Aloha from Portland,
There were plenty of reasons for Starcom and Publicis to celebrate this week—$950 million to be exact—as the agency took home the Fiat Chrysler business, beating out incumbent UM and Hearts & Science.
Another bit of business moved to a new home as Tourism Australia (behind last year’s epic Super Bowl campaign from Droga5) said “G’Day” to M&C Saatchi for their $50 million global business.
WPP had the ‘ol mixed bag this week.
On the downside, the holding company is trimming 3,500 jobs (with no more agency mergers planned) while 2% of staff at its dedicated Ford agency will be laid off following the loss of some of the business.
On the upside, WPP announced two new hires, bringing in Publicis veteran Laurent Ezekiel as its first-ever chief marketing and growth officer and Tim Castree as GroupM’s North America CEO.
Other moves this week: McCann’s customer relationship agency MRM promoted Kate MacNevin to global CEO as Omnicom exec Mainardo de Nardis, after almost four decades in the agency world, is stepping down. Technically, this would qualify as a move—Fearless Girl is now at her new home, staring down the NYSE.
Meanwhile, in Detroit: The Mars Agency is suing its former CCO.
Worth a read: FCB created a nifty stunt for Burger King. This is how it all went down.
Worth a debate: Are these the 25 best ads of 2018? We think so.
Worth a watch: W+K New York releases new work for Lyft and Leo Burnett Madrid gives everyone a poignant reminder of the importance of spending time with loved ones.
Is your agency doing a holiday card or video this year? Awesome. We’d love to hear about that. Please take a moment to fill in this quick form for consideration in this year’s roundup.
Enjoy your weekend,
Doug Zanger
Senior Editor, Creativity + Agencies
