Ad Agency

Agency executives—more so than senior marketers—plan to increase spending on a variety of different formats in 2016, including digital, social and mobile.

Dieste Inc. has named agency executive creative director Ciro Sarmiento its new Chief Creative Officer, effective February 1st.

Multidisciplinary brand culture and communications firm (add)ventures is expanding its Miami office with the addition of Camila Moller as director of strategy/marketing and  Michelle Spriegel as specialist of pr/social media.

Moen announced that it has named Havas Chicago lead strategic brand and media agency of record.

For the new campaign, created by H&R Block’s Miami-based agency of record MARCA, Wisin re-recorded his hit song Piquete.

Sensis has launched SensisHealth, a specialized health care marketing practice to help providers, payers and pharmaceutical companies improve outcomes for a diverse population of patients and caregivers.

When buying programmatically, there are many important factors that come into play. Being able to buy display, as well as inventory across channels via a single platform, are two of the top ones, according to US media practitioners.

Luis Gonzalez founder of Miami based C-Com Group, Inc. and Manuel Machado founder of Miami based MGSCOMM have joined forces and will Co-Chair the new growth strategy for the C-Com Group.

As we wrap up 2015 and head toward 2016, I must admit I’m a little surprised at the lack of surprises resulting from the big agency reviews that took place this year.  

Requests for Proposals have enjoyed a long tenure as one of the most important — if inefficient and cumbersome — aspects of communications planning. But as cross-channel initiatives become more complex, as they move increasingly toward harnessing behavioral nuances and orchestrating intricate experiences such as “micro-moments,” these antiquated systems of gathering and using critical information are increasingly inhibiting.

A group of employees of Commonground/MGS under the leadership of Jorge Espinosa filed in South Florida Federal District Court a lawsuit against PCH Communications, (aka) Commonground/MGS.

Denny’s is commemorating the holidays with the launch of its new social media series “Reindeer vs. Camels,” featuring six loveable characters, reindeers and camels, as they battle to become the preferred gift giver during the season.

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.