Commentary

Colleen DeCourcy Named 11th Partner of Wieden+Kennedy

Well this is awesome! We saw an image of Colleen DeCourcy standing in front of a Weiden+Kennedy placard with her name on it on Instagram today and we thought, "Hmm, what does that mean?" Turns out the agency has made her a partner in its global network. While that's awesome, there are 11 partners in all. Isn't being partner supposed to be special? They shouldn't just give it out to anyone, right? Before you start sending hate mail, clearly DeCourcy is awesome and totally deserves partnership. We've seen her in action. We've seen her speak at conferences. She absolutely deserves this. She's been with W+K for 18 months as global co-executive creative director. Congratulations, Colleen!

After an 8-week pitch process, during which Leo Burnett, FCB and Magnani Continuum Marketing battled one another for the Choose Chicago tourism account, it was FCB that prevailed. What's interesting is that Leo Burnett did some pro bono research to the tune of $1 million which each of the three shops used for their pitches. And while Leo Burnett might have had some explaining to do had they won the pitch, parent company Publicis Groupe shouldn't be too upset as Starcom, also a Publicis company, took home the media business.

In the automotive space, J.D. Power & Associates is seen as a God-like research figure. While it may take some time to be seen that way in the digital advertising space, the organization is going to make a go of it with the acquisition of Korrelate, an Orlando-based research firm that measures online consumer behavior, which it links to offline sales. Of course, much of what the J.D. Power/Korrelate offering will focus on is, in fact, the automotive industry -- but with a shift. J.D. Power President Finbarr O'Neill explains, saying: “Consumer behavior is changing dramatically in today’s Internet-powered world. The auto industry spends billions of dollars annually on digital marketing. Measuring online activity and linking it to actual vehicle sales will enable marketers to measure and optimize their digital strategy.”

Hey this is pretty cool. It addresses both writer's block as well as the desire for creatives to find a home for the work they poured their heart and soul into, but the client decided it wasn't worthy. Freelance creatives Kalle Everland and Timo Klaarenbeek have launched Ideas to Steal, a site on which creatives can "steal" killed ideas that others have uploaded. But if an idea is "stolen" the person doing the stealing has to agree to share credit and share any glory the work might receive down the line. Wouldn't it be awesome if someday some creative stood on stage at the Palais in Cannes and had to share the glory? Perhaps not -- but we'd certainly love to see that.

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