Less than a month after We Are Unlimited lost the McDonald’s account and was folded into DDB, Chicago, comes word that Digital Kitchen is closing its Chicago office
Chicago Business Journal reports that the agency will consolidate its Chicago business in Los Angeles by year’s end.
Digital Kitchen, started in 1995 by Don McNeill ad Paul Matthaeus as a motion titles company, creating award-winning, dynamic opening credits for Dexter, Man Seeking Woman, True Blood and Six Feet Under. Members of the Reel Chicago team actually saw opening titles the company created back in 2005 for Superman Returns that was not approved, but far better than the opening they went with.
Now, the shop bills itself as a “creative experience company,” transforming businesses by “expanding linear stories into immersive narratives, turning emerging brands into category leaders.”
One of the more noteworthy campaigns included its campaign for The Cosmo Hotel in Vegas:
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A series of moves predated DK eventually closing its Chicago shop. In 2015, DK became a subsidiary of Japanese agency, Kyu, a collective of strategically curated creative organizations. In May of this year, Montreal-based multidisciplinary creative services firm, Sid Lee, became a subsidiary of Kyu, moving the Digital Kitchen brand under its umbrella. Once Monitor Deloitte Australia’s Andy Bateman came on as the company’s first U.S. CEO, based in LA, the handwriting was on the wall.
According to the Business Journal story, a Sid Lee spokeswoman said DK will remain “a distinct Los Angeles-based brand with a focus on sports and entertainment marketing projects.”
Reportedly, all employees of the Chicago shop, approximately 20 – 30, have been offered the opportunity to move to LA. No word on where this leaves the agency’s Seattle office.
Still bad news overall for Chicago.
SOURCE: Chicago Business Journal
