Well this is interesting. Recently, two agencies were honored with Silver placements in the International category of Advertising Age's 2014 Small Agency Award. A tie. But one of the agencies -- Argentina-based +Castro is having none of that likening that tie to kissing one's sister. And so the agency has challenged the other Silver winner -- South Africa's Volcano to a smackdown to break the tie. And Volcano has accepted. A live online battle kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday. The two agencies will battle it out across three challenges that will put to the test the most essential professional …

Sir Martin Sorrell, always a man with an opinion and something to say, is now speaking out on immigration. No, not the American/Mexican disaster. Rather, the immigration policies of UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, who favors an immigration points system that, had it been in place when Sorrell's grandparents emigrated from the Ukraine, would not have been allowed to enter the country. Sorrell says he'd be reluctant to work on Farage's election campaign... But having said that, he was quick to add that he would have no problem with one of his WPP agencies taking on the account.

New Orleans-based Peter Mayer Advertising has lost telecom provider CenturyLink and as a result has had to lay off 40 of its 200 employees. Of the changes, President Mark Mayer said, "In the lifespan of any agency, there are times when client needs generate significant growth and other times when the business contracts. Therefore, we are in the unfortunate position of having to rebalance our workforce to meet the needs of current clients. This is a painful thing to have to do. Our employees are the most talented, hardest-working and creative professionals in the industry." The exit of CenturyLink isn't …

Further cementing this whole native advertising thing, Leo Burnett has jumped into bed with The Huffington Post signing an exclusive deal which "promises to transform the relationship between creative agencies and publishers." And in the most mealy-mouthed game of buzzword bingo to describe the fact that what you'll be reading more and more of in The Huffington Post will now be one gigantic ad, the press release announcing the deal screamed, "Together, Leo Burnett and The Huffington Post will collaborate on client campaigns like never before. HuffPost Partner Studio's team of writers, editors and strategists will work closely with the …

Nissan CMO Roel de Vries is not happy with the current state of client agency relationships and says the proliferation of specialty agencies and extensive growth of holding company divisions has led him to question why it is that the client must manage this explosion of diverse resources. But he has basically thrown his hands up and says: "But it's my job to herd all these cats and put them in a room and say please 'talk to each other'." He also notes that agencies have been obsessed with "the fashion of digital," which has led to a lot of …

Writing in Marketingland, Motivity Marketing CEO Kevin Ryan has some harsh words for you shysters out there who can't help yourselves from poaching clients away from your competitors with cheesy emails. Breaking down one such email that was forwarded to him complete with the much overused "sorry for the intrusion" and "let me steal a few minutes of your time," Ryan writes "Leaving aside the assumption (again) that the target is a bit of a dolt when it comes to search and doesn't quite understand how directive intent works, there's another apology, another theft reference and for heaven's sake, an …

Running an advertising agency these days is like partaking in a game of old school dodgeball except without any balls because the other team has them all. Yeah, there's a double entendre there -- and yeah, agencies are getting other people's balls thrown in their face on a daily basis, it seems. The latest salvo comes from Weber Shandwick advocacy division, Sawyer Miller, which just rebranded to become SawMill, a full service agency focused on paid media. This follows similar moves from Edelman and FleishmanHillard.

For those of you who hate the whole native advertising thing, here's yet another thing to hate. Vice Media's creative services division, Virtue, has launched Collectively, another Upworthy-style editorial site filled with idiotic editorial like The Unexpected Father-Daughter Team Making Condoms People Will Love Having Inside Them and This Child Prodigy Traded eCommerce For Orphans And Never Looked Back. But that's not the point. The whole thing is sponsored by founding partners Unilever, Coke, Marks & Spencer, BT Group and Carlsberg along with partners including McDonald's Microsoft, General Mills, Nestle and others. But the site promises it will operate with …

Oy! Can't people just talk normally? In yet another article about the demise of agencies and the rise of specialty companies that work directly with brands, Andrew Reid, creative director of newfangled ad agency BKLYN1834 said: "We are the audience. We are the artists. We are the influencers in fashion, art and design who inspire trends. We are the actual point of the trend." Perhaps voicing the same sentiment in a far more down-to-earth, levelheaded, less pompous tone, Deutsch LA CCO Pete Favat said: "We love making stuff; it's fun, makes us money and attracts a different type of talent …

An ad man in Aukland has pled guilty to possessing and exporting sexually exploitative images of young girls. He has been granted permanent name suppression, which means his name cannot be made public. However, at the time of sentencing, Judge Eddie Paul said: "The public are entitled to know what this man has been doing on a computer, on the internet, in his home." Ruth Money, a spokeswoman for Sensible Sentencing Trust, said: "The community has a right to know who this predator is in order to protect young girls. Your 6-year-old daughter could be having a sleepover at his …