Reality through a mobile lens

Turns out your phone can do more than just text and take selfies...who knew?

BBH Entertainment, the development arm of creative agency, BBH LA, partnered with Samsung and Westbrook Media to create a mobile photography reality series titled “Exposure” that will stream exclusively on Hulu April 26. The winner of the competition will be crowned “America’s best mobile photographer” and receive $250,000 provided by Samsung.  

The series trailer was released early this week and shows contestants experiencing highs and lows as they are determined to prove themselves. One contestant even goes as far to say, “It means more to me to win the contest than win the money.”

The weekly drop series follows eight photographers looking to show how innovative they can be as they complete challenges centered around capturing the best photos using a Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G. Each episode will feature different themes like #ThrowBackThursday, the trend of capturing nostalgia, bodies in motion for action shots and sound and vision to capture the sound in a photo, among others.

 “The Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G inspired us to create Exposure as a competition series that anyone with a smartphone would enjoy, but also allowed us to showcase how mobile photography has democratized the photography genre," says William Swann, Head of Entertainment, BBH. 

Smell is where the office is

Katie Facada and Thibault Gerard, creative directors at R/GA, decided to bring a little of the office back to staffers’ homes by creating a line of candles that burn with the familiar scents of their workplace—that is, smells like “sushi Thursday at the café,” “room 12F.1 after a 6-hour workshop,” “warm, 96-page deck left on the printer” and more. 

 While it may sound like a joke, they’re the real deal. Facada and Gerard worked with Ohio-based candlemaker The Candle Studio to create the line. R/GA originally reserved the candles for its own employees, but after debuting the idea on social media, the agency found they are drawing interest from others, including former staffers who miss their old work abode. Interested sniffers can fill out this form to get one.

Duke’s Mayonnaise teams up with local shop after brief Richards Group relationship

Duke’s Mayonnaise, a southern favorite that is a challenger to big brands such as Hellmann’s and Kraft, has quickly switched agencies. This week, Duke’s hired Richmond, Virginia-based Familiar Creatures as its agency of record. Just last August, the Sauer Brands brand announced an agency of record relationship with The Richards Group. That pairing ended in October, according to the agency, which didn’t give word on how things went sour.

"Duke's isn't your traditional 100-year old brand. And Familiar Creatures isn't your traditional creative agency," Rebecca Lupesco, the Duke's Brand Manager of Mayohem—their words, not ours—said in a statement. "We each consider ourselves challengers in our space, and, more importantly, we share a mutual trust and independent spirit that will allow us to create inspiration for the people who use and love our products."

Familiar Creatures, which got its start in 2018, will work on evolving the brand’s current "Duke's It's got Twang!" campaign as the brand expands into new markets. 

“Duke’s Mayonnaise is a great brand with a great following,” The Richards Group stated. “It was an honor to contribute to their success.”

Dentsu emphasizes diversity

Dentsu has brought on Kai Deveraux Lawson as senior VP, diversity, equity and inclusion for the network’s creative service line in the Americas, which includes agencies such as 360i, Dentsumcgarrybowen, Firstborn, and Isobar.

In this newly created position, Lawson will be leading efforts to further diversity, equity and inclusion strategies and programs for Dentsu’s creative agencies. She will report directly to Jon Dupuis, CEO, Dentsu creative, Americas and Christena Pyle, chief equity officer, Dentsu Americas.

“Kai’s addition to Dentsu creative’s executive leadership team further advances our commitment to being champions for meaningful progress – for our people, for our clients, and for society,” Dupuis said. “Our industry has an outsized impact on culture, and with that comes a heightened responsibility to ensure the work we’re doing for some of the world’s most influential brands prioritizes things like portraying people accurately, holding space for new narratives and new voices, and challenging stereotypes.”

Lawson joins Dentsu from WPP, where she was most recently global director, talent partnerships. Previously, she held roles as WPP’s global director of community engagement, and global culture and associate operations director at WPP agency Essence.

Lawson has long been a voice for diversity in the industry. Since 2015, Lawson has been the producer and co-host of “Mixed Company”, a  podcast about diversity, inclusion and social equity in creative industries through the lens of professionals of color.

Save A Lot taps Via for AOR

The newly rebranded Via has been named the agency of record for American discount supermarket chain Save A Lot. The grocer is in the middle of a business transformation, which includes a transition to a wholesale business model where stores are locally owned and operated by independent retail partners, as well as a refresh and remodel project across the business.

The first campaign is expected to air in mid-summer as Via will be tasked with a brand positioning, followed by a brand relaunch campaign as well as two other projects later in the year focused around their private label brands and a corporate social responsibility campaign.

"Value and values are more important to consumers than ever and Save A Lot has both in spades. It's an honor to partner with this exceptional team and launch a new platform for a brand in the midst of evolution,” says Leeann Leahy, CEO of Via. “It's exciting when you can work with a brand that touches so many people on a daily basis and Save A Lot does just that."

Winning streak

Partners + Napier was named creative and media agency of record for telehealth service provider, MDLIVE which has over 62 million members nationwide. The New York based agency will help MDLIVE increase its number of members and build a strategy to sustain brand growth post-pandemic.

Three months after their acquisition of independent agency Mering, The Shipyard has announced several AOR wins. CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, and Serengeti Eyewear, a sunglasses line owned by Bollé Brands named The Shipyard as its global agency of record. Lastly, the San Luis Obispo County region of California, has named Mering/The Shipyard full service AOR, responsible for brand strategy and development, media and creative. The brand’s first campaign will debut in Fall 2021.

Hanson Dodge, a Milwaukee-based independent creative digital agency, has had a fast start to 2021, announcing four account wins over the last four months.

The agency was named media agency of record for Creminelli Fine Meats, expanding upon its current role as creative agency partner. In addition, HD was awarded digital responsibilities for Allsalt Maritime, a technology firm specializing in maritime shock-mitigation. It was also named branding engagement agency for Milliman IntelliScript, a service provider that offers risk management solutions to the insurance industry and picked up branding and design responsibilities for Made4Net, a global provider of supply chain execution software.

Just briefly

Nineteen-year old agency Smith Brothers has changed its name to Smiths Agency and narrowed its focus to serving only food and beverage accounts.  The Pittsburgh agency’s redesigned website sums up the change with the homepage proclaiming “We don’t just love food. We live food.”  

“We constantly tell clients that smart positioning involves sacrifice. We realized now is the time for us to follow suit and focus where we are strongest,” said Lindsey Smith, co-founder and co-chief creative officer of Smiths Agency.

Labelium has brought on two new executives for leadership roles at their North America offices. Clayton McLaughlin was named managing director of Labelium Chicago, specialized in programmatic and connected TV, and Santiago Mas was named managing director for Latin America at their Miami offices. Previously, McLaughlin served as senior VP head of media investment for iCrossing and Mas most recently served as chief business officer and partner at Miami digital creative agency Nobox. 

Kelly Rowntree, most recently the brand strategy team leader at CPB and previously head of strategy and a senior partner at Carmichael Lynch, has joined independent agency Griffin Archer as Co-CEO alongside agency founder Ellie Anderson. This is only the beginning as the agency is also planning upcoming hires in creative, project management and account management. In her 20 years as an agency brand strategist, Kelly has worked with a number of big-name brands including Domino’s, Subaru, Harley Davidson, Burger King, American Airlines, General Mills, Popsicle, and more.

U.K marketing shop Gravity Road named Mike Florence, formerly PHD Media’s chief strategy officer, to the newly created role of global head of planning. Also, at Gravity Road, Duncan Snowden is taking on the newly created role of head of growth marketing and data.

Contributing: Jessica Wohl