Hasta La Creative!

Seattle-based independent creative agency Tether rounded out its creative leadership team with the additions of Hart Rusen as advertising creative director and Bill Allen as interactive creative director. Both join the agency from Publicis Seattle.

Rusen spent six years at Publics Seattle as a senior vice president and group creative director, working with clients including T-Mobile, KEXP and the Seattle Symphony. Prior to joining Publicis in May of 2009 he spent over four years as an associate creative director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, where his clients included Doritos, Cheetos, Hyundai, Budweiser, HP and Comcast. The San Diego State University grad has also worked with Cole & Weber, Moffatt/Rosenthal and R/West.

Allen spent over four years with Publicis Seattle as a creative director, during which time his clients included T-Mobile, KEXP, Les Schwab and the Experience Music Project. Prior to joining Publicis he spent around two years as interactive director with BooneOakley, working with clients such as Bojangles, Mizuno USA, and the Charlotte Bobcats. That followed a stint of almost three years as an associate creative director at 22squared, with clients such as Florida’s Natural, Buffalo Wild Wings and Lincoln Financial Group.

“At Tether clients benefit from teams that understand how brand strategy and design, immersive digital experiences and ad campaigns can build on each other to foster growth,” explained Rusen. “Brand affinity requires  more than great advertising; it takes a solid brand foundation that compels consumers to feel joy, and ideally spread positive word, with every engagement.”

T-Mobile launched an online ad for April Fool’s Day, presumably from agency of record Publicis, entitled “Pets Unleashed.”

In the ad, the wireless “uncarrier” presumes to let you “add your cat, dog, ferret, turtle or, heck, your alpaca” to your family plan for just $5 a month. After introducing the offer, the spot claims “Your carrier hates puppies. So #@$% them and switch to T-Mobile.” They then extend the joke by claiming to offer new pet-friendly apps, like Fetch Freedom, FitPet and Pet Tinder. At one point, a horse even appears to be watching zebra porn (accompanied by the small text: “Zebra porn not included. Consult stable manager for appropriate use.”) In addition to the goofy spot, there’s also a fake press release on T-Mobile’s site, and a “Pets Unleashed” page, proving the brand went all-in on the gag.

Last week, Cadillac released the online version of Publicis’ “Arena,” the first ad for the brand’s new “Dare Greatly” campaign as well as the first spot from Publicis since winning the account in December, while promising several more ads in the campaign would debut during the Oscars.

Well, now those spots are in, giving a more clear picture of the “Dare Greatly” campaign and Publicis’ strategy to attempt to revitalize the struggling brand. The newly-released ads follow the same kind of philosophy as the first, but tie it more directly to the brand. While “Arena” notably didn’t feature a Cadillac, the Cadillac CT6 is (eventually) featured in the new ads.

In “The Daring: No Regrets” Publicis and Cadillac bring in a host of innovators, such as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, fashion designer Jason Wu and Boyhood director Richard Linklater (a nice move for an ad making its debut during the Oscars, given his nomination). The spot makes statements beginning with “How dare…” to show how “Only those who dare drive the world forward,” tying them to the brand with the line, “How dare a 112-year-old carmaker reinvent itself as the CT6 is finally revealed. Also notable is that, like “Arena,” the ad makes extensive use of shots of New York, Cadillac’s new home. Other spots examine the individuals highlighted in “The Daring: No Regrets” more closely, such as the 30-second efforts for Wu and Wozniak below.

It’s clear that Publicis is taking a more image-driven approach, attempting to manufacture a certain philosophy for the brand that will appeal to a younger crowd, rather than emphasizing the selling points of the vehicle itself. “Luxury brands don’t sell products, they sell dreams,”  Cadillac Chief Marketing Officer Uwe Ellinghaus told The Wall Street Journal. “People need to find Cadillac inspiring and having a spirit and attitude, a clear point of view.”

Publicis London turns to beeped out cursing in its irreverent holiday ad for Oral-B, entitled, “Merry Beeping Christmas from Oral-B.”

The spot opens on a woman stepping on an angel ornament while tip-toeing around the house barefoot carrying presents. She lets out a few bleeped out choice words, and quickly we’re on our way to the next profanity-inducing situation. These scenarios run the gamut from ugly sweaters to cooking accidents and trouble with the lights but each result in an expected torrent of profanity. The ad ends with the tagline “At least you don’t have to worry about your smile,” accompanied by the Oral-B logo. It may be a bit of a stretch, but tying oral care to the holidays isn’t the easiest proposition in the world and the spot is fun and clever enough to fit in with other cheeky holiday ads we’ve seen this year from brands in the UK. (more…)

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Publicis Groupe’s Level Studios has announced the appointment of Dan Connolly as CEO, MediaPost reports. He fills a role left vacant by the departure of Tom Adamski, now CEO of Razorfish Global, for Rosetta in April of 2013.

Connolly, who over the past sixteen months has risen from partner, to president and now CEO, will be responsible for overseeing all business units across the agency’s U.S. and European locations and will also act as a member of the Brand Leadership team for Level Studios’ parent network, Razorfish Global. He will operate primarily out of San Luis Obispo, California but will travel between Level’s offices and clients as part of his expanded role, with an emphasis on the Bay Area and New York. Connoly told MediaPost his objectives in the new role are to complete building “Level’s executive leadership team, align talent across existing and new offices, and to work closely with the newly formed Razorfish Global and Brand leadership teams.” (more…)

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In case you missed it yesterday, Publicis Groupe attempted to make up for its own performance issues over the weekend by snapping up Sapient for $3.7 billion in cold cash (and so close to Christmas, too!).

It’s true that these talks could fall through just as the Publicis/Omnicom merger did last year, but for now it seems that the next phase in the group’s “transformation into a digital-technology company” will indeed go through this week.

As a reader put it this morning, “Idea engineers own the ad industry” — and Publicis is very interested in engineering as many ideas as possible. Moving forward, does this mean less focus on the work and more on the data behind it?

So far, the move has been good for business: USA Today notes that Sapient stock rose more than 40% this morning, largely because Publicis agreed to pay nearly 150 percent of each share’s most recent value.

(more…)

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Publicis Kaplan Thaler teamed up with the the Advertising Council to launch a PSA campaign for various groups dealing with children’s learning and attention issues.

The campaign is designed to direct parents to the new website Understood.org, designed to help parents better understand their children’s issues and help them reach their full potential. In one broadcast spot, a man asks Siri, “How can I help my daughter with her reading?” and instead gets results for “Dachsund breeding.” It’s revealed at the end of the 30-second spot that the mistake was intentional:  “…I was trying to show you how Sarah feels every day. Frustrating, isn’t it?” before directing him to Understood.org. Broadcast spots also appear in Spanish-language versions. While comparing problems with voice recognition software to learning and attention issues may be a bit of a stretch, it also should get the attention of parents struggling to understand their kids’ problems in school and get them to the website.

“The crux of the campaign is that understanding is everything,” Larissa Kirschner, a creative director at Publicis Kaplan Thaler, told The New York Times. “Put yourself in children’s shoes and you can truly understand their frustration. We took the cultural phenomenon of Siri, a smartphone not always getting you, as our way in.”

The campaign also includes print, radio, and outdoor elements, as well as a social initiative that includes weekly Twitter chats for parents. The website itself attempts to educate parents through a series of videos and interactive experiences designed to simulate the experiences of children with learning and attention issues. (more…)

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Samsung’s global review is over, and the news from AdAge isn’t much of a revelation: the company is sticking with Publicis. For the most part.

The significant part of the story imparted by “people familiar with the review” who didn’t talk to us is that the company added W+K and BBH to its very large agency roster — and that Leo Burnett retained its creative duties despite a challenge from Grey.

We didn’t get any tips on this one, and the lips of all related parties were sealed:

“Wieden & Kennedy, BBH and Starcom did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Leo Burnett declined to comment. Representatives from Samsung in South Korea and the U.S. did not return requests for comment.”

It’s been a slow week for tips with Advertising Week occupying everyone’s attention here in New York, but we’re impressed that people made so little noise about the future of such a big account.

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While we have yet to receive confirmation from any agency contacts, a steady stream of tips about some big (allegedly) pending changes at New York-based Publicis Kaplan Thaler has found its way to our inbox.

Here are the claims laid out in the tips we received, which started trickling in back in April after the agency laid off “less than 2 percent” of its staff:

• The agency’s three offices will consolidate into the location at 1675 Broadway
• A majority of the agency’s staff will move to that office by 2015 and the shift will be complete by 2016
• The resulting shop will drop the K and the T to go by the name “Publicis Worldwide New York”

Hints are not so specific on the staffing front. We hear mention of “potential departures” at the executive level, and more than one tipster claims that Publicis Worldwide International Creative Director Erik Vervroegen now “has his name on an office door.”

Again, we have not received an official response from anyone at PKT – but we were told to expect announcements this week or next.

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Publicis Seattle has a new campaign for family-owned tire chain Les Schwab, highlighting the company’s dedication to customer service (according to a Benenson Strategy Group brand tracking report, its customer service rating is higher than Zappos and Nordstrom).

For the campaign, Publicis Seattle created two television spots based on real-life customer stories. Each spot features the customer reading their letter to Les Schwab, praising the exceptional customer service they received. In “Nanny,” for example, a woman tells the story of how her car broke down on her way home from work. She knocked on a door asking for help, and the man who answered happened to own a local Les Schwab. He fixed her car, without pay, and she was quickly on her way. The other spot, “RV Weekend,” takes a similar approach. The spots will air across western US markets including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Montana. (more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.