Happy Friday! It's already the last July edition of Agency Brief. Time flies. Let's hope for even more fun, exciting (and sometimes peculiar) agency news in August.

Lots of snippets this week, so let's get on with it...

Translation Shows True Grit

Translation, the National Basketball Association's agency of record since 2014, has added the Brooklyn Nets to its roster. As the team's new AOR, the shop is creating a new campaign that will tell the Nets story through the lens of "Brooklyn Grit," Translation said in a statement. Agency CEO Steve Stoute said the effort will "be grounded in further building an authentic bond between the Nets and the Brooklyn community that truly represents the spirit and grit of the borough." A few wins might help, too. Brooklyn finished at the bottom of the Eastern Conference last year at 20-62.

Katsner & Partners + Tyra Banks + Boot Camp Equals…

A three-day workshop for high school girls in Los Angeles. Kastner & Partners is holding the bCreative Advertising Boot Camp from August 7-9 in partnership with B~STEM Project, which helps engage young girls and women in business and STEM, along with Tyra Beauty. Attendees will form groups to create an original ad campaign for Banks' cosmetics company, Tyra Beauty, with the help of Kastner & Partners' executives, who will teach the girls about advertising and all elements of ad campaigns.

Grow, Grow, Grow Your Boat Agency

Chief growth officers are all the rage. MDC Partners' Mono promoted Jeffrey Gorder to chief growth officer this week after being with the shop for nine years. Most recently, Gorder launched and led new business for the agency's San Francisco office. In the new role, Gorder will move to Minneapolis, where he'll lead strategic growth efforts for both the Minneapolis and San Francisco offices. McCann Worldgroup also named a chief growth officer this week, hiring Toby Southgate, who previously served as worldwide CEO of WPP's Brand Union.

No Excuses Around Access to Higher Education

Southern New Hampshire University is working with BBH New York on a new campaign aimed at highlighting the school's mission of increasing access to higher education by providing more affordable ways to meet specific student needs. The campaign, which launched Monday, has three TV spots, including the one featured above named "Forward."

Bio Buyout

Irish pharmaceutical company UDG Healthcare has acquired U.S.-based Cambridge BioMarketing, a niche marketing and strategy agency focused on rare disease marketing, for a total consideration of up to $35 million. Cambridge BioMarketing will use its creative and digital expertise for UDG to focus on digital content and patient-focused communications programs in the rare disease space.

UM Gets In On Assassin-Templar War

The IPG Mediabrands-owned agency has taken over as U.S. media agency of record at French video game publisher Ubisoft, which makes games like Assassin's Creed, Just Dance and Prince of Persia. Ubisoft spent about $29 million in measured media in the U.S. in 2016, according to Kantar Media. Assassin's Creed's newest chapter is set to launch this October, meaning it'll be on UM to save the people of Ptolemaic, Egypt — oh, and help the game sell.

Raising the Commerce Bar

Isobar has launched a commerce practice to help clients with commerce experiences by providing global integrated platforms and solutions fueled with local insights. These commerce solutions will tap into technology from the likes of experiences will Salesforce, Adobe, SAP Hybris and Magento. About 1,000 commerce specialists across the agency's network in the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific will become part of the practice. Also in the world of commerce, Omnicom Group's Integer, which refers to itself as a "commerce agency that lives at the intersection of branding and selling," has elevated Tisha Pedrazzini to president of Denver. She previously served as exec VP at the shop, which counts AT&T, FedEx, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg's, LG, Mars, Michelin, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, Wells Fargo and Wrigley among its clients.

The Tango Between Hollywood and Madison Avenue

Hollywood producer Will Packer, who has worked on films like "Girl's Trip" and "Straight Outta Compton," has teamed up with Discovery Communications and Universal Pictures to create branded content and production company Will Packer Media. As part of the deal, Will Packer Media bought creative and technology agency Narrative, which develops marketing campaigns for brands such as Under Armour, JCPenney, Samsung and Santo Mezquila. Narrative also creates tech products to help clients build deeper relationships with consumers.

Bye, BMW. Hello, Yellow Tail and Toshiba.

Cundari recently lost the BMW Canada creative business to FCB after working on the account since 1995, but the agency has been quickly replacing the hole with a slew of smaller wins. The shop added wine brands Santa Margherita and Yellow Tail to its client roster, as well as digital assignments for Toshiba, Fields Stores, New Electric and Midea.

Tweet of the Week

Four women round a council of war table. More of that please. @GameOfThrones #got #GoTS7 #changetheratio #diversity

— Cindy Gallop (@cindygallop) July 24, 2017

Number of the Week

56 – the percent of millennials who say that business leaders have a greater responsibility to speak out now about important societal issues than in years past, according to a new study from Weber Shandwick in partnership with KRC Research.

Contributing: E.J. Schultz and Meg Graham