Ad Agency

Colette Peterson, formerly of FCB and General Motors Mediaworks, has joined Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc. as senior director of media strategies.

Century 21 Real Estate LLC announced that it will partner with the full-service Hispanic and digital agency, Polvora Advertising, to further concentrate on meeting the unique needs of the diverse Latino communities.

Just read in Ad Age an article titled “New Agency to Rise From Commonground/MGS Ashes, Commonground Co-founders Will Launch New Shop in Chicago”.

Definitively there are ashes here.  The partners burned this one to the ground.

República announced that it was selected by PR News as one of the “Top Places to Work in PR.”

Procter & Gamble (P&G) shifted most of its business from Publicis Groupe’s Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) to two other agencies — Dentsu Aegis Network’s Carat and Omnicom Media Group.

Agencies are investing in programmatic ads on a range of media, including television. But many ad agency professionals say they are still not planning to allocate any programmatic spending to local TV.

Miami based CommonGround/MGS has advised all of their employees yesterday that they no longer are employed at the agency and that the company has filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy with the intent to liquidate all assets.  After filing the story we received a call from the agency spokeswpman at CommonGround/MGS advising us that they have not filled for bankrutpcy, but did not deny the remainder of the story.

LatinWorks has announced the appointment of Christy Kranik, a 12-year veteran of the agency, and former Dell marketing executive, to the role of Executive Vice President and General Manager. Joining her leadership team as Executive Creative Director, is Gabriel Garcia, an accomplished and highly respected creative who joined the agency when his former shop, Cultura, was acquired by LatinWorks in 2008.

I have had the good fortune to work with both the marketing as well as the procurement disciplines in various roles, and to have been involved in some of the shaping of the two disciplines as a whole through work I have done with the World Federation of Advertisers. What all this has told me, unsurprisingly, is that there are good and bad decision-makers — and you will find them in marketing procurement teams as well as marketing departments.

For years the balance of workload versus scope of work has plagued digital agency teams. The strain is compounded as agencies invest in new skills to support client business in a marketplace where publishers’ inventory and technology are restructuring for self-service.

More than two-thirds of procurement and financial professionals say PepsiCo’s decision to eliminate its marketing procurement department will not become an industry trend, according to a survey of members conducted by the ANA (Association of National Advertisers).

the community, part of SapientNitro, announced the appointment of Tyler Witkin as a Senior Strategic Planner. In this newly created position, Witkin will be charged with integrating consumer insights and research into the agency’s brand stories.

República has been named ”Best Marketing/PR Firm Using Tech Innovation and Social Media to Reach Latinos” by LATISM (Latinos in Tech Innovation and Social Media).

BMW of North America, LLC. announced that The Community has been named U.S. Hispanic agency of record for the company.

We all know the story well: Our landscape has evolved from setting established objectives focused on moving the transactional needle to moving our audiences’ emotional and behavioral needles to stay visible amongst the clutter.

Sobieski Vodka distributed in the USA by Imperial Brands, has moved its account to Coconut Grove, FL based MARCA.

Based in Miami, Bermudez will be charged with growing and managing communications solutions for some of the community’s largest clients.

República announced that it has received Corporate Plus designation from the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC)

A lot has been written about last week’s announcement that the Association of National Advertisers has instructed Ebiquity and K2 Intelligence to investigate if agencies are really as devious as some say they are.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History added campaign materials and personal artifacts related to Hispanic advertising agencies and their founders through a collaboration with the AHAA: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing. AHAA is supporting the museum’s initiative to expand on the advertising collections held in its Archives Center with a financial donation and with introductions to agency leaders and firms who had a significant impact on advertising history.