22-year NBC veteran Marianne Gambelli has joined independent media shop Horizon Media as exec VP-chief investment officer.

Most recently, she was president of NBC broadcast sales and responsible for the company's network prime-time, news and sports advertising.

"I've worked with Horizon Media for many years, and have been consistently impressed with their creative mindset and personal approach to driving business value," Ms. Gambelli said in a statement.

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Various claims filed in April 2012 as part of a race discrimination lawsuit against Interpublic Group of Cos. have been tossed out by a New York district judge. However, one claim made by Trinidadian employee Joy C. Noel -- that Interpublic failed to promote due to her skin color -- has been permitted to proceed to trial.

The trial begins on June 3, according to court documents.

When Ms. Noel filed suit in Manhattan federal court last spring, she sought a whopping $50 million in damages. She claimed that in her many years working for the company, Interpublic fostered an environment where discrimination based on race and color is condoned. She alleged that she was passed over for promotions because Caucasian and light-skinned Hispanics are treated more favorably than African-Americans or other dark-skinned employees. Ms. Noel has been at Interpublic since 1993 and is still an employee there.

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Brooklyn-based Huge just got a bit smaller.

A group of senior executives from the Interpublic Group of Cos.' digital shop are decamping to start a new shop. Dubbed Work & Company, the agency is launching with: Huge's Founding Partner and Chief Strategy Officer Gene Liebel; Creative Director Joe Stewart, Partner and Head of Product Design Felipe Memoria and VP-Product Design Marcelo Eduardo. Mohan Ramaswamy, a former product strategy lead at Huge and most recently, an engagement manager at McKinsey, is also joining the new shop.

Mr. Liebel has given notice but remains in his role at Huge for the time being.

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After a six-month agency review, Porsche has opted to keep its creative account parked at Cramer-Krasselt, the incumbent on the business since 2007.

The search was launched nearly six months ago, and was narrowed down to five agencies. They were: independents Droga5 and Olson, MDC Partners' CP&B; Cheil-owned McKinney; and the incumbent.

For the Chicago-based indie shop Cramer-Krasselt it means hanging onto a marquee account at a time when it's been relatively quiet on the new business front. The agency a year ago picked up the Panera account and is lead agency agency for Corona Extra and Heinz.

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Coca-Cola's long experimented with its vending machines, trying to make them more technologically advanced than the average soda-spitter-outer.

In the past, they've been known to give you a beverage only if you give them a hug, or if you dance or sing in front of them. Now, the beverage giant is attempting a much loftier goal: world peace.

Along with agency Leo Burnett, Coke created "Small World Machines", two vending machines, one placed in India, and the other in Pakistan, that turned into communication portals. The idea was to let citizens of both countries -- long embroiled in a bitter political and religious battle -- see and interact with each other, even complete shared tasks. Once those tasks were accomplished, the machines dispensed a Coke.

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Amazon has selected Interpublic Group of Cos' Initiative following a fast-paced global media agency review that began earlier this year.

WPP's Mindshare handles the e-tail giant's offline media work and sibling agency MEC supports digital media. Digital media was not part of the review, according to people familiar with the matter.

Consulting firm Accenture managed the review process.

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Poptent, a company that collects and crowdsources video and creative content for brands, has named Nick Pahade its CEO.

The move comes as the company wants to strike more content deals with brands and the shops that work for them.

"I want to get the company to the next level," said Mr. Pahade, who most recently served as North American CEO of Interpublic Group of Cos.' media agency, Initiative. "There's an opportunity to work with marketers and a variety of different agencies, and potentially with publishers and actionable [video] producers. There are a lot of legs to this business."

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Procter & Gamble Co. is the U.S.'s largest ad spenderand now it's embarking on a major review of how it measures the impact of that $5 billion-plus annual outlay.

The move comes only two years after adopting a new system for measuring return on marketing investment and amid investor pressure for the world's biggest advertiser to get more bang for its marketing bucks.

Two years ago, P&G consolidated marketing-mix-modeling efforts with Nielsen and brought on DemandTec, an IBM company that worked with Nielsen to deliver monthly ROI reports supplementing the annual or quarterly analyses the company used in the past. P&G scrapped DemandTec after getting readings that varied widely month to month and sometimes didn't gibe with analyses by Nielsen and others, according to people familiar with the matter. (P&G and Nielsen declined to comment.)

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A week after the biggest advertiser in the world -- Procter & Gamble -- announced it would stretch the time it takes to pay agencies to 75 days, packaged-goods giant Mondelez has gone a step further, instituting 120-day payment terms.

Execs across adland are decrying the practice, saying it verges on unethical. But they also say they feel helpless going up against such big players who wield massive ad budgets and work with dozens of agencies.

Shops may want to begin holding frank discussions with clients, however, given more and more marketers are reexamining the length of time they have to pay vendors. From advertisers' perspective, it's all about maintaining a competitive advantage or not allowing a competitor to gain one.

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Two prominent agencies that are part of Omnicom Group -- BBDO and Goodby Silverstein & Partners -- were forced to make sizable staff cuts Thursday due to client losses.

BBDO's cuts were linked to the agency's recent loss of one of its biggest U.S. accounts, Procter & Gamble's Gillette just weeks ago. After a seven-month review, the business was awarded to WPP's Grey, a major blow give BBDO's relationship with the brand spanned nearly 80 years.

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A 24-year-old Ogilvy PR employee in Beijing has died after suffering a heart attack while at his desk. Ogilvy China confirmed the young man, Gabriel Li, passed away suddenly, but local media reports that followed -- saying his death was caused by overwork -- have not been substantiated.

According to a Beijing Times newspaper's account, Mr. Li let out a yell and collapsed while working in the office Monday evening. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Mr. Li was a junior staffer at the WPP-owned agency, part of a team that serviced a technology client.

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Ted Royer was recently appointed chief creative officer at Droga5 New York. Since the agency's founding in 2006, he's helped to lead much of its best known work, from celebrated efforts like Tap and Decoded, to more recent campaigns for clients like Coke Zero, New Museum and Prudential.

But it seems that the more colorful moments of his life happen outside the job. We chatted with him as part of Creativity's continuing series of "Things You Didn't Know" about the ad industry's creative leaders. When it comes to unearthing some unusual traits, this one does not disappoint.

1. He got into advertising because of the TV show "Bewitched." Darrin came home with an assignment to write an ad for Napoleon Soap. Of course the real Napoleon showed up and things got crazy. But Ted thought, Wait, that's a job? Just writing ads?

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Agency holding companies established trading desks to leverage their collective size and buying power.

But that hasn't stopped some small agencies from launching their own digital trading operations. Case in point: Interpublic's Campbell-Mithun has decided to build its own trading desk rather than buy separately through IPG Mediabrands' Cadreon.

The objective? To streamline the planning and buying process and allow deeper integration of data from Campbell-Mithun's retail and CPG clients, which is becoming more important in the digital ad buying process than data purchased from third parties.

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BBH has appointed Patrick Lafferty to the role of North American CEO, filling a role atop the agency that's been vacant since last September.

The Publicis Groupe-owned agency in fall saw its previous chief, Greg Andersen, depart amid a sizable round of staff cuts.

Mr. Lafferty who most recently was chief operating officer of McCann North America, focused on rebuilding the flagship New York office. The Cornell graduate's background is varied. He joined Leo Burnett in 1995 as an account supervisor, working his way up before moving to the client-side to Discovery Communications. There he was in charge of marketing for the Travel Channel, Military Channel, Science Channel and Discovery Education. He also spent seven years in the United States Army as a Platoon Leader and Company Commander, serving tours in Iraq, Panama and Haiti.

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Dentsu Inc. has unveiled a plan to significantly boost business from markets outside of Japan, part of a new five-year strategy that comes on the heels of its recently completed acquisition of UK-based Aegis Group.

The company also announced on Tuesday earnings for the financial year ended March 31. Revenue rose 3.9% in yen while net income was up 22 .9%. Converted to U.S. dollars, revenue for the year slipped slightly -- less than 1% -- to $4.2 billion. Net income in dollars rose 17.3% to $439.7 million.

The Tokyo-based company said it was helped domestically by the positive effects of Japan's gradual recovery from the March 2011 massive earthquake and tsunami, along with government eco-car subsidies. The rapid weakening of the yen was also cause for optimism.

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After a media agency review, Seoul, Korea-based LG is keeping Mindshare in North America but moving the bulk of its international account to Havas Media, executives familiar with the matter say.

LG's decision to divide its global media account between the two ad holding companies comes more than five years after the electronics giant consolidated its entire $400 million account with WPP's Mindshare. It also comes during the U.S. Upfront negotiations in which media agencies and their clients commit millions of dollars to network and cable buys throughout the year.

LG, Mindshare and Havas didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

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WPP's Mindshare has won the TGI Friday's media buying and planning business.

The selection is a move to unbundle the media account from the creative, as both were handled by Dallas-based agency The Richards Group. Executives familiar with the matter said that the review should not affect the shop's creative business.

Mindshare referred calls to the client. The marketer and incumbent did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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Maybe someone just needs to give Don Draper an Oreo.

As we saw on the 90-second spot that ran about three-quarters through last night's episode of "Mad Men," the cream-filled cookie can tame a vampire, a shark or a big bad wolf. So why not an aging, alcoholic, philandering, sad-sack ad executive determined to destroy everything in his path? And how else to explain a truly bizarre media buy that put this upbeat ad in the middle of the most somber hour of TV around, if not as a potential salve to whatever ails our less and less likable hero?

Don doesn't drink blood -- at least not yet -- but last night was an object lesson in how the 1968 version of Don Draper wields power in the office and out. It's not a pretty sight. What was once slick and attractive is now boorish and bleak, whether he's dealing with his lover or his new business partner.

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Hill Holliday veteran Karen Kaplan is stepping into the role of CEO, completing a long-expected ascension to the top post at the Boston agency.

Ms. Kaplan, 53, is taking over for Mike Sheehan on his 10-year anniversary of being named CEO at Interpublic Group of Cos.-owned Hill Holliday. Her career trajectory is a true example of what it means to work your way up. She joined the Boston-based firm in 1982 with no formal advertising education. Initially, she was a receptionist but eventually she transitioned to account management, working on consumer, retail, financial-services and technology accounts.

In January of 2001, Ms. Kaplan was promoted to managing director of the Boston office and in June 2007 she assumed the role of president of the agency. It's been long rumored in agency circles that Mr. Sheehan -- who succeeded Hill Holliday founder Jack Connors as CEO in 2003 -- would hand over the torch to Ms. Kaplan when he retired. But he's now planning staying on as chairman for the next two years.

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Bryan Wiener calls them "perverse." Scott Chapman thinks they can be flawed. And Harris Diamond is a "strong believer" in the concept.

Several of McCann WorldGroup's clients have implemented such arrangements and Harris Diamond, the agency's chairman-CEO, says he thinks more will follow.

"I'm a strong believer in incentivization," he said. "The issue is the definition. Is it a true incentivization? It has to have a shared-reward aspect -- it can't be just to get back to where you were on basic costs. These contracts require a lot of thought on both sides, and not all clients are willing to take that risk and maybe have to pay us more, so sometimes the talks go nowhere."

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So, in a bold bid to secure a new account from General Motors, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and Cutler, Gleason & Chaough look like they're merging. The new agency will presumably be christened on Sunday night's episode of "Mad Men," leaving us precious few hours to speculate on what it will be called. (If only the "Mad Men" crew had our Agency Name Generator in their day.)

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Nintendo has begun a digital agency review, according to industry executives. California-based External View Consulting Group is managing the search process.

Nintendo currently works with several agencies, including Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett, which has supported various elements of Nintendo's creative and digital business in the U.S. over the past few years. Nintendo's also worked with other Publicis-owned shops over the years, including Optimedia for digital media-buying and planning and Zenith for broadcast work. Interpublic Group of Cos' GolinHarris has supported Nintendo's PR for a number of years.

Both the consultant and marketer declined to comment for this story.

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BuzzFeed is starting an effort to train agencies in BuzzFeed-style storytelling -- all the better to support its bottom line with sponsored posts, also known as "native advertising."

Its Social Storytelling Creator Program, inspired by agency cultivation efforts at Facebook and Google, is meant to seed the market with agencies and people that will do great work in the social storytelling space, according to Jon Steinberg, president and COO at BuzzFeed, who previously helped develop small business partnerships at Google. "We want more people doing it in a high quality way," he said.

Agencies that take part in the program will receive "accreditation" from BuzzFeed, including a badge they can slap on their website and supporting materials. BuzzFeed won't charge agencies to take part, but does plan to require minimum budgets from the agencies' clients.

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Dyson, the maker of high-end vacuums and other appliances, has consolidated global media-buying and planning duties with WPP's Mindshare.

According to executives familiar with the matter, the total global media budget for the account exceeds $100 million. Kantar Media figures show that in 2012, Dyson spent about $67 million on U.S. measured media.

Until now, Dyson had worked with media shops from different holding companies around the world. Incumbents such as Interpublic's UM (U.S.), Omnicom's PHD (UK) and WPP's Mindshare (Europe) competed in the late stages of the review. Aegis' Carat also participated in the process. The marketer and agencies either declined to comment or could not be reached by press time.

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A long time ago, Tom McElligott told then-junior copywriter Joe Alexander, to just put his head down, and make ads. He listened.

For the last 20 years, Mr. Alexander -- who today is the chief creative officer of The Martin Agency-- has been very busy creating ads, in fact. Under his leadership, the Richmond, Va.-based shop has done excellent work for the JFK Presidential Library and Geico, among others. But while most are familiar with Mr. Alexander's work, they might not know that he has a cat named Oscar who thinks he's a dog.

Below, for the latest installment in our "Things You Didn't Know" series, we outline a few more things you didn't know about the creative leader.

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In the past twelve months, who has changed the world for the greater creative good? In June, Creativity will unveil its annual list of the year's 50 most influential creative figures across a spectrum of disciplines, and we invite you to help us decide who makes the cut.

The lineup will include the top innovators in advertising, marketing and media, but also bold thinkers in the entertainment, technology, publishing, gaming, design, art and food industries. The list is meant to honor those who have changed the game in their respective fields by way of their daring ideas, groundbreaking techniques and fresh perspectives.

Voting is open through Monday, May 13, 2013. We'll announce this year's 50 on Creativity and in the June 10 issue of Advertising Age, to be distributed at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity.

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The U.S. Hispanic market will have a judge after all this year at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity as LatinWorks' Sergio Alcocer was named this week to the film jury.

Mr. Alcocer, president and chief creative officer of the Austin-based U.S. Hispanic shop, was a Cannes judge in 2011 on the print jury.

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Audi has selected Huge to handle social media following a pitch.

"Huge demonstrated outstanding creativity, strategic thinking, technical expertise, integrated capabilities and a solid understanding of our mission," said Drew Elliott, a social media specialist at Audi of America. He noted the agency will be responsible for supporting the Volkswagen -owned luxury auto brand's long-term goal to "connect consumers in bold new ways and break through the traditional approach to social media platforms."

For the day-to-day scope of work, the Interpublic Group of Cos.-owned agency will focus on improving the brand's community network, content generation and internal processes, he added. The shop will support all of the brand's social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

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This the final extension. Due to many requests, the deadline has been extended to May 15. We will not be accepting any entries after this date For more information about registered for the awards, or for the conference in Portland on July 24th and 25th, at which Dan Wieden will serve as keynote speaker, go here.

Advertising Age's 2013 Small Agency Awards is open. Now in its fifth year, the Small Agency Awards recognize the power of being small and independent.

More and more marketers recognize small agencies are not only nimble but often highly creative and innovative. And we think so, too.

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Large consultancies are known for their relationships with chief information and technology officers, but Accenture's moves indicate a focus on forging bonds with chief marketing officers. It launched Accenture Interactive in 2009 with flagship client Procter & Gamble. In October 2012, the company acquired digital-production-services firm AvVenta.

Another way the company creeping into the marketing space: For the last few years, Accenture has been search consultant during agency reviews. Accenture issued a media request-for-information for Target last year, and it is running the search for Amazon's media-agency review.

"Marketing and digital executives are key buyers of our services, and Fjord marks our continued strategic investment in digital and marketing to better serve our clients," said Mr. Whipple said in a statement.

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