• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, September 13, 2013

So, here at Mediapsssst, we cover what's happening on the proverbial Madison Avenue. It's no secret others do too. After all, we live in a world of endless media choices and where anyone with a blog can have a voice as big as Bob Garfield. Every once in a while, we get a kick out of how others cover the news. As you may have heard, Droga5 just won the Chobani account. We certainly hope the agency can right the brand after it suffered from a massive recall of mold-laden yogurt but that's not what we're here to talk about. We're here to appreciate the choice of words UK-focused ad blog More About Advertising chose to use in its headline about this story. Chalk it up to our junior high school bathroom-humor mentality but we got a kick out of their headline, "Droga5 beats off US creative elite to land Chobani Greek yogurt." 

Everyone's doing it. After all, it feels good, right? Connecting. Interacting. Relating. No, silly, not sex; social media. Warner Communications (http://www.warnerpr.com), an agency based in Manchester-by-the-Sea (yes, that's a real place and, speaking from personal experience, a beautiful one) in Massachusetts has launched #StrategicSocial, a new social media practice that, according to agency founder and president Carin Warner, will "help clients engage key stake-holders, customers and prospects in lively, relevant dialog that supports sales goals." Now, if that makes you yawn, don't feel bad. We just did. But you have to hand it to any agency, even the little ones by the sea, that make a point to offer their clients the kind of services that take advantage of the media landscape. And today, that landscape is all about social media, content marketing and inbound marketing. So don't judge. Just be happy.

Ever the wise-ass, AdScam publisher George Parker, who has a vendetta out for big dumb agencies -- particularly Draftfcb, laments the fact he can no longer find several videos Draftfcb founders, Hughie, Louie & Dewey as he refers to them, created to "talk shit about blowing up silos and knocking down walls." But yesterday, he gleefully shared  a four year old video in which Howard Draft can't stop saying "holistic" and another of a Draftfcb New York office tour which looks like it was shot by a drunk. Isn't this business great?

Speaking of Draftfcb, the agency -- which just this week got a new CEO, Carter Murray -- has just named  current Publicis UK Chairman and CEO, Nigel Jones, as chief strategy officer worldwide. Of Jones' hire, Murray said, “Nigel will work to help define our brand identity and help with our senior clients in driving their business forward. He’ll help guide strategy across the company, help figure out where we make acquisitions and where we can break through in technology. He’s calm, incredibly thoughtful and smart—he has all the qualities to make me successful.” It all sounds so serious for an agency that lets a drunk film its New York office.

For those who can’t get enough of Draftfcb, AgencySpy obtained a memo  CEO Murray sent the agency to announce the Jones hire. Apparently we media folk broke the news sooner than Murray would have liked and nothing's worse than an agency finding out about a new boss in the press.

It's no secret that many think people in the advertising business have their head in the cloud, After all, who wouldn't after reading work like Peter Arnell's famed Pepsi creative brief? But not all agencies, it would seem, suffer from Arnell's grandiose vision of things. Others have their head in a different kind of cloud. You know, the cloud computing sort of cloud. One such agency, UK-based Lobster (you gotta love that name), would like us to know they now offer cloud-based services that allow clients to remotely access any and all work the agency has done for them. We just hope they don't have access to the agency's creative briefs. Otherwise, their heads might explode like everyone's did after reading Arnell's Pepsi brief.

On the left coast, Portland-based R/West is beefing up operations with the addition of four new staff members. Former Wieden + Kennedy staffer, Jackie Hensel, will join R/West as media supervisor on Ron Tonkin Family of Dealerships, First Tech Credit Union, Summit Automotive and Suburban Auto Group. Former R2C2 staffer, Alison Schweickert, will join the agency's social media department and work on social media strategy, support and analytics for a variety of clients, including SOREL, Trumer and McMenamins. Former CMD staffer and long time freelancer, Ryan Ramage, will join the agency as senior interactive developer and will work on projects for First Tech, The Portland Clinic, Cull & Pistol and BridgePort Brewing Company. Former Hill + Knowlton staffer, Nicole Farin, will join the agency as public relations account co-ordinator and will support the New York team on The Lobster Place and Washington State Wine.