Production + Napier
As production continues to face roadblocks due to COVID restrictions, Partners + Napier went around the hurdles by opening its own production studio. Called Gammut Productions, the agency says the dedicated space occupies more than 3,000 feet on the concourse of the agency’s headquarters in Rochester, New York. Partners + Napier says production was already rapidly evolving before COVID, when the industry started to see a rise in in-house production studios and a heightened demand for “efficient, ‘snackable’ and commerce-ready content.” The agency says COVID only “further accelerated this shifting production landscape.” Partners + Napier Chief Creative Officer Rob Kottkamp says having its own studio allows the agency to better control production costs and “offer à la carte services to organizations with smaller budgets.”
“We really wanted to create a space where our partnerships can thrive, unimpeded by what’s going on in the outside world,” Kottkamp says.
Gammut Productions is complete with video and photo space, four editorial suites, a sound and voiceover recording suite, an animation suite, a color-grading suite and turnkey lighting for product photography, according to Partners + Napier. The studio will have a flattened structure that staffs “hybrid” talent across various content disciplines and will be overseen by Matt Spaull, who has been promoted to director of the operation. He reports to Kottkamp.
Other from another Mother
Ad Age’s Alexandra Jardine reports that another new U.K. creative agency has opened its doors this week, despite the ongoing coronavirus upheaval. Mother London has spawned Other, which is starting up with three brand new clients: direct-to-consumer flower brand Bloom & Wild; Jaguar Land Rover’s car rental service The Out; and Grundig home appliances.
Jardine writes, Other is led by a team of four co-founders, three of whom are new to Mother. Business leader Paulo Salomao was previously head of client services at Wieden+Kennedy London, while strategy leader Sarah Oberman was previously strategy director at Grey London and worked for TBWA/London as well as Colenso BBDO in her native New Zealand. Lead maker Metz Bryan-Fasano was formerly operations director at VMLY&R and has also worked at BBC Creative. They join creative leader Kyle Harman-Turner, who has worked as a creative director at Mother for seven years on campaigns like MoneySupermarket’s “Epic Strut.”
According to Salomao, Other is looking to work with the kinds of clients that have an “energy and restlessness” about them. “They don’t have to be the finished article, but they have to have an opinion about themselves from the word go,” Salomao tells Jardine.
Other will be based at Mother’s building in Shoreditch, although for now, all four co-founders are working from home, Jardine writes. The team worked in an office together only for a couple of weeks, and pitched virtually for clients such as Bloom & Wild. “We’ve been looking at it as an opportunity rather than a hindrance,” Oberman tells Jardine. “The great thing of being born now, in a pandemic, is that we can challenge things completely and ask, what is normal?”
Brief mentions
R/GA promoted David Corns to senior VP and managing director of California, and Julie Andrews to VP, executive production director of California. Corns and Andrews previously oversaw the agency’s San Francisco office as managing director and executive production director, respectively, but the new roles give them additional oversight of the Los Angeles hub. R/GA San Francisco and R/GA L.A. will now be unified as R/GA California.
Doner added hearing solutions provider Miracle-Ear to its roster of clients. The agency will manage strategy and creative for the company out of its Detroit headquarters. Miracle-Ear, founded in 1948 and owned by Italian hearing care retailer Amplifon, adds to Doner’s growing list of clients in the health and wellness space, such as Johnson & Johnson, Pepcid and Innovage.
Venables Bell + Partners promoted 16-year agency veteran Kate Jeffers to president. Jeffers, who most recently served as chief operating officer for the San Francisco-based independent agency, has also been a partner since 2015. As president, she continues to focus on agency growth while leading business development and client partnerships.
Mother New York hired Katie Longmyer as managing director and partner. Hailing from WeWork, where she was chief of staff to Co-Founder Miguel McKelvey, Longmyer completes Mother New York’s senior leadership triumvirate that also includes Chief Creative Officer and Partner Corinna Falusi, and Head of Strategy James Fraser. She begins November 9.
Slingshot, a Dallas-based full-service agency, scored a win close to home. The shop has picked up agency-of-record duties for VisitDallas following a review. Slingshot will handle brand strategy, creative and paid media planning and buying for the organization to boost tourism in its home city.
The contentious U.S. presidential election is almost upon us and, despite record numbers of voters having cast their ballots early this year, many people will still be heading to the polls on Nov. 3. A number of agencies are granting employees paid time off to exercise that right, as well as giving them a chance to volunteer as poll workers if they so desire. Such agencies include holding company Omnicom Group, Wunderman Thompson, VaynerMedia, Jones Knowles Ritchie, Canvas Worldwide, Allen & Gerritsen, Edelman, Elephant, Portal A, Giant Spoon, GSD&M and Superfly.
