Search Results for: Energy BBDO

At the American Advertising Federation 2016 ADDY Awards last Wednesday night, Energy BBDO was the top winner with a record-setting 93 awards topped by earning the Best in Show for a Ziploc plastic bags poster campaign.

ON THE HEELS of Energy BBDO losing the Bud Light business to BBDO’s flagship New York office, Lay’s potato chips has said goodbye.

DAN FIETSAM DEPARTS Energy BBDO as chief creative officer after 5 1/2 years at the end of February.  His reason for leaving is to pursue other more creative interests in the advertising business. 

The folks at Energy BBDO are lifting a bottle of Bud Light instead of traditional champagne to toast the winning of America’s biggest beer brand. The agency is the fourth Chicago agency to handle the account since the brand launched 32 years ago.

AFTER A SHORT STINT at McGarryBowen where he worked on the equally short-lived Bud Light account, executive creative director Mike Roe returned to Energy BBDO the start of the New Year.  Roe had been with Energy BBDO for eight years, departing in February, 2012 for a top position on the Bud Light creative team.  Then, last August, McGarryBowen lost the account to Translation Advertising without a review and Energy BBDO was delighted to welcome him back..

Applicants for the Energy BBDO postproduction assistant job now have until midnight Sunday night to submit their qualifications – but not by the cover-letter-resume old school way, however.  

BBDO’s ad posted on Craigslist April 18 originally gave applicants three days – until April 21 – “to display a wide variety of their talents in a 30-60-second video detailing their own story about Chicago.” 

Energy BBDO’s 2016 Super Bowl spot, the 90-second “Bud Light Coin” for ABinBev that aired in the game’s fourth quarter, was one of the eight Best of Show winners in the 2015 Mobius Awards announced March 5, in the Integrated Campaign/Food & Beverages category.

Energy BBDO has named Mark Taylor as its new chief creative officer. He comes from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Boulder, Colo. and brings with him an awesome array of advertising awards, including 20 Cannes Lions, along with creative invigoration and greater attention to digital campaigns.

Taylor officially comes aboard April 7.  He succeeds Dan Fietsam, who left the agency earlier this month after nearly six years.

Two internationally known Chicago artists and a national TV and movie star from Chicago’s vibrant creative arts community are scheduled to speak the next few months at Energy BBDO’s regular Salon Series in its 410 Wrigley Building offices.

So far, Jani Westcott, the agency’s VP/planning who initiated and spearheads the Salon Series, estimates the agency has hosted about 20 Salon evenings since she introduced them in mid-2009. 

Energy BBDO’s Mike Roe hit a double header writing and directing client White Sox’ new currently airing “All In” campaign.  It’s the second year Energy’s group creative director was up to bat as director on the team’s commercials and “it was a blast,” Roe says.

“Directing uses a different set of muscles and it’s very rewarding, like the difference between coaching and playing.  Taking it on was always a creative challenge, because you’re problem-solving all the time during the process,” he says.  

The Mill Chicago continues to expand its local staff with the addition of a creative director originally from the Mill London and a senior producer and bolster it with three promotions.

The new creative director is Jay Bandlish, originally from the Mill London and Cameron Spencer, who’s enjoyed a 15-year career as a visual effects supervisor. Since arriving in Chicago he’s worked on Energy BBDO’s first spot for LG, “World of Play,” with action movie star Jason Statham, directed by Fredrik Bond, and a State Farm/DDB “Mustangs” spot directed by Jim Jenkins.

Jack Marchetti, Energy BBDO’s tech lead and software programmer by day and screenwriter by night, is back on Kickstarter to raise development money for his second film, a feature.

“Compatibility” is about a Facebook tech who writes an algorithm to determine romantic compatibility that was a 2015 Nicholl Fellowship quarter finalist in 2015.

Last week definitely was not a good week for Chicago advertising, with major accounts moving to New York agencies and leaving the Chicago ad market bereft of $420 million in billings.

Kellogg’s is moving its U.S. Special K brand from Leo Burnett, to JWT New York. Bud Light is leaving Energy BBDO for Wieden + Kennedy New York. 

FCB scored big with the appointment of award-winning Dan Fietsam as EVP/executive creative director, after nearly six years as Energy BBDO’s creative director. He joins the agency July 14, replacing Jon Flannery, who moves to FCB Toronto as its chief creative officer.

ENERGY BBDO CREATIVE RICK HAMANN left the agency, where he’d been SVP/group CD since mid-2011, to join Onion Labs, as SVP and head of the satirical publication’s in-house agency, with offices in River North.

COMIC SARAH SILVERMAN appears in a new Wrigley Orbit gum commercial from Energy BBDO that launches a new campaign that highlight’s Wrigley’s strategy to restore and grow the gum category by investing in its top brands. In the new US spot, the gum is positioned as a way to “break up with lingering food” and get that “just brushed feeling.” 

DIRECTOR EDUARDO CINTRON has signed exclusively with Dictionary Films, Cutters production division, as the seventh director on its roster and the third director based in Chicago, says Dictionary’s executive producer Megan Maples.

The award-winning bilingual director, called “a digital genius” by one of his peers, since 2007 has worked as an art director and ACD at Energy BBDO, R/GA and Lapiz/Leo Burnett.

IF YOU LOVED JOHN HUGHES’ MOVIES you’ll be especially engrossed in the first book ever written about the “philosopher of adolescence,” as Roger Ebert once called him. Jason Diamond, who like Hughes was a North Shore native and suffered painful teen years, has authored “Searching For John Hughes: Or Everything I Thought I Needed to Know About Life, I Learned from Watching 80s’Movies.”

To help raise money for Off the Street Club at its Thursday, Dec. 1 annual Holiday Luncheon, one of the two big raffle prizes is Cubs tickets for four Wrigley Field dugout seats — or $10,000 in cash provided by an anonymous donor.

This year’s income goal is more than the $582,000 that the 2015 event yielded, to be raised exclusively through the luncheon at the Swissotel, 323 E. Upper Wacker Dr., starting with an 11 a.m. cocktail reception and luncheon at noon.

A memorial service has been held for one of the three advertising women who were tragically killed in an Oct. 23 automobile accident and two other services will be held Oct. 29 and Nov. 13.

Ashley Sawatzke, 30, Amy Taylor, 32, and Lindsey Cohen, 35 had worked together at Energy BBDFO in account management. Sawatzke left BBDO over the summer to join Leo Burnett as an account supervisor position on the P&G Always account.

Services were held last Wednesday for Lindsey Cohen in her home city of Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

“We did ourselves proud last night,” says Tom Duff, AICE Chicago chapter president, “not only in award-winning but in putting on a great show” – the 15th annual AICE Awards at Navy Pier with an audience of 500.

Chicago had had three top winners out of the Awards’ 33 categories.

Best of Chicago was awarded to Beast’s Angelo Valencia for DigitasLBi spot for Whirlpool.

The Colonie won twice: Brian Sepanik for GrubHub / Tandem, Inc., in the Dialog / Monolog / spoken Word category and Keith Kristinat for 71 Degrees North / Chevy Trucks in the Spec Spot category.

The team at Trisect, one of three agency finalists for the bragging rights of being the Chicago Bears’ agency, won the account by displaying its creativity and salesmanship in an offbeat but obviously effective way.

Legendary longtime Avenue Edit talent Terry Kaney will be inducted into the AICE Hall of Fame at the AICE Awards May 12, in the Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier where 81 editors will be honored in 27 categories.

The advertising community’s involvement in Off the Street Club dates back to 1902 when Frank Thomas, president of FCB’s predecessor agency Lord & Thomas, made the first donation to a struggling, West Side club for kids and persuaded his advertising colleagues to join him.  

THREE CHICAGO CAMERA PROS will be among the hundreds of distinguished media and entertainment notables throughout the world who will gather for the 27^th annual Camerimage Film Festival, Nov. 14-21 in Bydgoszcz, Poland. 

As of today, Cutters’ Another Country has opened its fifth room, Sound 5, to accommodate the expertise of post audio veteran Peter Erazmus, who joined the audio company last May alongside engineers John Binder,

ARU’s new bilingual engineer/sound designer, Ana De Irisarri, was part of the team that handled sound on a recent package of 28 Blue Cross-Blue Shield instructional viDeos — half of them in Spanish — for agency HYConnect.

Since opening for business three months ago, Conspiracy, Chicago’s exclusive all-4K production-through-post facility, is in the throes of expansion, having doubled its West Loop space for starters.

An estimated 1,000 guests showed up at the Cubby Bear Thursday night to cheer the six “Battle of the Advertising Bands” that raised $50,000 (and still counting) to send kids from Off The Street Club (OTSC) to summer camp. 

BIG PARTY TONIGHT hosted by Corey Coken and Jamie Vanadia’s NoiseFloor to celebrate the opening night of the seventh consecutive year of CIMMfest, which, in association with city-sponsored Lake FX Summit + Expo, is our answer to SXSW.

Perhaps the Chicago Ad Federation, host of the annual Addy Awards, will be inspired to change the name of the Addys to “The Leos,” considering that three Publicis-owned agencies captured a monstrous, record-setting 80% of the awards presented March 11 at the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

The spotlight will be on the best of Chicago advertising March 11 when the Chicago Advertising Federation hosts its annual awards gala at the Museum of Broadcast Communications.

Out of the 34 highly anticipated spots airing on Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIX, 15 of them are newcomers to the annual television spectacular that 100 million Americans are expected to watch. 

DAN WAYMACK, DICTIONARY FILM’S NEW DIRECTOR/DP filmed the entire Colorado town of Crested Butte, population, 1,500, for Bud Light/Energy BBDO’s “Up for Whatever” campaign, in which they painted the main route through the town bright “Bud Light Blue.”

GAIL GILBERT’S CERISE FILMS creative editorial is expanding with the recent hiring of Jeremy Vranich, as the company’s first producer/new business development, giving the award-winning editor “more time to focus exclusively on creative projects,” she says.

A SPECIAL CELEBRITY FLAVOR has been added to Taste of Chicago festivities Thursday, July 10. By special invitation from the city, Elysabeth Alfano’s “The Dinner Party” will gather “for a evening of good food and conversation.”

SMASHING PUMPKINS’FRONTMAN Billy Corgan will become the star of a reality TV series – not about music as one would expect, but wrestling.  Corgan is the creative director of Lockport-based Resistance Pro Wrestling League and

The marriage of two agencies that analysts doubted would work was called off before the wedding.  Publicis Groupe and Omnicom Group terminated their $35 billion proposed merger early this morning by mutual agreement.

A battle for control ended their plans for that would have created the world’s largest advertising agency.

Out of AICP’s annual 2014 AICP Show and AICP Next Awards Shortlist of 212 nominees for excellence and expertise in commercials, only five Chicago agencies in eight categories are up for awards.

THE COLONIE won’t be exhibiting the work of new artists on its walls, as it usually does for its parties.  The big attraction at its Thursday, April 24 event will be showing off 1,500-sq. ft. of  expanded space, down the hall from its large editorial studio on Fairbanks Court.

R/GA   RAMPED UP its 4-year old Chicago digital agency with the appointment of Author DanielPosted on April 3, 2014April 8, 2014Categories Uncategorized

THE FORMER ADDY AWARDS, recently rebranded as the more businesslike Chicago American Advertising Awards, take place Thursday, March 13 at a reception honoring the best of Chicago advertising, plus the Agency of the Year and the Client of the Year, at the Museum of Broadcast Advertising.

Since Animated Storyboards opened its seventh international branch in Chicago last May, its opening staff of five has swelled to a dozen and could further expand by the time its first anniversary rolls around.

Co-managing directors Wes Mallgren, in charge of production, and  Paul Grajek, who handles Midwest marketing, transferred here from ASB New York, where the global company is headquartered. 

Comma’s Larry Pecorella, national president of the Association of Music Producers, announced the 2014 AMP Awards for Music & Sound show will be held in New York next spring.

AMP is the only US industry forum recognizing excellence in music and sound for advertising and branding. “And it serves as an advocacy and standard-setter for the commercial music industry, like AICP and AICE for postproduction,” he said.

REVIVAL OF THE ART DIRECTORS CLUB after a long absence was a smashing success, judging by the creative community that turned out for two events.  Partnering here with Otis Gibson’s GERTRUDE, New York-based The Art Directors Club renewed its presence here with a turnout of 50 of city’s top creative executives at the Oct. 1 inaugural, invitation-only dinner honoring one of the city’s best, Bob Scarpelli, former chairman/CCO of DDB Worldwide.

WOMEN IN FILM HONOREES for the 2013 Focus Awards coming up Wednesday, Oct. 16 are director of photography and Michigan native Lisa Wiegand, working here on “Chicago Fire,” a veteran DP of numerous TV series and one of the very few female DPs of TV series;

The Oct. 10-24 Chicago International Film Festival pays homage to Chicagoans this year, honoring producer/director George Tillman, Jr. with a Black Perspectives Tribute, and inviting Jennifer Hudson, star of Tillman’s new movie, to join the festivities Friday, Oct. 11.