all about technology. We created this world, for better or worse. We did it with brand-centric visions of the good life. We wrote and shot it full of aspiration and materialism. The perfect fantasy world. The car ad. The manifesto. It’s the world we want. But not one we can sustain.

Now, technology is creating a new world. Where disruptive ideas suddenly surface and rewrite how we do things. A world of tools and services that arrive without permission and carry us forward, compelling us to get involved. YouTube, Kickstarter, Bitcoin. We are a passenger, no longer a creator. It is not the world we are used to. It unsettles us because we imagine it governed by complex machines and artificial intelligence. If our world before was fantasy, this next one is science fiction. It’s the world we’re going to get, like it or not.

It’s easy to get carried away; this world isn’t yet run by sentient machines, it’s simply the work of experimental humans. Humans just like us. Just not us. These ones don’t fear technology. They seek out opportunities to use it and shape it to their will. They understand that technology is a tool to make ideas happen. That technology not only changes what you can do with ideas, it also changes the kind of ideas you can have. Any idea is simply a product of experience. If you experience more technology, then you will have more technically cultured ideas. New kinds of ideas that understand connection, interaction and iteration.

To experiment with technology is to experiment with new ideas. To explore what is possible. To me, that is the essence of creativity – to explore what is possible every day.

Have you noticed that we’re not really talking about technology? We’re talking about creativity. It’s something we possess in zettabytes. In our world, we were famed for it, except this is no longer our world. Ideas have changed and, with that, we have lost our confidence. We no longer practise creativity. We codify it. We use technology to justify, democratise and programme ideas. We invest our energies in anything but the actual idea in an attempt to predict what is right or wrong. We crush the idea by trying to find lost perfection and the last thing we do is release it. However, the first thing a tech company does is release it. Just let the idea go, as fast as possible, and see what happens.

Often tech companies do not know what the idea really does until people use it. Maybe it lives or maybe it dies but, either way, the process is celebrated as progress. As a result of this method, ideas are appearing and having a real impact on how we live.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the problems are lining up. This planet cannot sustain us, conflict flares around the globe, our culture has never been more transparent and yet so significantly unjust, and we are rapidly creating technology that renders our way of life obsolete. Now more than ever, we need ideas that can shape a world.

We have to design a new way to live on Earth, new ways to live with each other, and work out how we are going to live with technology. It’s the brief of our lives. We have the opportunity to create a better world and, with it, a more meaningful future for our industry.

But it will not happen if we fail to release the idea. Release the idea means use technology to make ideas happen. Release the idea means stand up for what you believe in. Release the idea means get your idea live as soon as possible and adapt it on the fly. Release the idea means explore what is possible.

As the president of D&AD, I urge us all to remove the brakes from the creative process and, as one, make this an industry that releases wave after wave of experimental ideas into the world. Modern ideas that use the best of old and new creativity to shape aspirations and behaviour while creating the tools and services to make change happen for real, for everyone.

Watch what happens. Pencil-winning ideas will turn up, new creative heroes will be made, more talent will arrive, our industry’s confidence will return along with our clients’ trust.

A better world will be created. Breathe in technology and breathe out creativity. And let’s get back to what we do best. Release the idea, create the world we need and don’t fuck it up.

Andy Sandoz is a creative partner at Havas Work Club and the incoming president of D&AD

12867: Campaign For Change.

Telemundo goes beyond telenovelas with an initiative designed to help the Latino community move forward.

12866: Google Gibberish.

Campaign published a perspective from Google UK Industry Manager Paddy Collins on the ever-popular topic of “How to change advertising for the better.” It’s interesting to note that Collins appears to have never worked at an advertising agency—but hey, that shouldn’t stop him from pontificating on ways to improve the field. Collins essentially believes adland needs more outliers and mavericks that refuse to use the word “maybe” when selling and creating ideas. Gee, such novel and breakthrough thinking. If the Google guy did a Google search to see how the industry is failing with diversity—just like Google—he’d realize an easier solution to change advertising for the better simply involves hiring minorities versus mavericks (not to say that the two are mutually exclusive). Of course, that would require outlier, maverick conviction and a steadfast refusal to accept “maybe” as a response.

How to change advertising for the better: more outliers and mavericks

By Paddy Collins

Google’s industry manager, Paddy Collins, was the winner of this year’s Last One Standing event, held each year by the Advertising Association. Here he unpacks his winning pitch on how to change advertising for the better.

I don’t actually think that, as things stand, there’s a whole lot wrong with advertising.

There is great encouragement to be taken from an industry that deals calmly with duality. Things are simultaneously getting better and worse. We routinely navigate situations of perpetual flux, speaking confidently about intangible value and perception.

The problem is, people just don’t seem to care.

As Dave Trott long before me has noted, with an annual spend of £18 billion on advertising in the UK, just 4 per cent is remembered positively and 7 per cent negatively – leaving around £16 billion totally forgotten.

The number of complaints received by the ASA is also steady at roughly 31,000 for the last three years – only climbing to 37,000 last year when one particularly objectionable piece from a gambling company garnered over six thousand complaints.

Research by the Advertising Association shows favourability for advertising falling from 51 per cent in 1994 to 26 per cent last year. The shift here isn’t polar; these folk don’t now dislike ads, they simply don’t care either way.

At a time of supreme opportunity for advertising, we’re using advanced technologies to chase people around the web with some shoes they didn’t want to buy, we’re sleazing and insulting our way across already ample boundaries of acceptability, and from the look of the numbers we’re paying a hefty premium for invisibility.

The problem, I believe, is that we’re stuck in the middle. Neither good nor bad. Reneging on our responsibility to produce the very best work we can.

Rather than single out a particular offender, I thought of the Grayson Perry story of two Russian artists called Komar and Melamid. In the 90s they commissioned a big international survey to find out what art people in different countries wanted. The results were unanimous. Every country wanted a landscape, few figures dotted around and that it should be mainly blue. Whilst these paintings would clearly be answering the brief, the results would make for some staggeringly dull art.

As we base our decisions in endless data and research studies, this felt like a reasonable parallel. Great work requires commitment, it requires vision, and true creativity is unlikely to grow from a bunch of homogenised opinions.

How often have you felt you had an idea that could have been exceptional, and yet someone or something limited it?

The idea was never really vetoed, just slowly starved. For some reason you just couldn’t get enough oxygen around it, so you deposited it in the top drawer and moved on with something more vanilla.

What I think we need is more outliers, and more mavericks.

We need people wholly committed to their ideas, supported by people courageous enough to go along with them. The greatest fear, our harshest stigma, should be only just failing. There should be no place in our culture for failing a little bit. The reason we are stuck in the middle can’t be time, we can always make more time. It can’t be money, as we’ve got £16 billion being ignored every year. Therefore the only thing I would change, would be to eradicate the word ‘maybe’. Ban the use of it, incinerate it, take it out the back and shoot it, and in doing so banish all of its attendant inertia. Let’s stop saying maybe, and start choosing ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Whether we’re a client judging an agency’s work, an agency briefing a media owner, a media owner creating content, or a technology company coming up with new advertising products – let’s nail our colours to the mast.

Our responsibility is not to just kick the can down the road a bit.

We should commit ourselves to ideas, safe in the knowledge we’re better like that, and we can endure either glittering success, or use the flaming wreckage of glorious failure to illuminate the way ahead.

Yes or no, but never maybe.

Paddy Collins is the industry manager at Google UK

12865: Burger King’s Blackface.

Advertising Age reported Burger King is bringing Black buns—a menu item first popularized in Japan—to the U.S. for a Halloween promotion. Actually, it seems perfect for celebrating Black History Month. And it’s a safe bet the Halloween promotional campaign will be handled by a White advertising agency.

Burger King Brings Black Buns to the U.S. for Halloween

By Nat Ives

Burger King is bringing black buns, a staple of its Kuro burgers in Japan, to the U.S. for a Halloween promotion. Its A.1. Halloween Whopper, which it says has A.1. flavor baked into the bun as well as on the burger, goes on sale Monday, according to the chain.

The arguably unappetizing looking sandwich goes a little way toward addressing the imbalance between burger chains and other restaurants when it comes to weird menu items. We’re looking at you, fried-chicken-shell taco, fried-chicken-crust pizza, waffle breakfast taco and, of course, KFC’s classic Double Down no-bread chicken sandwich.

12864: Sears & Kmart Shit.

The fools at FCB are likely shitting their pants—and preparing to ship employees to the curb—as Sears has completed a review that will move Kmart to Havas and Sears to Publicis Groupe. Shifting from FCB to Havas is like substituting Curly with Shemp. Sears Holdings VP and Chief Digital Marketing Officer Bill Kiss gushed, “We want to make sure in this journey we got the best partners.” Given that Sears and Kmart are dying, irrelevant and impotent retailers—and Havas and Publicis Groupe are among the worst in the industry—it’s safe to say Kiss got his wish.

Sears Completes Agency Review, Keeps Havas, Taps Publicis Groupe

Interpublic’s FCB Losing Kmart but Will Handle Holiday Campaign

By Maureen Morrison, Alexandra Bruell

After a long and drawn-out process, Sears Holdings has finally wrapped up the review it began last year, keeping Havas and hiring Publicis Groupe in a holding company-level agency restructuring.

Interpublic Group of Cos., the third holding company participating in the review, will lose the Kmart business currently handled by FCB, though the IPG shop will continue to work on this year’s holiday campaign.

Havas will now be the agency of record for Kmart and will retain the Sears Holdings Corp. mass-media assignments, which include some elements of digital. Havas will also retain its status as agency of record for the Craftsman, Kenmore and Diehard brand group, which was out of scope for this project, the company said.

Publicis Groupe, which wasn’t on the Sears Holdings roster, is being awarded AOR duties for the Sears brand and is taking on digital responsibilities for Sears Holdings Corp.

Sears is still working on scope and exact agencies within the holding companies that will handle the work, but said it will have dedicated groups to support media, creative and digital within each.

When the company began the review last November, it reached out to all the major holding companies to participate, but delays set in several times. A request for proposals wasn’t sent out until well into 2015. The review was later scheduled to be completed by the end of August, but another round of meetings was sprung on participants toward the end, according to people familiar with the matter.

An FCB spokeswoman declined to comment.

“The three finalists showed a range of great thinking and passion and they invested great resources that really impressed us,” said Bill Kiss, VP and chief digital marketing officer for Sears Holdings, who led the process and will now oversee the agency restructuring. “The primary focus of this has always been to accelerate our transformation here. It’s not a turnaround. It’s a transformation. We were looking for partners that could help us in that transformation of Sears and Kmart, bringing back those iconic brands, and that could help us find the best way to unlock the true big potential of the ‘Shop Your Way’ platform. We’ve had a lot of changes and we’re doing a lot of good work this year. We added good leaders around the table, and the process has evolved a bit for all right reasons.”

According to one person familiar with the matter, as part of the review the company was also asking holding companies pitching the business to suggest Sears’ Shop Your Way rewards program—a part of the company that chairman-CEO Eddie Lampert has made a priority—to other clients as a potential media buy. Holding companies’ other clients might buy ad space, for example, on a Shop Your Way email.

The company is badly in need of a sales turnaround. In the second quarter, Kmart and Sears domestic comparable store sales declined 7.3% and 14.0%, respectively. The results were “driven in part by highly targeted promotional and marketing spend to better align with member needs, and a shift away from low margin categories, such as consumer electronics,” the company said in its earnings statement.

Interpublic’s FCB had a long history with Kmart. In more recent years, the agency created the “Ship my pants” and “Big gas savings” efforts, which garnered a great deal of attention. Havas has also long handled media for Sears. McGarryBowen had worked on the Sears brand, but the two parted ways in February. Havas, according to people familiar with the matter, had picked up some Sears business in the wake of McGarryBowen’s departure, but it didn’t necessarily mean the shop was a shoe-in for the account.

After Sears reached out to holding companies last year, several senior-level executives were named or left. The most senior marketing departure was Imran Jooma, the company’s exec VP and president of marketing, online and financial services, who said in December that he was leaving the company.

Kelly Cook was named CMO in June, succeeding former chief marketer Andrew Stein, who exited the role to join Big Lots in 2013. Kmart creative Mark Andeer subsequently left the company, and the retailer made personnel, structural and process changes to its marketing team as part of an effort to evolve the brand’s overall marketing.

Sears has long been described as a demanding client. In 2011, when it was reviewing the Sears brand business that McGarryBowen ultimately won, it upset many agencies when it said that it would own the ideas that agencies pitched. Other people familiar with the marketer have said that the company over years has continued to cut its agency fees.

Sears is the 40th largest advertising in the U.S., according to Ad Age’s DataCenter, with a total of $974.4 million on both measured and unmeasured spending. The company spent $430.4 million on U.S. measured media, according to Kantar Media, with $256.8 million going to Sears and $155.2 million on Kmart. Both brands significantly decreased their measured spend from the prior year: Sears had spent about $340 in 2014 and Kmart spent about $209 million.

This review was not about spending, and with the new agency structure the company could ultimately spend more, Mr. Kiss said.

Of the length of the review, he said, “We’ve had a lot of change here in terms of key leadership roles. We’ve brought on a new CMO on the Kmart side, a new president of Sears.” He added that the company took its time for “due diligence.”

“We want to make sure in this journey we got the best partners,” Mr. Kiss said. “We won’t do speed for speed’s sake.”

12863: Havas Buys Frenchmen.

After recently whining that the industry spends too much time talking about digital and technology, Havas Heir-CEO Yannick Bolloré bought digital agency FullSix, reportedly intending to pay about $75 million for the deal. What is it about French advertising honchos lusting for digital acquisitions? FullSix Founder and Group President Marco Tinelli gushed, “Havas is a dynamic, entrepreneurial group that will bring us the clout, the network and the talents we need to develop even faster. FullSix will add to and develop the Havas Group’s digital and data scope and expertise. We are very close in terms of culture, our knowhow is largely complementary and our ambitions are the same.” Yes, and their skin tones are the same too.

Havas Makes $75M Acquisition in Its Biggest Deal for 15 Years

Purchase of Digital Agency FullSix Brings Sorrell Adversary Into Havas

By Emma Hall

Havas is making its biggest acquisition in fifteen years with the purchase of digital communications group FullSix, for around $75 million.

The Paris-based digital business has a global staff of nearly 700, with offices in France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S., and a client list that includes L’Oreal, Vodafone, Bayer, Renault and LVMH.

The deal is expected to be completed next month. The exact terms are not being disclosed, but FullSix claimed revenues of $67 million last year, and an executive close to the deal said that Havas will likely pay 1.1 or 1.2 times this figure.(Unlike the other major ad holding companies, Havas rarely makes big acquisitions, and FullSix is a small one compared to the deals its bigger rivals make).

In acquiring FullSix, Havas CEO Yannick Bolloré is bringing on board an old adversary of WPP CEO Martin Sorrell: FullSix founder and group president Marco Tinelli.

In 2007, Mr. Sorrell sued Mr. Tinelli and his colleague Marco Benatti for libel, accusing them of waging an internet hate campaign against him. This included disparaging Mr. Sorrell and a female WPP exec while circulating a “vicious” email image of the two of them. The case ended when Mr. Sorrell accepted a $180,000 settlement, without admission of liability, from Mr. Tinelli and Mr. Benatti.

Mr. Bolloré said that FullSix will be maintained as a separate brand, particularly as it is very well known in France and Iberia. “This is not a takeover, it’s a wedding,” Mr. Bolloré added, “We had a four hour meeting this morning and the chemistry is very dynamic and positive.”

Havas’ last two much bigger acquisitions were both done at the turn of the century: first Spanish media agency MPG, now part of Havas Media, and then direct marketing company Snyder Communications for $2.1 billion in 2000. Mr. Bolloré described the Snyder deal as a “disaster.” He said, “That acquisition was not properly integrated, which is why I will personally take care of the integration of FullSix,”

Asked whether the FullSix acquisition was the start of a more aggressive phase in Havas’ strategy, Mr. Bollore replied, “We need to be very opportunistic. It’s possible—if we find things in the data space—but the idea is not go get big—it’s about fitness, not fatness.”

Mr. Tinelli said in a statement, “Havas is a dynamic, entrepreneurial group that will bring us the clout, the network and the talents we need to develop even faster. FullSix will add to and develop the Havas Group’s digital and data scope and expertise. We are very close in terms of culture, our knowhow is largely complementary and our ambitions are the same.”

12862: Lubars On Hiring Whites.

BU Today interviewed BBDO CCO David Lubars—who made such a great impression at the annual “Where Are All The Black People?” soiree—and asked him for insight on hiring:

What qualities do you look for in people you hire?

I’m looking for people sort of like me: people who think their work is never good enough, that it can always be better; they’re driven, crazy, insecure. It’s tough skin to live in, but the best people are that way. The old saying is true: “The best people are always terrified they’re about to be fired while the mediocre ones are always shocked when they are.”

Yep, Lubars looks for (White) people like him with tough (White) skin.

12861: Droppings From BBDO.

Why is Energy BBDO—a White advertising agency—creating a Bud Light commercial starring Lil Jon? The big idea is quite lil. And the execution is a gigantic pile of shit. Anheuser-Busch InBev should be “dropping the beat”—and dropping the ad shop.

12860: Emmy Exclusivity.

Adweek reported how the 67th Emmy Awards semi-mirrored the advertising industry. That is, a drunken White creative director grabbed the spotlight while a groundbreaking Black woman barely received backstage status. Perfect.

Jon Hamm Finally Wins an Emmy for Mad Men’s Don Draper

Andy Samberg spoofs the show’s finale, gives out real HBO Now login

By Jason Lynch

The eighth time was the charm for Jon Hamm.

The actor, who had been nominated for Emmys seven times previously—and gone winless—for his iconic role as Mad Men’s Don Draper, finally won the trophy Sunday night, in his eighth and final year of eligibility.

“There has been a terrible mistake, clearly,” said Hamm at the 67th Emmy Awards, as he accepted his award to a standing ovation.

Without the win, Hamm would have joined an esteemed-but-snubbed list of actors who had shockingly never won Emmys for their iconic TV roles, including Steve Carell (The Office), Hugh Laurie (House), Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) and Amy Poehler (whose Sunday night loss meant that she’ll never be recognized for Parks & Recreation).

While Mad Men lost outstanding drama series to Game of Thrones (more on that below), it was also the subject of a hilarious video package from host Andy Samberg. He spoofed Mad Men’s fantastic series finale—which strongly implied that Don Draper had dreamed up Coca-Cola’s famous 1971 “Hilltop” ad during an Esalen retreat—with his own take of the classic ad. But Samberg’s version, which changed the lyrics from “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” to “I’d Like the Buy the World an Emmy,” concluded with an unexpectedly violent twist: A man (played by Parks and Recreation’s Jim O’Heir) ends up stabbed by an Emmy trophy.

How to Get Away With Murder’s Viola Davis, who became the first African-American to win an Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a drama, took the industry to task for its dearth of roles for black women. “The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity,” she said. “You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.”

HBO’s Game of Thrones swept most of the drama categories. HBO had 14 wins in total on Sunday night, and 43 Emmys in all this year, including last week’s Creative Arts Emmys. The network’s comedy Veep also ended Modern Family’s five-year reign as outstanding comedy.

Samberg gave out a functioning HBO Now login and password, explaining that since CEO Richard Plepler said he didn’t have a problem with subscribers giving out their passwords, he would do the same.

Later on in the evening, as Twitter users began to report they were no longer able to log on, HBO Now suggested they sign up for their own accounts. The network did not respond to inquiries Sunday night as to whether they had advance knowledge of Samberg’s Emmy stunt, or how long that HBO Now account would remain active.

Comedy Central had four Emmy wins Sunday night (eight in all), including three for The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. Amazon also won its first two Primetime Emmys ever for Transparent—outstanding actor in a comedy series (Jeffrey Tambor) and directing (Jill Soloway)—to go along with the show’s three Creative Arts Emmy wins last week.

The telecast boasted several emotional moments, including a surprise appearance by Tracy Morgan, stepping out for one of the first times publicly since his near-fatal car accident in June 2014.

12859: Bolloré Bullshit.

Campaign reported Havas Global CEO Yannick Bolloré thinks advertising agencies talk too much about digital and technology. “When I read the statements of my peers—our competitors—they say tech and digital is key,” said Bolloré. “But creativity is our core business. That is what we need to do, especially in an over-fragmented media landscape. A good piece of creativity navigates better in the ocean of content.” Bolloré added, “A pen is a piece of technology. We need the best of technology to enhance the creativity. But we need to be proud to be an advertising company. We should not be ashamed. Creativity is key.” Okay, but Havas is hardly a creative powerhouse—it’s just another mediocre White advertising group. Hell, the place saw fit to buy Victors & Spoils. Bolloré has blubbered about creativity before, and he really needs to stop. After all, the man demonstrates that success in the field is not a result of creativity; rather, it’s about who you know and/or who you are related to.

‘I don’t know and I don’t care’: Havas’ Bolloré on digital revenue split

By Kate Magee

Speaking at Dmexco today, Havas’s global chief executive Yannick Bolloré said agencies talk too much about digital and technology.

Bolloré said he doesn’t know – and doesn’t want to know – what percentage of Havas’s business comes from digital, because breaking down the business like that is “nonsense.”

Bolloré spoke at the Dmexco conference in Cologne, Germany this morning.

When asked what percentage of Havas’ revenues come from digital sources, he replied: “I don’t know and I don’t want to know how much is coming from digital. For me, it’s a nonsense.”

The reason, he said, is because the business should be integrated: “You have to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. These worlds are intertwined. Digital is a tool to make advertising work.”

He said agencies should not lose sight of what they do and he criticised his competitors for talking too much about digital and technology.

“When I read the statements of my peers – our competitors – they say tech and digital is key. But creativity is our core business. That is what we need to do, especially in an over-fragmented media landscape. A good piece of creativity navigates better in the ocean of content,” he said.

He added: “A pen is a piece of technology. We need the best of technology to enhance the creativity. But we need to be proud to be an advertising company. We should not be ashamed. Creativity is key.”

12858: Bull Via Buffalo Wild Wings.

Adweek reported Buffalo Wild Wings is pulling commercials featuring a comedian who lied about 9/11. The campaign was created by TBWA\Chiat\Day, a White advertising agency that lies about things like having a commitment to diversity—however, Buffalo Wild Wings doesn’t seem to have a problem with that.

Buffalo Wild Wings Stops Airing TV Ads Featuring Comedian Who Lied About 9/11

Steve Rannazzisi won’t be brand’s pitchman anymore

By Kristina Monllos

Following yesterday’s news that comedian Steve Rannazzisi repeatedly lied about surviving the 9/11 attacks, Buffalo Wild Wings and Comedy Central said they were reconsidering deals with the actor.

Now, Buffalo Wild Wings has announced it will stop airing commercials featuring Rannazzisi, who became the brand’s pitchman earlier this year.

“Upon careful review, we have decided to discontinue airing our current television commercials featuring Steve Rannazzisi,” said a spokesman for Buffalo Wild Wings in a statement.

The spots by TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles, which took over creative work for Buffalo Wild Wings last September, have been taken off the brand’s YouTube page.

The work leaned heavily on the brand’s connection to football, and using Rannazzisi made sense because he’s best known for his role as Kevin on FX’s The League.

It’s unclear how the brand will replace the current campaign, but it’s likely Buffalo Wild Wings will tap TBWA\Chiat\Day L.A. for a new campaign or use something already in its inventory.

The spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.

12857: Feeling Chipper.

Adweek reported Doritos and Goodby Silverstein & Partners teamed up to salute the LGBT community with limited-edition Rainbows chips. It’s not the first time GSP has produced patronizing pap for the audience. Hey, if Doritos ever burns a batch of product, look for the snack maker and GSP to introduce limited-edition Black History Month chips—followed by Goodby launching a conference titled, “Where Are All The Black Doritos?”

Doritos Has Launched Limited-Time Rainbow Chips in Support of the LGBT Community

All proceeds go to the It Gets Better Project

By Kristina Monllos

Now it’s not just Skittles that wants you to taste the rainbow.

Today, Doritos launched its product celebrating LGBT pride: Doritos Rainbows, created in partnership with the It Gets Better Project. The multi-colored chips, inspired by the Pride flag, were designed to raise awareness and funds for It Gets Better, which supports young people struggling with their sexual identity or bullying.

The new chips’ branding, packing, website and all other branding materials associated with the launch were created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, which also has worked on the brand’s Crash the Super Bowl contest. While there won’t be a national campaign for Doritos Rainbows, GS&P did create a small set of advertisements, specific to the Dallas Pride Festival, which ran in the Dallas Pride Guide.

“In creating the product we did a lot of work internally, in working on the bag and working with the designer to come up with a design that was equally bold and beautiful,” said Margaret Johnson, ecd and partner at GS&P. “It’s a clear design and it speaks in a real graphic, bold way.”

Doritos Rainbows are only available to consumers through a $10 (or more) donation to the non-profit. All proceeds from the chips go to the nonprofit. They are available through National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11, and Doritos’ social media accounts will host the Doritos Rainbow logo until then.

“By creating a limited-edition product available only through donations, we are hopeful that we will make a strong collective impact and raise funds for the important programmatic work that the It Gets Better Project is doing every day,” said Ram Krishnan, chief marketing officer of Frito-Lay, in an email.

The It Gets Better Project was created in 2010 by activist Dan Savage and his partner, Terry Miller, in an effort to inspire young people facing harassment in the LGBT community. The nonprofit has partnered with brands like Wells Fargo, West Elm, Gap, Uber and now Pepsi Co.

“The international reach of Doritos gives us the ability to connect with more LGBT youth than ever before,” said Brett Peters, spokesman for the It Gets Better Project, in an email. “For an LGBT young person to see that their favorite chip is on their side will show them that they have friends in more places than they know.”

As for Doritos, “this move is simply a demonstration of Doritos’ expression of inclusion and support of individuality,” said Krishnan. “We’re always looking for unique ways to give back to communities, and this is just one of those ways.”

12856: Exclusivity X 500.

A MultiCultClassics visitor pointed out the 500 Under 500, an oh-so-funny collection of adpeople that spoofs the stereotypical lists of our industry’s faux rock stars. The not-so-funny part? The exclusivity depicted by 500 Under 500 shows the advertising field is still at least 500 years behind the rest of society.

12855: Incomplete Picture On Apartheid…?

To explain this campaign for the Apartheid Museum, the advertising agency—The Open Collaboration in South Africa—wrote the following:

In 2015, there is an all-too-common tendency to believe that the history of Apartheid is no longer relevant, and that it doesn’t affect contemporary South Africa. We were tasked with creating a campaign that would re-affirm the relevance of the history of Apartheid in contemporary South Africa. In so doing, we would be able to attract more people, especially the younger generation, to the Apartheid Museum. We compared the social context of Apartheid-era South Africa with the state of South Africa today. Very quickly it became clear that the imperative to understand the history of Apartheid has never been more urgent. As a country, we are still battling against destructive patterns established during Apartheid, which continue to manifest themselves in modern South African life: ‘riot’, ‘strike’, ‘murder’, ‘mob’ and ‘massacre’ are unfortunately still a part of the country’s lexicon.

Okay, but it seems odd to present images about Apartheid without White people.

From Ads of the World.

12854: At Grey, Integrating Is Grating.

Adweek reported new Grey New York Chief Strategy Officer Jonathan Lee is focused on integrating creativity and technology at his new workplace. Um, despite having a Black CEO, the White advertising agency hasn’t even managed to integrate different generations—and Grey has fumbled in its attempts to foster cultural integration too. As previously noted, the industry’s inability to integrate digital mirrors the failure to integrate anything and everything else.

Grey New York’s New Chief Strategy Officer Will Help Integrate Creativity and Technology

Jonathan Lee brings track record of success

By Marty Swant

Starting today, Jonathan Lee is the new chief strategy officer at Grey New York.

Lee joins the agency from Huge, where he spent three years as global managing director of planning and strategy. Prior to that, he held senior leadership roles in strategic and account planning at both traditional and digital agencies, including the digital agency Rosetta and TBWA\Chiat\Day New York.

Grey North America CEO Michael Houston said Lee will be tasked with evolving the Strategy Group at Grey, where he will drive development and implementation of a single point of view encompassing every aspect of the agency.

“It’s been said that the future of advertising lies at the intersection of creativity, data, media and technology,” Houston said. “Jonathan brings a track record of success in all of these areas as well as traditional brand planning.”

In an interview with Adweek on Monday afternoon, Lee said his experience at both traditional and digital agencies provides the background necessary for understanding and implementing integration. He said it’s important to maintain the integrity of each component while also applying them in the “right way at the right time.”

“The analogy I use is sausage,” Lee said. “You recognize the ingredients, but you get something different out of it.”

In recent years, Grey New York has doubled in size. Enhancing its talent, creative products and digital capabilities has led to heightened new business performance, and the company says it’s on pace in 2015 for a seventh year of record financial and creative performance. Key new business wins have included The Whitney Museum of American Art, Pandora and Folgers Coffee. The success has also led to a number of awards. This year at Cannes, Grey New York was the second most-awarded office in the world.

“We have the collective firepower to actually realize the ideas,” Lee said. “Now we have to get the strategic alignment to support them so they will be even bigger and even better.”

12853: ROI=Return On Idiocy.

Advertising Age reported Mondelez plans to increase spending on advertising and consumer support, dumping a much bigger chunk of budget money to digital. In explaining the decision to invest more heavily in digital, Mondelez Chief Growth Officer Mark Clouse said digital usually costs less than traditional media but delivers twice the return on investment. Hey, Clouse should talk to Kraft Director of Data, Content and Media Julie Fleischer, who will tell him that content gets four times better ROI than advertising. Has anyone in accounting ever figured out the ROI for employing idiotic blowhards like Clouse and Fleischer?

Mondelez Raises Targets for Ad Spend and Digital Media

Oreo Maker’s Other Goals Include More Healthy Snacks and Online Sales

By Jessica Wohl

Mondelez International announced several new targets Thursday including plans to increase spending on advertising and consumer support and allocating a much larger percentage of its total media budget to digital.

The efforts, announced by Chief Growth Officer Mark Clouse at a Barclays conference, come as the maker of Oreo cookies continues to cut costs and sets plans to reinvest some of those savings into areas such as advertising and consumer support.

Mondelez is under pressure to find savings and show improvement in its plans, due in part to investments from activists Nelson Peltz and Bill Ackman and slowing growth in emerging markets.

Among other cost-cutting moves, Mondelez confirmed to Ad Age in August that it is planning organizational changes in its North America marketing department that will go into effect at the beginning of 2016, but would not say how many layoffs could be involved.

Now, Mondelez is increasing its emphasis on advertising and consumer support, which includes working media and non-working media such as production costs, along with consumer promotion costs related to incentives such as coupons, contests or sweepstakes. The company’s advertising and consumer support does not include in-store promotions or slotting fees.

On July 30, Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden said spending on advertising and consumer support increased to more than 9% of revenue in the second quarter, and suggested that spending would continue to rise in the latter half of the year. At that time, he said higher advertising and consumer-support spending trimmed second-quarter adjusted profit by about four cents per share.

Mr. Clouse said Thursday Mondelez plans to increase advertising and consumer support to over 10% of revenue, which would be up from more than 9% in the second quarter and from more than 8% in 2014.

The company is also moving more of its spending to digital, which Mr. Clouse said typically costs less than traditional media but has twice the return on investment. By 2018, Mondelez expects digital media to represent around 30% of its total media spend, about double the rate from the end of 2014.

One of the other goals announced Thursday is a push to have 50% of the portfolio be in the well-being space by 2020, up from more than 33% currently.

“Consumers want ingredients that they recognize and if it’s on our ingredient line, a consumer should be able to find it in their kitchen,” Mr. Clouse said.

Over the next five years, Mondelez plans to focus 70% of its new-product development push on well-being areas while working on reducing levels of saturated fat and sodium and increasing whole grains, removing artificial colors and flavors on many brands. Still, the cookie and chocolate maker is not abandoning indulgent areas.

“I’d like to clarify one important element,” Mr. Clouse said. “We’re not turning everything into health food. Indeed, there’s a proper place for treats in a balanced diet.”

Another goal is to grow e-commerce from less than $100 million in revenue to as much as $1 billion by 2020. Mondelez already has Buy Now buttons on digital media platforms across 25 markets. It is also pushing unique products to drive e-commerce purchases. For example, later this year it will sell Trident gum with Star Wars characters on bottles, but some versions will only be available online.

12852: Coffee & Cream.

Is Panama challenging Brazil for creating bullshit advertising?

From Ads of the World.

12851: Weekend White Man Wrap-Up.

Campaign reported Posterscope, a Dentsu Aegis out-of-home agency, named Stephen Whyte as its new U.K. CEO. The current CEO gushed, “[Whyte] has all of the characteristics necessary to succeed in the media sector but crucially he has the experience and vision required to lead the business into the future.” For starters, he’s got the perfect name to lead a White shop. Whyte remarked, “I wasn’t looking for a change but the opportunity to lead Posterscope at such a dynamic and exciting time for the OOH industry was impossible to turn down.” Dynamic and exciting time for the OOH industry? Wow, this guy is serving bullshit on a sandwich board.

Campaign also reported UKOM, an online media measurement for advertisers, appointed Ian Dowds as its first CEO. Dowds remarked, “I am thrilled to take the UKOM CEO role at this time of dynamic evolution in the digital media market. … UKOM oversees the industry governed and recognised standard of multi-platform audience measurement and it is exciting to be at the heart of this organisation and working with comScore to ensure the highest possible standards and value are delivered to all stakeholders.” Wow, this guy is serving bullshit on an Excel spreadsheet.

12850: Wax Brazilian.

Advertising Age presented Women to Watch in Brazil. Can’t help but wonder about the diversity in this group. And it’s only a matter of time before White advertising agencies snatch up the honorees to boost diversity figures for both ethnicity and gender—effectively killing two birds with one stone fox.

12849: UK DWP WTF.

Campaign reported White advertising agencies in the U.K. will compete to service the Department for Work and Pensions. Um, doesn’t a governmental agency focused on employment have any standards for partnering with companies where diversity is a dream deferred and denied?

Creative agencies vie for government brief

The Department for Work and Pensions is searching for a creative agency to promote the new working-age benefit, Universal Credit.

The process is being run through the Crown Commercial Service. The successful agency will be appointed on a three-year contract.

The benefit, which was unveiled in 2013, provides a basic allowance and extra support for children, disability, housing and caring.

Universal Credit is set to replace Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Housing Benefit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and income-related Employment and Support Allowance.

The DWP is led by the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan-Smith. In January last year, it appointed Engine to handle activity around workplace pensions after a pitch.

The DWP did not respond to requests for comment.

12848: BlackFacebook From KFC.

A MultiCultClassics visitor pointed to a Facebook post from KFC Peru. Finger-licking bullshit.

12847: The Value Of Diversity.

The actual job listing below is seeking an Internal Communications Manager of Inclusion and Diversity for a global professional services firm. The pay is a whopping $35-40 per hour, which shows the true value of inclusion and diversity. And you can work remotely, meaning delegating diversity doesn’t even warrant a cubicle. Oh, and the requirements do not include having any experience managing inclusion and diversity. The position must be with a White advertising agency.

::

Paladin is recruiting for a freelance Internal Communications Manager, Inclusion & Diversity with a global, professional services firm. This is expected to be a six-month assignment to cover for a maternity leave, and can be done completely remotely. The Internal Communications Manager role is a phenomenal opportunity to work at a globally-recognized firm and help facilitate and strategize on inclusion and diversity initiatives. The ideal Internal Communications Manager candidate will have internal comms experience within an enterprise-level environment, preferably in professional services.

Role: Internal Communications Manager, Inclusion & Diversity

Job Type: Contract (W2); Remote/Work from Home

Duration: October-March, potential for extension

Location: Candidates in the Central or Eastern time zones are preferred

Hourly Rate: $35-$40/hour, depending on experience

Responsibilities:

• Drive internal communications, including messaging, visual identity, print/digital collateral, internal portal publishing, and other activities

• Manage the Inclusion & Diversity presence on corporate web pages and intranet sites

• Prepare communication toolkits for marketing colleagues to communicate effectively with stakeholders regarding various cross-cultural and ethnic diversity segments

• Support the planning efforts for International Women’s Day

• Support leadership development and global internal communications

Requirements:

• Strong writing and editing skills (samples required)

• Proven experience with communication strategy planning and message development

• Experience managing external agencies and vendors

• Understanding and ability to deliver communication metrics reporting

• Ability to manage multiple projects and stakeholder expectations

• Basic web/HTML design, as well as an eye for disruptive design is a plus

12846: Ray Barrett (1958-2015).

From Campaign…

Award-winning art director Ray Barrett dies

By John Tylee

Ray Barrett, the multi-award winning art director who became one of Britain’s first black agency creative chiefs, has died aged 57.

Having spent more than three decades working in UK advertising, he passed away in Toronto, his home city for the past five years.

He worked almost until the end at The Conversation Farm despite a long battle with ALS.

More commonly known as Lou Gehring’s Disease, ALS is a progressive disease that causes muscle weakness, paralysis and, ultimately, respiratory failure.

His career resulted in a string of awards including two Cannes Gold Lions as well as D&AD and Campaign press and poster silvers for work on Nike, Bass, Kimberly-Clark and Prudential.

During that time he also served with Jonathan Mildenhall as joint chairman of the IPA’s Ethnic Diversity Group.

Michael Scher, The Conversation Farm’s founder, said: “Ray fought hard to keep his sense of humour as well as his sense of purpose and continued to exercise his most exceptional mind right until the end.”

After studying for a degree in fine art, Barrett began his agency career at FCB and was appointed creative director of DDB Court Burkitt aged just 26.

He moved to Ogilvy & Mather as head of art before becoming a creative director at WCRS.

In 1996 he linked with two other ex O&M senior staffers to launch Barrett Delves Fletcher Matthews, an agency that subsequently evolved into Barrett Cernis. Justin Cernis, Barrett’s former business partner, said: “Ray was passionate about good work and would never stand for anything mediocre.

“He was always challenging and strategically focused and never shied away from telling clients that what they thought was OK work would mean nothing to consumers. And he had a smile that could light up a room.”

Barrett Cernis closed in 2005 after Barrett’s decision to quit the agency to take creative command of Manchester’s BJL. However, he left after just a year in the job to join the Toronto-based Hey Harry Worldwide.

A memorial evening for Barrett will be held in London later this year.

12845: Shitty Toilet Humor.

The creatives responsible for this Australian Imodium campaign should be set free—that is, let go.

From Ads of the World.

12844: Wunderman Wonder Woman.

Adweek published a story on Wunderman, a global organization experiencing an identity crisis. Based on a peek at Wunderman’s leadership, it appears to be a White wannabe advertising agency, having started as a direct marketing enterprise that allegedly transitioned to a digital shop and now boasts, “We live at the collision of data and creativity.” The statement seems apropos, as Wunderman is probably a train wreck. To help craft the agency’s identity, Wunderman hired a White woman to lead as Chief Marketing Officer for its 175 offices. “It’s not top down and it’s not just bottom up,” said new CMO Jamie Gutfreund in explaining her mission. “It’s a fluid process where we listen, we do 2.0, we do 3.0. We’re agile, and that’s a word we’re going to be using a lot. We’re agile, we’re nimble, and we’re flexible.” Gutfreund lives at the collision of corporate gobbledygook and bona fide bullshit.

It Has 7,000 Employees in 175 Offices, but What Is Wunderman?

Agency network looks to define its own brand with new CMO

By Marty Swant

Each day, Wunderman sets to work trying to define the image of brands like Coca-Cola and Xbox. But in the process, the globe-spanning agency hasn’t always stopped to define Wunderman itself.

Despite the agency network’s massive size, reach and legacy, Wunderman has lacked the sort of iconic identity and clear industry reputation enjoyed by shops like Wieden + Kennedy or corporate siblings like Ogilvy & Mather.

To help bridge the gap between defining strong perceptions for clients and a strong perception for itself, Wunderman today brought on board Jamie Gutfreund as its new chief marketing office, giving her the initial mission of crafting a more visible presence in the advertising world.

Gutfreund, who begins her new role today, joins Wunderman after serving as CMO of Deep Focus.

“I view the 175 offices around the world as my clients,” she said of Wunderman. “My job is to help weave the story together on a global level and also on a local level.”

For years, data and story have been two of the biggest buzzwords in advertising. Although Wunderman has been busy using both to craft campaigns for some of the world’s largest companies, it has often stayed under the industry’s radar.

Wunderman is no small player in WPP’s family of agencies, with 7,000 people—1,300 of which are data scientists—spread across 60 countries. Size alone, Gutfreund said, can make projecting a cohesive story a challenge. She said the agency’s size allows it to come up with ideas and scale them globally while also bringing them to life locally.

“It’s not top down and it’s not just bottom up,” Gutfreund said. “It’s a fluid process where we listen, we do 2.0, we do 3.0. We’re agile, and that’s a word we’re going to be using a lot. We’re agile, we’re nimble, and we’re flexible.”

Raising Wunderman’s profile has been a key pillar of Mark Read’s vision since joining the company as CEO earlier this year. In an interview, Read, formerly WPP’s digital leader and a self-described believer in content marketing, said Wunderman wanted a CMO who could help market the agency network through techniques used for clients but not enough for itself.

“If you look back 10 years, Wunderman’s gone through that transition from being a direct marketing agency to a digital agency,” he said. “If you go for another 10 years, it’s really more of the same but more emphasis on the work, and more emphasis on creativity. I think we’re very well known for being global. We’re very known for getting work done. But we could be better known for our work.”

That’s what Gutfreund hopes to improve. Over the next few months, she’ll be working to develop a plan to enhance Wunderman’s role in driving thought leadership in the realm of data and storytelling. [It’s] still unclear what that might look like (again, today’s her first day), but developing intellectual property and events could play a role in Wunderman’s efforts to play a bigger role in the conversation.

Gutfreund’s experience with studying younger demographics could in some ways provide a glimpse at how Wunderman might tackle topics of data and story. Prior to Deep Focus, she was chief strategy officer at The Intelligence Group, a strategic consulting firm focused on consumer insights and youth.

While at the company, Gutfreund led the Cassandra Report, a quarterly research and insights study focused on young consumers.

“If an organization understands the behaviors of a younger generation, it’s a way to be future-proof,” she said. “It’s a way to understand the way the world is going and to see how you need to make changes.”

A key part of her job will be tapping into the massive amounts of data available throughout the agency’s offices to think through how to come up with ideas for providing insights to spur conversation.

Gutfreund said Wunderman wants to create its own voice and own content distribution channels so it becomes more recognizable. That, she said, will help onlookers understand the “Wunderman brand.”

“What we’re going to be looking for are ways not just to sell,” she said, “but to also educate and inspire.”

12843: Rock & Crock.

Does Brazil produce any real ads?

From Ads of the World.

12842: PrideAM Propaganda.

Campaign published a piece featuring PrideAM President Scott Knox—including a video—hyping the goals of the LGBT group. “We want it to have bite,” said Knox. “This is not going to be an organisation that is simply set up for networking. This is going to have an opinion, and it’s going to have diverse opinions.” Okay, but diverse opinions come from diverse organizations versus exclusive cliques. Just a thought.

Knox on new LGBT group: ‘We want it to have bite’

By Helen Hoddinott

Scott Knox, the managing director at the Marketing Agencies Association, talked to Campaign about goals for PrideAM, the new LGBT leadership group for the advertising industry that launched last week.

Knox is the first president of the group, which has been set up for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in advertising. After being unveiled in the UK, PrideAM plans to launch in America this week.

The group aims to be a “collaborative, co-creative project” and to create role models of LGBT people in the industry, Knox said.

He said: “It needs to be open-minded enough to allow collaboration and input from across the LGBT community.

“We want it to have bite. This is not going to be an organisation that is simply set up for networking. This is going to have an opinion, and it’s going to have diverse opinions.”

12841: What Labor Day Means.

According to Wikipedia, Labor Day “honors the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of their country.” It also leads campaigning politicians to write stuff like the following:

Labor Day is a time for honoring the working people of this country. It is also a time to celebrate the accomplishments of the activists and organizers who fought for the 40-hour work week, occupational safety, minimum wage law, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and affordable housing. These working people, and their unions, resisted the oligarchs of their day, fought for a more responsive democracy, and built the middle class.

Yet what does Labor Day mean to the advertising industry? It might underscore the field’s hypocrisy similar to the way MLK Day does; that is, White advertising agencies are awarded time off despite operating in violation of Dr. King’s dream. With Labor Day, we enjoy a holiday thanks to the accomplishments of people who fought for fairness in the workplace—despite our dismal failures in the area of diversity. Then again, it’s a wonder no one has taken the opportunity to cheer the amazing progress experienced by White women in our ranks.

On Labor Day, advertising industry laborers should salute the people who have legitimately strived to bring change to the field. For the overwhelming majority who can’t even begin to identify the activists, here are a few names for starters:

Roy Eaton

Sanford Moore

Bill Sharp

Lincoln Stephens

Lowell Thompson

Harry Webber

Hadji Williams

Feel free to add more names via comments.

12840: Taco Bell Chicken Shit.

Advertising Age reported on the latest Taco Bell innovation: taco shells made of chicken—or whatever passes for chicken from KFC, Taco Bell’s sister company. Not sure how the Taco Bell Naked Crispy Chicken Taco fits with the fast feeder’s efforts to reduce salt and lessen artificiality in its menu items. Looks like Taco Bell continues to play chicken with honesty and integrity.

Taco Bell’s Newest Taco Shell Looks More Loco Than Doritos

‘Naked Crispy Chicken Taco’ Pops Up at California Taco Bells

By Jessica Wohl

We’ve all seen the success Taco Bell has had with Doritos Locos tacos. Now comes the latest shell innovation at the Mexican fast-food chain: chicken.

That’s right, Taco Bell—sister chain to KFC—is selling what’s being called the Naked Crispy Chicken Taco. In it, breaded chicken replaces a typical taco shell.

According to Foodbeast, which quickly spotted this creation, Taco Bell is using Bakersfield, Calif., as its initial test area.

Foodbeast says the item is a piece of breaded, white meat chicken filled with lettuce, tomato, cheese and some avocado ranch sauce.

It’s way too soon to say whether this shell will spread to other areas. Of course, patrons might already be trying to order it outside the test area, especially at KFC/Taco Bell dual chain locations. And we know KFC’s already tried the chicken-as-delivery-method scenario with its Double Down, where two pieces of chicken replaced the typical sandwich bun.