Happy summer Friday,
This is Patrick filling in for Doug at the end of a wild week for the ad industry.
First, we must report the news from Adweek’s own inaugural NexTech event, which saw hundreds of professionals gather to discuss the issues of the day: Should clients in-house programmatic? What is the most efficient way to take action on supply path optimization?!
A familiar face opened the proceedings with a very different message than the one he repeated for three decades atop the holding company heap. S4 founder and ex-WPP CEO Martin Sorrell told Adweek that agencies “can’t get out of their own way” before using his keynote to dismiss IPG and Publicis Groupe’s data strategies and embrace Facebook and Google as protagonists, not “frenemies.” (He also played some Cards Against Humanity along the way.)
But the week’s drama started last Saturday afternoon, when BBH officially lost its long legal fight with actors union SAG-AFTRA and agreed to abide by the new contract negotiated earlier this year. It ended late Thursday night, when we reported that the FBI visited the offices of WPP’s GroupM earlier this month after that network fended off a major cyberattack.
In the meantime, the developments kept coming in the agency world.
Jessica Walsh of Sagmeister&Walsh launched her own shop, &Walsh, and talked to Adweek about why she made the move.
McDonald’s confirmed that it's nearing the end of a U.S. agency model review, with sources confirming that a big new assignment went to Wieden + Kennedy New York.
Ogilvy CEO John Seifert told employees, via an all-staff memo, that his agency will continue working on the controversial Customs and Border Protection account.
In another memo, Facebook’s Carolyn Everson sought to reassure agency partners that everything is A-OK despite the company agreeing to pay a record $5 billion fine to the federal government.
If you’re in the mood for some acronyms, Kroger picked an AOR, BBDO promoted a CMO, GroupM named its CEO, R/GA scooped a new MD, and DDB elevated two creative leads.
Indie shop Phenomenon got a capital infusion, Campbell Ewald a visual rebrand, and R2C a division dedicated to female-founded startups.
Quite a bit went down, and that’s not even counting the usual news on our sister site, AgencySpy.
We hope everyone has a relaxing weekend filled with dreams of Big Macs.
Thanks for reading,
Patrick Coffee
Editor at Large
