Independent agency Quality Experience will no longer be operational after founder Ari Weiss' death last month, its founders confirmed. Weiss launched Quality Experience in January 2024 with partners Colleen Leddy (chief strategy officer), Cristina Reina (chief creative officer), and Dan Gonda (chief executive officer). He served as founder and creative chairman. "Following the profound loss...
PHD entered 2024 in a precarious position. After winning ADWEEK's Global Media Agency of the Year title in 2024, 37% of its client base went into review, putting $4 billion in billings on the line. Unfortunate timing meant multiple clients--Volkswagen Group, HP, Unilever, Sainsbury's, Singapore Airlines, and Vitasoy--kicked off overlapping reviews, creating a cumulative effect...
Interpublic Group (IPG)'s sale last week of R/GA to private equity (PE) firm Truelink Capital signals a coming wave of PE buying and investing in creative agencies, industry leaders tell ADWEEK. R/GA is not the only agency that has recently sold to PE: last year, Svoboda Capital Partners invested in creative agency Highdive; Keystone Capital...
The Coca-Cola company has selected incumbent WPP and Publicis Groupe as finalists in a closed door review of its U.S. media business, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to ADWEEK. WPP has held the account since 2021, when it won The Coca-Cola Company's global business and launched a bespoke team called OpenX to...
Longtime executive Duff Stewart will step down as chief executive (CEO) of GSD&M after 35 years at the agency, handing the reins to president Lee Newman, ADWEEK can exclusively share. Stewart will transition into a chairman role at the Austin, TX-based full-service agency, which is owned by Omnicom Group. Stewart has spent most of his...
WPP disappointed the market with weaker-than-expected earnings results for Q4 and 2024. For the former, revenue less pass-through costs declined 2.3%, while the latter declined 1% on a like-for-like basis. The outlook for 2025 is flat to minus 2%, sending the ad giant's shares tumbling in early morning trading on Thursday. WPP's results stand in...
Omnicom and IPG on Wednesday hosted a meeting in New York City with agency search consultants -- who help brands find agency partners -- to answer their clients' most pressing questions about the impending takeover, ADWEEK has learned. Both an Omnicom and IPG spokesperson confirmed that the meeting took place but declined to provide further...
Inspired Thinking Group (ITG), which offers an AI-powered content generation platform for brands, has expanded to the U.S. with the acquisition of PureRed. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. U.K.-based ITG works with clients like Samsung, Heineken, KFC, Jaguar Land Rover, and Comcast in Europe to provide what it calls "halo content"-which is proliferated...
THE AD: It's got all the ingredients for homeland pride and warm and fuzzy feels: a small girl on a farm, lovingly nurturing a potato to grow, bonding with her father, set to the folksy "All I Want Is You" from the 2007 coming of age comedy Juno. But it wasn't the original idea. MY...
Robert Kraft's Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS) returned to the Super Bowl this year to continue spreading its message of ending hate. Two 15-second spots feature close-up shots of Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady in a stark room, where they yell at each other about common reasons why people hate one another. The ad ends...
THE AD: Robert Kraft's Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS) is back in the Super Bowl, spreading its message of ending hate. Two 15-second spots feature close-up shots of Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady in a stark room, where they yell at each other about common reasons why people hate one another: "I hate you because...
VML's Beth Ann Kaminkow is joining Dentsu North America as CEO. She replaces Michael Komasinski, who left in January to join Criteo as CEO. She takes the position effective June 16. Kaminkow has been global chief commerce officer at VML for the past year, a role she assumed after VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson merged in...
Chief marketing officer Tariq Hassan has left McDonald's. On Monday, McDonald's USA president Joe Erlinger posted a letter on the company's website which revealed that Hassan had resigned from his post shortly after the holidays. Alyssa Buetikofer, CMO of McDonald's Canada, will succeed Hassan in his role as chief marketing and customer experience officer, effective...
Independent agency Known is the latest shop to find opportunity in a fragmented and murky media landscape. The agency revealed exclusively to ADWEEK that over the past year and a half, it has been quietly growing a new service it bills as a Media Opportunity Analysis (MOA), which helps clients identify waste, overspending, and other...
Brazilian creative Luiz Sanches is joining Kimberly-Clark in a new creative role at the consumer goods company. As global chief creative and design officer, Sanches will oversee creative output and quality across all of the company's brands in 175 markets, with an aim to drive emotional resonance. Kimberly-Clark owns brands including Huggies, Kleenex, and Cottonelle....
Longtime GroupM executive Matt Sweeney has stepped down from his role, ADWEEK has learned. Sweeney has been with GroupM since 2014, when he joined the company as senior vice president of client engagement at programmatic trading desk Xaxis. Over his decadelong tenure with the group, he succeeded to CEO of Xaxis and then to chief...
Buzzy creative shop Mischief @ No Fixed Address has entered the media planning and buying space. The agency exclusively revealed to ADWEEK that it has been quietly building a media department for the past year, led by executive director of media Kristie Lee. The group has roughly 15 people and works with brands including Duolingo,...
The Consumer Electronics Show wraps up tomorrow, but many marketers and advertisers have already fled Las Vegas after a packed week of panels, meetings, floor tours, tech demonstrations, parties, and meals--sometimes packing in multiple dinners into the same evening to maximize face-to-face time with clients or potential partners. Throughout the week, ADWEEK caught up with...
ADWEEK is shadowing Razorfish at CES this week. Follow along for more behind-the-scenes reporting from the event. The Consumer Electronics Show showcases the latest technology across the globe at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Flying cars, smart glasses, haptic suits, bigger and better TV screens, and endless use cases for AI abound. But for marketers,...
Delta didn't waste its coveted keynote slot at the Consumer Electronics Show this year with a simple speech on a static stage. The airline had sky-high ambitions to mark its centennial, and used a full-sensory experience at the Las Vegas Sphere to demonstrate how it's shaping the future of travel. "I sat down with the...
