VMLY&R Commerce expands leadership team

VMLY&R Commerce expanded its U.S. executive leadership team with three chief appointments and announced other promotions at the WPP agency. Michelle Baumann was promoted to chief strategy officer from executive VP of marketing and science. Curt Munk, the previous chief strategy officer, was named to the newly created role of chief innovation officer. Jacquelyn Baker was named the agency’s first chief commerce experience officer.

Additional promotions include Amanda Bailey (Rosen) to executive VP, James Philips to executive creative director and Nicole Seifert to group creative director. 

Rethinking museums

Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) launched a new short film and campaign with global agency Broken Heart Love Affair to showcase its new brand platform, ROM Immortal. 

A six-minute film created by the agency and filmmaker Mark Zibert is meant to change people's outdated perceptions of museums with the hopes of bringing future generations to the ROM. The film takes you through the story of existence, going all the way back to when the earth was created more than four billion years ago. 

The campaign includes a 90-second version of the film that will play across cinemas in Canada, while the full version can be found on the museum's website. There will also be out-of-home and digital aspects. 

WPP launches new initiative 

WPP has launched an initiative called “Making Space” focused on giving people space to look after their own wellbeing. To kick things off, the holding company is doing a company-wide break from July 8 to July 11. 

Following the company-wide break, WPP will be hosting a series of global events, experiences and performances for everyone. Last year it launched WPP’s Mental Health Allies program, in partnership with Mental Health at Work. Since its launch, more than 500 employees across the UK and U.S. have received mental health training.

Doggy daddy bond

PetSmart and Deutsch LA have partnered up to create limited edition Father’s Day poop bags and cards to match.

Among the collection are cards that say “Dad you’re #1 for picking up my #2,” “Dad, your pick-up game is no joke” and “Dad, thanks for everything you doo-doo.” The campaign includes a video of a corgi named Maxine gifting her dad a box full of poop bags. 

The Father’s Day bags are available to order on AnythingforPets.com and the cards are free to download.

Spotlighting diverse talent

Havas Chicago has debuted “Just Like Me,” a documentary from Senior Art Director TTK Harris, also a respected painter and graphic designer. The 26-minute documentary spotlights the success of eight black creatives, discusses challenges they face, and reinforces the importance of representation in advertising and design.

The documentary is a step toward making Havas more “diverse, inclusive, and just,” the agency said in a statement. In 2020, Havas announced Commit to Change, a seven-point plan outlining initiatives specific to the agency’s BIPOC employees and how the business operates. 

BBDO screening Bobby Kennedy at Ole Miss documentary

BBDO New York, in celebration of Juneteenth, hosted on Wednesday a film screening and panel discussion of “You Asked for The Facts: Bobby Kennedy at the University of Mississippi.” The panel featured James Meredith, the civil rights activist; Donald Cole, a student activist from the 1960s; as well as Meredith’s granddaughter and members of the film's production team. The panel was moderated by Jason Rosario, chief diversity officer, BBDO Worldwide.

The 56-minute film documents the story of Bobby Kennedy’s historical visit to Ole Miss and the behind-the-scenes student action that made this visit possible despite the school’s unconstitutional “Speaker Ban.” The event took place in 1966, four years after Meredith’s historical admittance to Ole Miss as the school’s first-ever Black student, amidst the violent and chaotic integration witnessed first-handed by Meredith and other panelists.

Just briefly

Big Spaceship is expanding to the West Coast with new leadership based out of Seattle. The new Emerald City-based cohort will be led by Stacey Zimmerman, managing director, who will continue to oversee client relationships and focus on agency growth. Relocating along with Zimmerman is Dan Bort, senior VP, leading the agency’s strategy and analytics practice. The westward movement brings the agency closer to long-term clients including Starbucks while supporting new partnerships with West Coast-based clients including Amazon.

IPG Health has launched Humancare, a healthcare communications agency. The new agency's capabilities include brand strategy, creative, and brand engagement. It will be led by Greg Lao, managing director, who will report to Tammy Fischer, group president.

The Brandtech Group, formerly You & Mr Jones, acquired a majority stake in e-commerce SaaS platform Acorn-i. The deal, announced on Wednesday, was led by Virginie Douin, The Brandtech Group partner and former head of Amazon’s global partner program. Founded in 2019, Acorn-i has offices in the U.S. and the U.K. with about 100 clients across five continents.  

UM, the global media agency network of IPG Mediabrands, has been named media agency of record for Upwork. Following appointments of media agency of record by high-profile clients including Grubhub, Enterprise Holdings and Storck USA, UM will begin working with the California-based freelancing platform. It will take on Upwork’s brand media strategy, planning, buying, and data & analytics duties.

Influencer marketing agency Pixly has been acquired by Acceleration Community of Companies (ACC). The acquisition, announced on Tuesday, follows ACC's 64% revenue growth in 2021. ACC's recent client wins include Ralph Lauren, Nike, HBO, LinkedIn, CBS, Grubhub, Propel, and WeTransfer. Los Angeles-based ACC had previously acquired Stripe THeory, MKG, and Pink Sparrow. 

Arla Foods, a Scandinavian-based dairy cooperative, has awarded Accenture Song the brief for two new pan-European sub-brands. The holding company is the brand's lead digital agency of record and the pitch wins for the new brands has secured its position as Arla’s lead global creative agency.

Global digital agency DEPT(R) has hired Pooja Dindigal as its first global impact manager. The agency is a Certified B Corporation and holds Climate Neutral certified status. Dindigal will work with DEPT(R)’s B Corp team to refine the agency’s impact strategy. She was previously a member of B Lab U.S. & Canada, where she helped grow the B Corp movement in North America and served on its Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

Chicago-based agency 1o8 has hired Amanda Jacobs for its new position of head of people planning and talent acquisition. The agency aims to hire more people in the next three to six months. It recently won clients including Ty, Trejo’s Tacos, and Lake & Skye. Jacobs was previously VMLY&R's associate director of talent acquisition.