Aloha from Portland, where it can’t decide if it wants to rain or snow.
It’s safe to say that it’s excellent news that we get pitched so much for the likes of Black History Month and International Women’s Day. We are proud of what we wrote about and shared with the former, and the latter is an important day.
That said, as we have mentioned before, it’s crucial to go beyond the single days and months to tell the stories of diversity and inclusion throughout the year. Indeed, we still have a ways to go with Women’s History Month, and we’re looking forward to unearthing more stories.
But today is a day to celebrate big time—and the agency world has come together, once again, to put the spotlight on International Women’s Day. We’ve seen fascinating and inspiring work and ideas.
Huge, for example, unveiled a smart tampon dispenser at SXSW. Two Swedish creatives, Lina Franzon and Johanna Johansson launched a search engine so that the biz can find top women in the industry more easily. Female-owned San Francisco and Dublin-based Cogs & Marvel did a smart, tongue-in-cheek activation in Phoenix. R/GA helped Barbie celebrate 60 years. Anomaly launched a stunning film about champion boxer Michele Aboro. Burns Group and Catalyst helped diminish gendered stereotypes on Slack, a platform most of us likely use all day long. Wunderman encouraged employees to shop at female-run businesses, Brownstein Group in Philly hosted employee panels, Barbarian launched a foundation committed to a gender-balanced workforce … and the list goes on and on.
What’s been interesting and heartening to see is that most of these efforts around International Women’s Day and Women's History Month are all about tangible, tactile change and education … which is a big positive by any measure.
In other news this week …
72andSunny laid off 5 percent of its U.S. staff.
Big Moves (People Version): Bloomberg’s Keith Grossman steps over to holding group Engine as COO. Judy Jackson is now Wunderman’s new global head of culture. Chris Apostle joined iCrossing from Havas. Rocky Novak became Fallon’s new CEO. Google exec Doug Brodman moved to Twitter to become agency development director.
Big Moves (Agency Version): Publicis is merging Spark Foundry and Blue 449. Jack Morton snapped up MillerCoors for experiential, sports, music and entertainment duties. Cashmere scooped up social and PR for Jack in the Box.
Ready. Set. Pitch. Modelez has launched a global creative review for all of its brands, and Coors Light is in play as well, with incumbent 72andSunny sitting it out.
Worth a Watch: Portland’s Red & Co. created a stunning campaign and platform, “Make Room,” for Netflix.
Also from Portland: Border Perrin Norrander created a lifestyle site for the Anti-Vaxxer set.
Working on more for Women’s History Month? Let us know. I can be reached at doug dot zanger at adweek dot com.
And if you just can’t get enough agency news, why not give AgencySpy, our sister site, a read? It’s filled with news and tidbits from the agency world. If you’re already a reader, a tip of the hat to you!
Have a wonderful weekend and, as always, thank you for your support.
Warm Regards,
Doug Zanger
Senior Editor, Creativity + Agencies
