• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 3, 2014

Apparently, New York-based Joystick Interactive hasn't heard Bitcoin is imploding. The agency, which works with Google and Disney, has announced they will now accept Bitcoin as a payment for their work. To celebrate what they call "embracing the future of money," Joystick is offering all clients paying with Bitcoin a 20% discount. Of accepting Bitcoin, Joystick CEO Chris Wilson said: "As an agency with global clients and a focus on creative innovation, we recognize the need for innovation and growth in digital currency, just as there is in digital advertising." Good luck with that, Chris.

Matthew Charlton, CEO of independent agency Brothers and Sisters, makes a clear and concise argument as to why he chose to head up an independent agency rather than work for large, global holding company. Chief among his reasoning is the fact that all the decision makers are under one roof making for quicker decisions that are closer to home and  unencumbered by layers of external management and, as well -- for the most part -- a focus on what's right for the client versus what's right for the agency. He explains, writing: "I remember very clearly a conversation with Nigel Bogle when I was running Johnnie Walker about some inter-office politics in the micro network and Nigel was very clear: 'Do what is right for the brand, everything else including money is secondary.' In that one sentence the difference between being private and a PLC (holding company) was loud and very clear."

That Barbarian Group Superdesk? We just saw it in person this week at a party the agency hosted. It's as awesome as everyone has said it is. And while the desk is most certainly awesome, its designer created a similar desk for Mother London in 2004. Architect Clive Wilkinson shares the story saying: "We were working with an advertising agency in London called Mother, which had started with six people around a kitchen table. When we began with them, they had a 75-person table and they wanted a 200-person table. We based it on a racetrack the Fiat company had on their Turin factory rooftop, a big oval. It was 14 feet wide and cast in concrete, which was suitably ridiculous for an advertising company. They're all about ephemera, and three-inch-thick concrete with rebar is as permanent as you can get.” But who really cares? That desk is in London, this desk is in New York. And it is awesome!

Like an oxymoron trying desperately to convince us it possesses a shred of logic in its schizophrenic brain (well, you know, if oxymorons actually had brains), New York-based Rosetta is professing "growth and evolution" as reasons for its latest round of layoffs. The Publicis Groupe customer engagement agency, which just brought in Lars Bastholm as chief creative officer in November and said goodbye to ECD Dave McClain, appears to be grasping for straws when it comes to placing a bow on its apparent downfall. They agency has reduced its North American staff by 5%.

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