Commentary

New York's Korey Kay Has Closed Its Doors

Storied New York ad shop Korey Kay & Partners is closing, according to sources. The agency was founded more than 30 years ago by Lois Korey and Allen Kay, after both tired of toiling at big ad shops like McCann Erickson and Needham Harper & Steers. Over the years the company had clients including Honda, Wynn Resorts and the Metropolitan Transit Authority, among many others. The agency was known for its iconic catch phrase “If You See Something, Say Something,” which it created after 9-11 for the MTA, a 22-year client, which left earlier this year. Famous alumni include both Jon Bond and Richard Kirshenbaum, who went on to form Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners. Korey, who began her career in TV writing for stars like Ernie Kovacs and George Gobel, died in 1990. Kay could not be reached for comment on the closing. 

Peter Sherman has joined Omnicom as executive vice president. In his new role, Sherman will report directly to John Wren on a series of initiatives that include driving innovation and collaboration across the holding company's client portfolio. Sherman is joining Omnicom from JWT, where he served as CEO, North America. In that role he was responsible for driving the overall strategic direction and creative reputation of the region, while managing client relationships. Sherman joined JWT in June 2013 as CEO of its New York office and was promoted to CEO, North America, in December 2013. During his time at JWT, the agency had several key client wins. Prior to joining JWT, Sherman was EVP, managing director of BBDO Europe, where he led 35 BBDO offices in 18 countries across the European region. While he was in Europe, those offices experienced consistent year-on-year growth, won multiple pan-European pitches, and BBDO was named the most creative network in Europe for the first time.

So Advertising Week Europe is happening this week. Two big topics emerging from the conclave of adverati are programmatic buying and branded content. While some believe each is on its own course, Advertising Week Europe Co-Producer Kathleen Saxton thinks differently. “Once the content has been crafted, you need to look at what all the different iterations will be, and how to get them to fit together across the different media. This is where real-time bidding will come in. We’re sort of in beta phase at the moment, but it’s something the industry will get better at over time," says Saxton. Programmatic content marketing? Now if only we can get computers to create content for us. Oh, wait. 

Sadly, Arnold Worldwide has had to let go about 20 staffers across the agency's Boston and New York offices. Reasons given for the layoffs are at best nebulous, citing the need to re-engineer, adjust the talent mix and focus more on content creation. Okay -- that last part actually makes sense. But it's still troubling. Over the past couple of months, tips of layoffs have trickled in from various agencies. Just a blip or are we headed for another recession? Ad agencies are always a leading indicator of a recession.

advertisement

advertisement

>
Next story loading loading..