Small wonder

Here at Agency Brief, we’re still basking in the glow of this week’s Small Agency Conference & Awards. It was a packed three days of sessions on an array of topics specifically relevant to shops of 150 and fewer employees—everything from creative case studies to how to spot a troublesome RFP,  how to be anti-racist, how to retain and build culture with clients, how the world has changed due to the pandemic and so much more, not to mention the world’s first Small Agency Sea Shanty.

See all the winners of Ad Age's 2021 Small Agency Awards here.

Two of the best-received sessions were on burnout and best practices for contracts. Elizabeth Rosenberg of the Good Advice Co. shared a personal and brave story about landing in the emergency room due to stress and overwork and offered some smart tips and thoughts about how agencies can mitigate burnout in their own shops. Lindsey Slaby of Sunday Dinner tackled the topic of how to structure a good contract and what mistakes agencies most commonly make in putting one together.

The big event, though, was the Small Agency Awards on August 4. If you’re an attentive reader, you already know who was named Small Agency of the Year. But giving the award away is half the fun. We’re sharing here the hilarious video that Highdive, the 2020 winner, made as a means to hand off the title to our 2021 winner. (Parental discretion advised.)

And here is the acceptance video from this year’s Small Agency of the Year—which may or may not actually be an agency.

This conference is truly a labor of love and we want to thank everyone who attended and supported this conference and the small agency community. And a huge shoutout to Ad Age’s unflappable Anna Sekula, who dedicates countless hours to making this event work despite unprecedented circumstances, unexpected (and expected) hurdles and last-minute emergencies. We look forward to holding next year’s event in person—but first, we’re going to crash in exhaustion for about a week.

League of agencies

In 2019, Austin-based agency McGarrah Jessee launched Patch Notes, a content series meant to educate brands about gamers and the world around them through trend reports, podcasts and streams. Now the shop is taking it to the next level by launching a gaming league called Patch Notes Playgrounds, where gamers throughout the industry ​​can not only compete and socialize with one another but have more frequent conversations about what they’re seeing in the industry. Teams will be duos and the game being played in the first season is ‘‘Call of Duty: Warzone,’’ with future seasons expanding into other game titles. The season will kick off this fall and run for six weeks. Games will be played every Thursday night from 9-11 p.m. Central Time. Some registrants are from New Honor Society, Venables Bell & Partners, Energy BBDO, and Wunderman Thompson.

Stagwell hires first chief people officer

Stagwell has appointed Stephanie Howley as its first-ever chief people officer. Howley most recently served for three years as executive VP, managing director, people team, North America for WPP’s BCW Global. Prior to that, she served as executive VP, human resources for Cohn and Wolfe Group. The appointment comes on the heels of the combination of the former Stagwell Group with MDC Partners, which formed Stagwell Inc.

Horizon Media hires West Coast President from UM

Horizon Media has named Karen Hunt as its president of the Western region. She joins the agency at the end of summer after 17 years with UM Worldwide, most recently as the West Coast region president. Based in Horizon’s Los Angeles office, Hunt succeeds Serena Duff, who passed away earlier this year after a battle with colon cancer.

See all the winners of Ad Age's 2021 Small Agency Awards here.

Horizon has also promoted Stan Fields executive VP and chief development officer. In the newly created role, Fields is responsible for driving growth across multiple Horizon business units and providing strategic leadership to client teams. Since joining Horizon in 2012, Fields has overseen a client portfolio of 50 client businesses and brands across a multitude of categories, including consumer products, automotive, entertainment, retail, dining, tech, finance and health.

The hills are alive at R/GA

R/GA has tapped Julie Andrews to lead its Portland office as VP, managing director. According to the agency, Andrews previously “led and helped operationalize the production team at R/GA California,” an integration of both R/GA’s Los Angeles and San Francisco offices. 

The Portland office has more than 50 people and was originally built to service Nike, but has now grown to include other clients and offer content, direct-to-consumer marketing communications, membership and loyalty programs and more. 

Creative leaders on the move

Gut has brought on Ariel Abramovici and Bruno Acanfora as executive creative directors based in Los Angeles, but working across the agency’s global offices. The duo most recently served as global creative directors for TBWA\Chiat\Day LA. In these newly created positions, the two will report to Juan Javier Peña Plaza and Ricardo Casal, who are partners and executive creative directors for the entire North America region.

Butler Shine Stern & Partners in Sausalito has brought on Amanda Mobley as strategy director leading creative on its Sovos brands account and also to assist on new business. She joins from Digitas Chicago where she was most recently associate director, creative strategy.

Real Chemistry’s 21 Grams has named Fabio Rodrigues and Brian Wiesenthal as executive VPs and group creative directors. Both were previously senior VP and group creative directors at McCann Health.

Taking the hardest path

180NY has appointed Adam Lock as its executive creative director. Before taking on the newly created role, Lock served as senior VP and group creative director at VaynerMedia. While at Vayner, Lock worked with brands such as PepsiCo, GE and Anheuser-Busch. He will report to 180 New York President Evan Weissbrot, who has been helping lead the office since it was launched in January this year.

Meanwhile, 180LA has deepened its creative bench with the appointments of Juan David “Puma” Arboleda and Guiga Cunha as associate creative directors. The two will work on the agency’s Cox Communications account as well as new business and will report to Executive Creative Director Mike Bokman. 

See all the winners of Ad Age's 2021 Small Agency Awards here.

Arboleda moves from his post as creative director at Casanova McCann/LA, where his clients included Chevrolet, Nestle and the New York Lottery. The much-decorated creative originally hails from Colombia, where he worked at the country’s top creative shops including DDB and Mullen Lowe SSP3. He has earned more than 100 advertising awards and has been named top Creative Director in Latin America at the Art Directors Club. 

Cunha, a Brazilian native, moves from his post as associate creative director at DDB Chicago, where he worked on Miller Lite. Prior to that, he served at Digitas North America/Chicago on the KitchenAid business, and in his home country, he worked at top agencies NBS/Dentsu Aegis Network and DM9DDB. He has won eight Cannes Lions, his last two at the festival this year, for Miller Lite. 

“Doing advertising is easy, doing great advertising is quite difficult; Guiga and I opt for the hardest path,” Arboleda said in a statement. “We believe creativity is the beating heart of this industry and, as a Brazilian and Colombian team, we’re excited to lend a fresh perspective to the work.”

“Juan and I have a lot in common,” added Cunha. “Not only our Latino background but the hunger to create work that will help 180LA clients stand out and grow their business."

AOR wins

Publicis’ Fallon was named global creative agency of record for whiskey brand Monkey Shoulder. According to a statement by Fallon, the creative focus in 2021 will be to bring an “enhanced approach” to the brand's digital communications, engaging its broad audience of current and prospective customers. “The mandate, above all costs, is to avoid the temptation of defaulting to more mainstream behavior,” Fallon said in a statement. This is the first time Monkey Shoulder has had an American agency as global AOR, and Fallon was the only U.S. agency invited to pitch, according to a Fallon spokesman.

New York-based agency Terri & Sandy has been named agency of record for Pal Socks, a collectible sock brand that looks to inspire children to be more inclusive and accepting of people’s differences. The partnership marks the sock company’s first foray into marketing, as all growth thus far has been due to public relations, organic social and word-of-mouth. 

Texas wine company Lost Draw Cellars has appointed Giant Noise as its public relations agency of record. The shop will work closely with the founders and winemakers at Lost Draw Cellars to position the company as a wine-industry leader “not only in Texas but throughout the country with local, regional, and national press placements,” according to a statement by Giant Noise.

See all the winners of Ad Age's 2021 Small Agency Awards here.

Just briefly:

Publicis Sapient has brought on Arthur Filip as its first-ever chief growth officer. He joins the agency from HCL Technologies, where he served as exec VP, global head of sales transformation and marketing.

Grey Group has brought on Brandon Solis for the newly created position of exec creative director of social and connections. Most recently he worked at Silicon Valley agency Eleven.

Mental health advocacy group Made of Millions announced five new board advisors: Pamela Lasner, senior communications manager at Verizon Media; Simon Fenwick, executive VP, talent equity and inclusion at the 4A’s; Kay Nikiforova, head of mental health at queer-competent therapy platform Violet; Neha Chaudhary, psychiatrist and founder of Stanford’s lab for mental health innovation; and clinical psychologist Brittany Linton. Founded by Ready Set Rocket Founding Partner Aaron Harvey, who suffers from pure OCD, the organization’s campaigns often focus on mental health and agency life.

The Many has hired Yasmine Nozile as managing director, finance. Prior to taking on the newly created role, Nozile worked at Huge where she held various roles during her nearly five-year tenure, most recently as group VP, finance overseeing the Southeast region including the Atlanta and Washington, D.C. offices.

Contributing: I-Hsien Sherwood, Ann-Christine Diaz