Given this winter's perpetual East Coast blizzard and the propensity for, you know, it to be cold in the Northeast all the time, it might give some a bit of a chuckle that Boston-based Fuseideas was just awarded the $900,000 Santa Fe tourism account. I mean really, what does a freezing, snowbound Bostonian know about Santa Fe, New Mexico? Oh wait. Yeah, it makes perfect sense. Everyone at Fuseideas -- rather, everyone in Boston -- would so rather be in Santa Fe right now than be facing yet another blizzard. So, yeah, a Boston-based agency is totally …

Not that there's really any new insight here from Solange Francois, a young marketer working on the client side who then decided to try out the agency side, but we can all use a good reminder from time to time. The general theory here is that if you experience the other side of anything, you're much more likely to be sympathetic when you go back to your own side. Francois, who took 15 months off from her marketing-side gig to go to the agency side, offers up 7 insightful tips. In a nutshell, working in an …

The problem with content marketing, of course, is that everyone is trying to do it and most are doing it very, very poorly.

Publicis Group's VivaKi is decentralizing its trading desk model and will distribute programmatic ad trading across other Publicis media shops including Starcom MediaVest, ZenithOptimedia and others. VivaKi CEO Stephen Beringer says 120 ad traders will be spread out across multiple Publicis agencies. The move aims to integrate programmatic ad-buying with the holding company's other media offerings. Of the reorganization, a VivaKi spokesperson said, “We are taking programmatic planning and activation services closer to the media planning process, where programmatic expertise belongs." In a way, it's very much like how interactive as a standalone area …

On Monday, Publicis said it is in talks to buy press agency Relaxnews for 15 million euros ($17 million). The two hope to reach a deal by April.

Well it looks like some ad execs still enjoy a good three martini lunch. Or maybe it was 6.

Last week during a Kanye West concert in front of the Flatiron building in New York City. Kanye got a bit of a slap from New York-based agency PNYC. The agency placed large letters in the windows of their agency which spelled out "Beck!" No, it wasn't quite Beck himself, doling out the tit for tat -- but it was quite nice of PNYC to step up. Of the stunt, PNYC Matt Dowshen said: "We are an agency actively researching the effects of out of home advertising. We found out Kanye was playing outside of our building …

Confoundingly, agencies are always trying to reinvent themselves into something different rather than focusing on advertising.

Publicis Brazil has launched Publicis Kids, a mini-agency located in KidZania, a Mexican theme park chain in Sao Paulo. Publicis Kids is a place where kids can go to create social and green marketing campaigns. The endeavor aims to allow kids to experience what it might be like to work in the agency business and to -- as the release says -- "play as if they were advertising professionals." Because we all know advertising isn't actually work. It's just an excuse to go somewhere for the day to collect a paycheck.

CP+B has announced the .GIFYS, its second annual award show celebrating the animated GIF. The agency has opened public voting today as a group of esteemed judges works toward determining the best GIFs of 2015. The entire Internet is encouraged to vote through February 22nd across 11 categories, including Cats, Sports, Film & TV, News & Politics and a new one this year, Weird. The .GIFYS were created in 2014 by a group of creatives and developers at CP+B LA in an effort to honor GIFs as a medium, social commentary and art form. Not to mention a gigantic …