• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, August 20, 2014

So by now you've all seen hundreds of those #ALSicebucketchallenge videos, right? You know the ones. People on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter promising to donate to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association while dumping a bucket of ice water over their heads and tagging three others to do the same like a chain letter in elementary school? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Well, now, just like every other meme an ad agency gets its hands on (think Harlem Shake), it's been taken to a whole new level. RPA Executive Creative Director Jason Sperling amped things up a bit and added a Flashdance spin to his effort. Check it out on YouTube  and Facebook .

Last week, ad-tech companies Turn and TubeMogul engaged in a very public spat about which company lies the most and slings the most bullshit. First, Turn sent an email to its subscribers blaming TubeMogul for questionable practices. Then, TubeMogul shot back with a blog post, "The Real Truth About Turn's Lies" in which it took Turn to task with a point-by-point rebuttal. Really, people? Are we adults or two-year-olds in a sandbox hurling sand in each other’s eyes?

Another creative heads to the Left coast. Huntington Beach-based Grupo Gallegos has tapped Marty Orzio as its new chief creative officer. Orzio travels to California with 10 years of experience as Chief Creative Officer of Gotham in New York and Energy BBDO in Chicago. After two years as CCO at Gotham, the agency was named #1 Agency to Watch by Ad Age, having won clients like Denny's, Best Western, and Chobani Yogurt and numerous awards. He saw similar success at Energy BBDO, where Orzio helped grow the agency by 50% in three and a half years, winning brands like Wrigley’s, Dial, Jim Beam Brands, and Starbucks, to name a few. Of joining, and the agency's focus on multicultural marketing, Orzio said, "The agency is successfully moving multicultural marketing from a niche conversation to a part of a brand's overall business and growth agenda. Grupo Gallegos calls it 'New Americanism,' helping brands effectively adapt to this economic, social, and cultural transformation, an approach that has been rewarded by numerous awards for creativity and effectiveness already this year."

And here's why agencies should be scared. Very, very scared about their future. Speaking to iMedia Connection's Lori Luechtefeld on the topic of agencies as the long-suffering middleman, she spoke with Weber Shandwick CCO Josh Rose who said, "More and more, the smartest people about a brand's earned media are the people at the brand. They have historical knowledge that, over time, becomes less and less replicable at the agency level. Traditionally, the marketers who wanted to stay on the edge of popular culture found themselves at agencies. Something about that environment promoted the kind of contemporary thinking you couldn't find in corporate walls. That's not the case anymore. Incredibly cool and knowledgeable people now sit in marketing departments, holding the reins on the fastest-growing media properties in the portfolio." So, agency peeps, what are you going to do about this?

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