TBWA\Chiat\Day's first brand image ad for Southwest Airlines since winning the assignment way back in July 2012 feels big, yet also down to earth.

The bigness—a change of tone for a carrier known for its more playful side—comes in the form of a series of trailing shots of a pilot, a basketball player, a ballerina and a corporate executive, each about to enter his or her given "arena"—be it a court, dance floor or boardroom. But just as you think, "Oh man, here comes another over-the-top paean to an industry rife with problems," the imagery softens to include a surfer, a farmer and baby standing. That's what makes this ad feel relatable.

Music also lightens up the message, with the sing-song chorus of fun.'s "Some Nights" driving the action.

Ultimately, the imagery shifts to smiling airline employees—a standard cliché of airline advertising, no doubt—but the voiceover message is less "We're the greatest" and more "We work really, really hard." Also, the employees in the end nod their heads to the side, as if to invite you aboard. Again, this is not an oversell but rather an ethos that weary travelers may appreciate—that is, if they arrive on time and their bags aren't lost.

The ad, which was directed by BRW USA's Erik Van Wyk and breaks today, is the first of some 10 national and local market spots that will roll out in the next two weeks.

CREDITS
Client: Southwest Airlines

Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day

Chief Creative Officer: John Norman
Group Creative Director: Gage Glegg
Creative Director: Scott Brown
Associate Creative Director: Lauren Smith
Copywriter: Omeed Boghraty
Art Directors: Rebecca Ginos, Caroline O'Hare

Executive Director of Integrated Production: Richard O'Neill
Producers: Richard O'Neill, Micah Kawaguchi-Ailetcher
Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Jill Durand
Group Planning Director: Rad Tollett
Planning Director: Amanda Reid
Account Planner: Whitney Martinez
Group Account Director: Stan Fiorito
Account Director: Chris Asahara
Account Supervisor: Eneida Mejia
Account Executive: Nicole Stokman
Account Group Assistant: Kayla Laufer
Traffic Manager: Nadzyah Guillermo


Production Company: BRW USA
Director: Erik Van Wyk
Executive Producers, Partners: Gianfilippo Pedrotti, Michele Nocchi
Producer: Ari Weiner

Director of Photography: Sebastian Wintero
Editorial Company: Venice Beach Editorial
Executive Producer: Hunter Conner
Editors: Peter Smith, Don Andrews
Assistant Editor: Neil Jariwala
Assistant Post Producer: Orlee Klempner

Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissors
Executive Producer: Carol Lynn Weaver
Editor: Adam Pertofsky

Post Effects: MPC
Lead Smoke Artist: Mark Holden
Smoke Artist: Rob Ufer
Nuke: Ben Persons, Elliott Brennan, Jason Heinze
Producer: Abi Adejare
Executive Producer: Asher Edwards
Creative Director: Paul Oshea

Final Mix: Play Studio
Mixer: John Bolan

Mix Producer: Lauren Cascio

Licensed Music for National TV Spots:
"Some Nights"
Writers: Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker
Artist: fun.
Record Label: Rhino Entertainment/Warner Music Group

Original Music for Local TV Spots:
MassiveMusic
Executive Producer: Scott Cymbala
Head of Production: Jessica Entner
Creative Director: Tim Adams
Composer: Ryan Rehm
Engineers: Tim Adams, Ryan Rehm

OK, so does everyone watch Game of Thrones? You all do, right? You know how Ned has those horrible nightmares about things that actually happen in the first season? This is kind of what happens to Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade, who both have horrible, horrible dreams about Gatorade.

Wait, no, they have horrible dreams about what happens when you don't drink Gatorade.

Point is, Gatorade and G1 series chews give you terrible, terrible nightmares.

Here's my question: Does Wade's dream include Kevin Durant's dream and his training regimen? Because if so, I want to know what happens when, I dunno, Chris Paul wakes up screaming, having dreamed both Wade and Durant's dreams and goes to his fridge and gets out a bottle of … POWERADE.

Too serious a twist, probably.

This is a clever ad. It's actually kind of bleak if you stop to think about it too hard, as I clearly have. Are these two men locked in an infinitely iterating dream battle? Will either ever emerge victorious? It's the Inception of salty-fruit-punch commercials.

Speaking of Paul, man, these basketball guys do a lot of commercials, right? It took me a few minutes to actually notice, but wow, MJZ director Rupert Sanders and agency TBWA\Chiat\Day have done an incredible job staging a basketball game in this spot. The training montage is kind of vanilla, but the game is top-notch, and the music couldn't be better. Also, this one will air well internationally—doesn't require a single line of dialogue.

And that's good, because you know what Americans are not thinking about right now? Professional basketball.

CREDITS
Client: Gatorade

Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Chief Creative Officer: John Norman
Global Group Creative Director: Brent Anderson
Global Creative Director: Jayanta Jenkins
Associate Creative Director/Writer: Gustavo Sarkis
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Renato Fernandez
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Guto Araki

Executive Producer: Sarah Patterson
Producer: Katie Lambrecht
Assistant Producer: Garrison Askew
Executive Project Manager: Karen Thomas

Managing Director: Nick Drake
Group Account Director: Blake Crosbie
Global Account Director: Caroline Britt
Management Supervisor: Magdalena Huber
Global Management Supervisor: Chris Crockett
Account Supervisor: Kyle Webster
Global Account Supervisor: Catherine Fishback
Account Executive: Robyn Baker
Sports Marketing: Lexi Vonderlieth
Sports Marketing: Brynn Cameron

Group Planning Director: Scott MacMaster
Planning Director: Martin Ramos
Planner: Rebecca Harris
Junior Planner: Katie Acosta
Junior Planner: Matt Bataclan

Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson
Senior Business Affairs Manager: KK Davis
Talent Payment Manager: Vanessa Aniles
Traffic Manager: Jerry Neill

Production Company: MJZ
Director: Rupert Sanders
President: David Zander
Executive Producer: Kate Leahy
Producer: Laurie Boccaccio

Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors
Executive Producer: CL Weaver
Head of Production: Angela Dorian
Editor: Kirk Baxter

Post EFX: The Moving Picture Company
Executive Producer: Asher Edwards
Producer: Juliet Thierney
Supervisor: Paul O’Shea

Music: Amber Music
Original Composition
Composer: Eugene Cho
Executive Producer: Michelle Curran

Sound Studio: Lime Studios
Mixer: Rohan Young
Executive Producer: Jessica Locke

Sound Design: Barking Owl

Johnson & Johnson's new corporate image work, from the Playa del Rey, Calif., office of TBWA\Chiat\Day, in some ways harkens back to its last major corporate push, the "Having a baby changes everything" campaign.

Both efforts eschew color for black and white and capture small, loving moments within families. But while "Having a baby" focused solely on babies and their parents, the new campaign, tagged "For all you love," branches out to include older children and grandparents. Still, the feel-good family glow remains.

J&J brands play a supporting role—for example, with a mother putting a Band-Aid on her son's knee in the initial TV ad. In the same spot, a bottle of Johnson's Baby Shampoo can be seen in the background of a scene of a dad holding his baby in a shower.

The music in the launch ad also is a departure from the last campaign. Instead of a few supporting notes of acoustic guitar, as Lowe used in the "Having a baby" ads, TBWA\C\D—in its first work for J&J—has inserted a child-sung version of the Guns & Roses song "Sweet Child o' Mine." It's not an obvious choice, but an effective one.

With the new effort, which also includes print and online ads and is backed by more than $20 million in media spending, J&J seeks to turn the page on several years of recalls, lawsuits and management turnover. CEO Alex Gorsky unveiled the launch ad at the company's annual shareholder meeting last week. Hours later, vp of global corporate affairs Michael Sneed signaled a desire to re-establish the company's core principals.

"The last several years, we have had business challenges, and it's important for people to understand that we're taking measurable strides to overcome those challenges," Sneed told Adweek. "We're also really intent on making sure that people understand the values of Johnson & Johnson and why we do things."

"It's not to say that we're perfect. We've never set ourselves up to be perfect," Sneed added. "But we want people to know that even when we make mistakes, we own up to those mistakes and that those mistakes don't change the character and the values that people have come to know about Johnson & Johnson."

CREDITS
Client: Johnson & Johnson
Campaign: "For All You Love"

Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day

Global Creative President: Rob Schwartz
Group Creative Directors: Becca Morton, Michael Yagi
Art Director: Carolina Labi
Copywriters: Michael Yagi, Gage Clegg

Group Account Director: Grace Kao
International Account Director: Brenda Castro
Management Supervisor: Andrew DeBenedictis
Account Executive: Kali Cushing
Assistant Account Executive: Alexina Shaber
Account Group Assistant: Erin Moore

Planning Director: Neil Barrie
Jr. Planner: Drew Phillips

Executive Producer (Broadcast): Elaine Hinton

Sr. Art Producer: Heather Michaels
Project Manager: Holly Prine, Jenni Warsaw
Print Producer: Kim Callahan

Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Jill Durand
Talent Payment Manager: Vanessa Aniles
Director of Broadcast Traffic: Nadzyah Guillermo
Broadcast Traffic Coordinator: Caelayn Edwards

Television: 
Production Company -- Supply & Demand Integrated
Director: Jeffery Plansker
Executive Producer: Kira Carstensen
Line Producer: Julia Roberson
DP:  Neil Shapiro
Production Designer: Carl Swanberg

South African Production Service:  Can Can Films
Executive Producer: Di Britz

Editorial: Venice Beach Editorial
Executive Producer: Hunter Conner
Sr. Post Producer: Cristy Torres
Associate Post-Producer - Orlee Klempner
Sr. Editor: Dan Bootzin
Editor: Nick Gartner

Post EFX: The Moving Picture Company
Executive Producer: Asher Edward
Head of Production: Jenny Bright
Effects Artist: Mark Holden

Telecine: Company 3
Executive Producer: Rhubie Jovanov
Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld

Music: Sweet Child o' Mine – Guns N' Roses
Arranger: Rachel Santesso
Artist: Capital Children's Choir

Music Edit: Elias Music
Music Editor: Dave Gold
Producer: Kiki Martinez

Sound Studio: Play Studios
Mixer: John Bolen
Executive Producer: Lauren Cascio

Photography:
Photographer: Tyler Gourley
Photographer's Producer: Steven Currie
Retouching: ArtHaus

Vonage is trading testimonial ads for a character-driven approach.

In the first campaign from new agency JWT, the online phone service today introduces a wild-haired man on the street who, in an opening salvo ad, calls for a different kind of phone company.

“Your phone company is living in the Stone Age: barbaric pricing models, outdated technology,” the man bellows to no one in particular on a New York City sidewalk. “What we need is a company that connects us with generosity.”

The message resonates with a thirtysomething guy in a blazer within earshot, who says, “We should talk.” Mr. Blazer, in turn, hires man on the street and introduces him at a press conference as Vonage’s new “chief generosity officer.” The tagline—naturally—is “crazy generous.”

The furry character—and new strategy—was part of JWT’s winning pitch for Vonage’s creative business several months ago. The new shop succeeded TBWA\Chiat\Day on the account. Vonage spends about $150 million in media each year.

With the new strategy, Vonage takes a page of out the playbook of brands such as Virgin Mobile that skewer inflexible corporate policies and embrace the concept of power to the people.

“This is an approach that resonates within Vonage because we are very grounded in generosity. We are very focused on volunteerism,” explained Barbara Goodstein, chief marketing officer at Vonage in Holmdel, N.J. “We found or saw our own passion for the topic during Hurricane Sandy when hundreds of people within Vonage started volunteering to help restore the [Jersey] shore. And it seemed like a very rational, appropriate approach for us” in the company’s advertising.

As for the hairy character himself, Goodstein described him as having the “academic mind of a professor, the tech-savvy look of an engineer and the whimsy of an eccentric genius. And when you put all that together, that’s what you get. At least in our mind, that’s what you get.”

The hairy genius won’t just appear in ads. He’ll also have a Facebook page and Twitter account and appear in online videos, according to Goodstein. Crazy generous exposure, if you will.

TBWA\Chiat\Day has reached into Wieden + Kennedy to find a new strategy chief for its office in Playa del Rey, Calif.

Nick Barham most recently was global director of W+K Tomorrow, an offshoot of Wieden in Portland, Ore. At TBWA\C\D, he becomes chief strategy officer, reporting to office president Carisa Bianchi.

Earlier in his career, Barham was a planning director at Wieden's office in Shanghai, China, working on brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola and Nokia. He also has worked in London, for Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Karmarama and the BBC.

The appointment represents Barham's second time around at TBWA. Years ago, he was planning director for TBWA\China, which makes him a known quantity within the global agency.

"Nick has a fantastically diverse career and will bring unique hybrid skills to creative and strategic leadership," Bianchi said, in a statement.

The office's top accounts include Pepsi, Gatorade, Nissan, Energizer and Southwest Airlines.

Barham, 41, fills a vacancy left by the fall exit of executive planning director Dan Goldstein. Goldstein, who had led planning in the office since 2009, left to become chief strategy officer at DB5, a quantitative research company.

Here comes another new creative chief at the New York office of TBWA\Chiat\Day.

In is Matt Ian from Deutsch LA and out is Mark Figliulo, who is starting his own agency. Figliulo, who has been chairman and chief creative officer at TBWA\C\D since 2008, is expected to set up shop in New York.

Ian, who takes the title of executive creative director, will start in late August. At Deutsch LA, he was a group cd on the Volkswagen Group of America, one of the agency’s largest accounts.

Ian becomes the third creative chief at TBWA\C\D, New York, in the past five years (after Figliulo and predecessor Gerry Graf). He joins a relatively new management team that includes president Robert Harwood-Matthews and head of planning Ed Castillo.

The office, with about 150 staffers, is in reboot mode after the loss of accounts such as Vonage and Absolut. Castillo, a onetime integrated strategy director at McCann Worldgroup, came aboard a year ago, and Harwood-Matthews, a transplant from TBWA’s U.K. operation, arrived last fall.

The office's accounts include Michelin, GlaxoSmithKline, Accenture, Jameson and beIN Sport. 

At Deutsch LA, Ian partnered with fellow group cd Michael Kadin on the development of high-profile ads for VW. He spent two years at the Interpublic Group shop.

Ian, 39, also has worked as a cd at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, and Ogilvy & Mather. In addition, more than a decade ago, he was a copywriter at none other than TBWA\C\D in New York, working under then creative chief David Page. His brand experience ranges from VW and Microsoft Windows to Axe and Levi's.

In his new job, Ian will lead more than 20 creative staffers and report to Harwood-Matthews. TBWA\C\D represents his first chance to run a creative department.

"Matt’s pedigree is fantastic and I know he’s excited about returning to New York, his hometown,” Harwood-Matthews said.

When reached by Adweek, Figliulo declined to reveal details of his new shop, such as the name and his partners. He said he learned a lot from his years at TBWA\C\D, however, and hoped to unveil his new venture next month.

PUR, the water filtration device previously owned by Procter & Gamble, is reviewing its creative business.

P&G sold the brand to Helen of Troy Ltd. at the end of 2011. 

Helen of Troy’s brand portfolio also includes Vidal Sassoon, Oxo and Braun. PUR is marketed by a company subsidiary known as Kaz USA in Marborough, Mass., which confirmed the search.

In a statement about the review, Kaz chief marketing officer Christophe Coudray said, "We want consumers to have a compelling, memorable understanding of PUR's superior water filtration solutions."

Beyond Coudray—a former marketing leader at Gillette and P&G who joined Kaz in 2007—key decision makers include vp of marketing John Wojcik and director of marketing Brian Carboni. Roth Associates in New York is managing the process.

Last year, PUR's media spending total exceeded $14 million, up from about $13 million in 2011 and almost $7 million in 2010, according to Nielsen. Those figures, however, don't include online spending.

The incumbent on the account is TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif. The agency, which has handled PUR since 2007, is not participating in the review.

PUR's media business is not in play and remains at MediaVest in New York. MediaVest successfully defended that business in a review last year. Roth Associates handled that review as well.

Corey Mitchell, a former top executive of MRM Worldwide and TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York, is the new president of Arnold Worldwide’s New York operations.

He replaces Lynn Power, who left the Havas agency this summer after five years at the helm. Arnold New York clients include Hershey’s, Milkbone, Unilever, Sanofi-Aventis and 23andMe.  

Mitchell, who was managing director at Interpublic digital, CRM agency MRM from 2008 to 2011, worked with Arnold Worldwide CEO Robert LePlae when the two were at TBWA\C\D. Mitchell was then president of the Omnicom shop’s New York office and LePlae was North America president of the agency. The two also worked together in Los Angeles when LePlae was president, CEO there and Mitchell was the worldwide managing director on Mars. In his new role, Mitchell will sit on Arnold Worldwide’s global executive committee and will report directly to LePlae.

“When you’re in the marketplace looking at talent, you don’t see people who have run creative agencies and digital agencies,” said LePlae. “That’s what makes Corey so perfect for where we’re going. He understands the idea of integration, and making digital part of the norm, better than anyone.”

LePlae also cited Mitchell’s account skills in managing Mars, which was then a key global account at TBWA\C\D, and his international experience. Mitchell has worked at agencies like Dentsu Y&R in his native Australia, as well as Asia. During his tenure at MRM, the shop won business from Diageo and Home Depot as well as regained Walmart and retained the U.S. Army. Earlier this year he worked with LePlae on some projects for Arnold, giving him the chance to learn more about the company.

“The alignment feels right,” he said. “I’ve been in [Arnold] meetings where I’ve seen the talent, learned about the client base and seen the desire to do great work.” 

Barry Sanders has always been good at the vanishing act. He did it most famously in 1999 by retiring from the NFL at age 30, when he was just 1,457 yards short of the league rushing record. He does it again, comically, in this new Pepsi MAX ad from TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles and director Matt Dilmore. In the ad, Sanders, getting a shave at a barber shop, is about to reveal the real reason he retired—but suddenly he goes up in a puff of smoke, and reappears in the living room of some gamer who has "unlocked" him while playing Madden NFL 25, thanks to a code on a Pepsi MAX cap.

Sanders' involvement with Madden NFL 25 goes beyond the new ad. Though he's been retired for almost 15 years, the 45-year-old was recently voted by fans to be the cover athlete of the game's latest edition. "Being on the cover of Madden introduces you to so many new fans that never saw you play," he said recently. "It's been a thrill for me, and I just never saw it coming."

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Pepsi MAX
Spot: "Disappearing Sanders"

Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles
President: Carisa Bianchi
Chief Creative Officer: John Norman
Creative Director, Copywriter: Zach Hilder
Creative Director, Art Director: William Esparza
Senior Copywriters: Anne Sanguinetti, Kathleen Swanson
Art Directors: Kristina Krkljus, Jenn Tranbarger
Group Account Director: Grace Kao
Management Supervisor: James Aardahl
Account Executives: Erik Wade, Rohit Bal
Planning Director: Neil Barrie
Planner: Drew Phillips
Executive Producer, Producer: Anh-Thu Le
Associate Producer: Stephanie Dziczek
Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Laura Drabkin
Talent Payment Manager: Maryam Ohebsion
Broadcast Traffic Coordinator: Eugene Gandia

Production Company: Epoch Films
Director: Matt Dilmore
Executive Producer: Melissa Culligan
Head of Production: Megan Murphee
Line Producer: Geoff Clough

Editing: Cut + Run
Editor: Graham Turner
Assistant Editor: Russell August Anderson
Executive Producer: Michelle Eskin
Senior Producer: Christie Price

Visual Effects: Framestore
Flame Artist: Trent Shumway
Executive Producer: Kati Haberstock
Producer: Mary Nockles

Telecine: MPC
Colorist: Ricky Gausis

Mix: Lime Studios
Mixer: Loren Silber

Being a creative leader means taking a bullet for an underling and identifying other leaders. Rarely does the job involve actually making ads, but it’s healthy to do a bit of that too.

Those were among the key points that creative chiefs like Wieden + Kennedy’s Mark Fitzloff and TBWA\Chiat\Day’s John Norman made today during an Advertising Week discussion about creative leadership. The chiefs also stressed that chief creative officers need to contribute to business conversations and focus on what Paul Venables described as the soft stuff: human values like honesty, empathy and respect.

Paraphrasing poet Maya Angelou, Venables, the co-founder and executive creative director of Venables, Bell & Partners in San Francisco said, “People aren’t going to remember what you said. They’re not even going to remember what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel. And that’s how you manage, from that standpoint of how are these people feeling?”

Fitzloff, co-global ecd of Wieden + Kennedy, knows this lesson first-hand, having worked under legendary cd Jim Riswold, who, although crotchety, understood the importance of backing his troops.

Fitzloff, then a copywriter, created a long copy print ad for Nike that many found offensive, including an executive at Nike, who called Dan Wieden to suggest that he fire the writer. “And Jim went into Dan’s office and said, ’If anyone should be fired over this, it should be me.’”

“In Jim’s mind, it’s my job to push the boundaries and it’s his job to decide whether the boundaries have been passed. Therefore, it wasn’t my fault,” Fitzloff explained. “That was the type of leadership that you can learn by example.”

Riswold, who had been at Wieden about 20 years at that point, was taken off the Nike business.

Big picture, creative people need to be central to running agencies, not just creative departments, stressed John Patroulis, the CCO at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York. On a finer level, Norman, the CCO at the Playa del Rey, Calif. office of TBWA\Chiat\Day, likened his role to being a teacher, adding that it’s important to “be yourself, be who you are.” Sometimes, however, creative leadership is less explicit.

Rei Inamoto, CCO at AKQA, said the design of his agency’s offices underscores its approach to creativity. “It’s one open floor and nobody has an individual office,” Inamoto said. “It’s a very physically and visibly flat seating arrangement and I think that intrinsically and metaphorically says that creativity can come from anywhere, right?”

Gerry Graf is getting the old team back together.

The founder and chief creative officer of Barton F. Graf 9000 has hired Scott Vitrone and Ian Reichenthal, his former key lieutenants at TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York, as partners and executive creative directors. Most recently, Vitrone and Reichenthal ran the New York creative department of Wieden + Kennedy as co-ecds.

At Barton F. Graf, Vitrone and Reichenthal will focus on what they do best: nurturing talent and creating memorable, character-driven and, at times, bizarre ads. The hires give the growing New York shop a total of three ecds. The other one, Brandon Lugar, also came from W+K.

"Scott and Ian are hands down the greatest creative directors in the world," Graf said, in a statement. "It's almost unimaginable the effect they will have on Barton F. Graf 9000."

A fourth ecd, Eric Kallman, has left the agency and is expected to take a top role at another shop. In fact, his decision to leave triggered Graf's move to hire Vitrone and Reichenthal. The shop employs more than 40 staffers, including 17 in the creative department.

At TBWA\C\D, "Scott and Ian," as they're known in the industry, worked primarily on Mars, helping to create Cannes Lion-winning work such as "Sheep Boys" for Skittles and the "Man Mom" campaign for Combos. Their W+K work included the head-turning repositioning of Southern Comfort, which began with a stout man's proud walk on a beach.

The duo parlayed their earlier creative success as group cds at TBWA\C\D into the opportunity run creative deparments: first at Young & Rubicam in New York, and then at W+K. Along the way, they diversified their reels, not only in terms of the types of brands but also in kinds of work.

Since TBWA\C\D, Vitrone and Reichenthal have touched everything from Xerox and LG to Heineken and ESPN. And now they'll work across all Barton F. Graf accounts, including Dish Network, Kayak, Little Caesars, Unilever (Ragú, Bertolli and Wish-Bone) and Finlandia.

Principal Financial Group is in the early stages of a review of its creative business, the company has confirmed.

Principal has contacted agencies via an initial request for proposals, according to sources. The company's media spending ranges between $15 million and $20 million a year.

"The time is right to review our creative strategy," a Principal representative told Adweek. "Our business and marketing strategies at the Principal have evolved over the past 10 years. As the business strategy has changed, so has our advertising strategy."

Among the key decision-makers is chief marketing officer Mary O'Keefe. A 23-year veteran of the company, O'Keefe assumed her current role in 2004.

TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif. has been Principal Financial's lead creative agency since 2005. The shop is not defending.

Media planning and buying responsibilities are not in play and remain at OMD in Los Angeles. Both OMD and TBWA\C\D are units of Omnicom Group.

Last year, Principal Financial's media spending approached $15 million, down from about $17 million in both 2012 and 2011, according to Nielsen. Spending through the first half of 2013 totaled nearly $7 million. Those figures don't include online outlays, however.

Principal Financial, which is based in Des Moines, Iowa, provides insurance and retirement and investment services to companies and their employees. Its television ads have featured a little animated character known as "Eddie," who uses the company's triangular logo as a means of support.

Arrghh … can't breathe … too much cuteness! TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles crafted these 60 seconds of adorable hi-jinks as part of Best Friends Animal Society's pro bono campaign to raise awareness for pet adoptions, a cause near and dear to the heart of legendary adman and agency chairman Lee Clow. The clip shows Instagram photos of four rescued pets—Lil Bub, Nala Cat and two pups named Ginny and Tuna—who each enjoy various measures of Internet fame. Ginny's got a space helmet. She's a widdle dog-stronaut! Sorry. This stuff's face-meltingly cute. And I don't even like cats. But I'll make an exception here. Clow says, "Wouldn't it be great if we could get people to see that the smart, cool and socially responsible thing to do is to rescue a pet rather than buy them from a breeder or a pet store?" Fair enough. Plus, if they had pets, folks wouldn't act all catty like that woman in the Tenth Life Rescue spot from a few months back.

Wells Fargo will meet with about a half-dozen shops before selecting a handful of finalists to pitch its creative business, sources said.

Sources indicated that the shops include TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif.; Draftfcb in San Francisco; Mullen in San Francisco; Venables Bell & Partners in San Francisco; BBDO in San Francisco and New York; and longtime incumbent DDB, which runs the business out of an office in Los Angeles.

Wells Fargo spends about $120 million in media annually.

The review does not include traditional media media planning and buying, which remains at OMD; digital creative and media responsibilities, which are handled by MRM and UM, respectively; and multicultural marketing, which is split among Muse, DAE and Acento. Select Resources International in Santa Monica, Calif. is managing the search.

DDB's relationship with the San Francisco-based bank dates back to 1995 and expanded with Wells Fargo's $12.7 billion acquisition of Wachovia in 2009. About 30 staffers work in DDB's Los Angeles office, which is overseen by agency leaders in San Francisco.

The agency meetings will take place early next month, sources said. The agencies either declined to comment or could not be reached and Wells Fargo could not immediately be reached. The bank is expected to complete its search in February.

Talk about opening with a bang.

Mark Figliulo's first big account at his startup shop, Figliulo & Partners in New York, is Sprint, for which he'll create TV ads, according to sources.

Figliulo opened his agency this fall after exiting TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York, where he was chairman and chief creative officer. He spent five years at the Omnicom Group shop. Earlier in his career, he was based in Chicago, where he was CCO at WPP Group's Young & Rubicam.

Figliulo declined to comment on the Sprint assignment and referred calls to the company, which could not immediately be reached. But sources said that Figliulo & Partners would handle the TV portion of Sprint's business.

Leo Burnett in Chicago has created TV ads as part of a team of Publicis Groupe agencies that work on Sprint. Chief among those shops is Digitas. Publicis Groupe is believed to be backing Figliulo's startup, so Sprint is keeping its business within the family, so to speak.

All told, Sprint spends about $800 million in media annually. The TV share of that spend could not be ascertained.

From Mark Figliulo's first job—as an art director working on Dewar's at Leo Burnett in 1986—to his more recent creative chief roles at Young & Rubicam in Chicago and TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York, Figliulo felt at home at big agencies. That said, this son of a entrepreneur often thought about opening his own shop. And now, with Figliulio & Partners and founding client Sprint, Figliulo has finally realized that ambition at 50. While he declined to address talk of Publicis Groupe backing his agency, In his first interview about the new venture, Figliulio explained what prompted him to go solo.

What made you want to start your own agency?

The industry has changed so dramatically that we need new models. We should all be thinking of new ways of doing what we do. I looked around at people who are doing new models. Gerry [Graf] is doing a great job [at Barton F. Graf 9000]. I know him from the past, so I called him up. He was very encouraging. But the biggest thing I got out that conversation was, he seemed really happy.

Who else did you talk to about starting up?

I come from an entrepreneurial family. My father had his own company. It's a tech firm. He passed away. But [the company] went public, and it's a great success story. A couple of my brothers have their own companies, like one of my brothers is a lawyer and has his own firm. So, I really went back to family for advice more than anything.

Why do it in New York?

That was a given that I was going to stay in New York. And it's a great place to start an agency. The talent here is just incredible.

More expensive, though, right?

Yes it is.

Who are your partners?

Judith Carr-Rodriguez is going to be the president. She was the president of LBi in New York and Atlanta. Also, when they merged with MRY, she was the president of that agency. She has deep digital experience.

How does that relate to your model?

We're going to be a brand agency for the digital world. So, her background and my background really dovetail nicely with that. Our industry has gotten very executional-focused. So, when a brand agency does digital, they do an execution, or vice versa. Where I don't think a lot of people are spending time is on the big idea, the big creative platform being based in the digital world.

What can you do as a solo artist that you can't do as a CCO at a big agency?

You can set the priorities. Our idea of "ideas first" was something that I've been wanting to do for a long time. To focus on the creative platform before everything else. Also, I think just the simple fact that you have very senior people, like myself as a founder, working on a piece of business. That's what clients really like about startups and smaller shops.

For how long did you think about doing your own thing?

I've been thinking about it for a long time. And going back to my dad, the truth is he started his company at 50. So, it has always been my deadline. So, I said, "Okay, I better do it this year."

PUR, the water-filtration device with a relatively new owner, now has a new lead creative agency.

Arnold in Boston has landed the brand's creative business after a review. Annual media spending is estimated at $15 million.

Sources identified the other finalists as Young & Rubicam, Merkley + Partners and Hill Holliday. Roth Observatory International in New York managed the search.

PUR used to be owned by Procter & Gamble. Two years ago, however, the packaged-goods giant sold the brand to Helen of Troy Ltd. PUR is now marketed by a Helen of Troy subsidiary known as Kaz USA, which is based in Marborough, Mass.

In making the selection, Kaz chief marketing officer Christophe Coudray cited Arnold's breadth of experience as well as its analytic and creative capabilities. "Identifying a strong agency partner is extremely important to our leadership team and our business," he added.

The assignment includes both traditional and digital advertising. Not included are media responsibilities, which remain at MediaVest in New York.

The new agency succeeds TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif., which did not defend.

When Nissan offered to sell its Versa Note on Amazon last fall, it promised to ship the cars to three lucky buyers in actual Amazon boxes. Well, this weekend it was delivery day!

A Reddit user on Monday posted this photo from Madison, Wis., noting: "What's the largest item you can have shipped from Amazon? Because I think my neighbor just got it." A commenter soon pointed out the Nissan partnership, which seemed to be the most obvious explanation of such an epic delivery. AdFreak then reached out to Nissan, and Erich Marx, the automaker's director of interactive and social-media marketing, confirmed that the Redditor had captured the delivery—which was meant to be kept under wraps until a video could be released next week.

The original idea, he said, came from Nissan agency TBWA\Chiat\Day. "They mentioned it, and we all kind of laughed and thought, 'Wouldn't that be funny?' " said Marx. "But over the course of a few days, we kept coming back to it and said, 'Why not deliver a car in an Amazon box?' … It's never really been done. I think the visual is pretty hilarious. Everybody knows the Amazon box. We thought it would capture people's imagination. It certainly captured ours." In the end, Marx added, Nissan decided to deliver just one Versa Note, not three as originally planned.

The Redditor's photo, which hit the site's front page on Monday, came as a surprise to Nissan. "We were filming the video this weekend and a neighbor noticed what we were doing and posted what amounts to a spy photo," said Marx. "The best laid marketing plans, right? We were going to do a press release and a video and this whole thing next week. But the photo got out there, and people started buzzing about it. So we had to scramble."

The first 100 people to order the Versa Note on Amazon got $1,000 gift cards. Nissan contacted many of them, and then chose the Madison customer as the winner. "Quite frankly it was the enthusiasm of this winner—they were so thrilled and thought it was hilarious," said Marx. "We were all voting for someone in Hawaii. We were like, 'Madison, Wisconsin, in January? That's going to be cold.' But this winner was so into it, we knew it was going to be great."

Nissan is keeping the winner's name private for now. He or she will be revealed in the video, which is still set to be released next week. "We wanted to keep some of our original plan intact," said Marx.

Does Marx envision a day when a Nissan could be delivered by a fleet of Amazon drones? Laughing, he replied, "No, I think this a really fun onetime execution. We have a great dealer network, and we want our dealers to be involved in the marketing and delivery of our cars. We certainly don't want to step on their toes."

More photos below.

A leader on major accounts at TBWA, including Apple and Nissan, is taking on management responsibilities at the global shop's largest office.

Luis DeAnda, who most recently was a global managing director at TBWA\MAL—TBWA's dedicated unit for Apple—is now general manager at TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif. The office employs about 550 staffers and works on brands such as Gatorade, Pepsi, Nissan, Infiniti, Energizer and Southwest Airlines.

The gm role is new and designed to focus on operations, account management and recruitment. And for DeAnda, an energetic, can-do supporting player at TBWA, the job follows a series of bigger roles he assumed since joining the agency in 2002.

Initially, DeAnda led management of the shop's global Nissan business out of Tokyo. In that job, he helped expand TBWA\Japan's client base beyond Nissan and helped forge a joint venture with Hakhuhodo to service the automaker's business in that market.

Along the way, TBWA\Japan became TBWA\Hakuhodo and DeAnda rose to chief operating officer of the venture. He left Tokyo in 2012 to take the md position at TBWA\MAL in Playa del Rey; MAL's office is next door to the main agency.

In making the appointment, Carisa Bianchi, president of TBWA\C\D in Playa del Rey, cited DeAnda's "tremendous experience internationally and in growing global business," adding, "It is important that we have a strong leadership team in place to help manage and grow the different capabilities and new business opportunities."

And while DeAnda settles into his new job, he'll retain his responsibilities on Apple next door. Add him to the ranks of ad executives wearing more than one hat.

For the second time in as many years, TBWA is recasting at the top of the creative department of its largest office, according to sources.

David Kolbusz, a partner and deputy executive creative director of Bartle Bogle Hegarty in London, is in advanced talks to share the top creative role at TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif., sources said. Plans call for him to partner with Stephen Butler, one of the office's three ecds. The duo will succeed John Norman, who is exiting after just 16 months and joining Translation.

TBWA declined to comment but sources said that the move was imminent.

At BBH, Kolbusz has played a leading role in many of the shop's most high-profile ads in the past three years, including "Three Little Pigs" for The Guardian, "Lifeguard" for Unilever's Axe and most recently, "Make Love, Not War," for Axe. The Axe ads ran on the last two Super Bowls.

Before BBH, Kolbusz was a group cd at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, where he worked on brands such as Häagen-Dazs, Denny's and Nintendo. Earlier in his career, he was at Mother in London.

Butler joined TBWA\C\D in August and works on Nissan, among other accounts. He knows Kolbusz from Mother, where he too worked, from 2005 until last year.

The move comes as Playa del Rey aims to rebound from business setbacks in the past two years, including the loss of Visa in 2012 and Pepsi shifting its brand advertising work to shops like Mekanism. On the plus side, however, the office added brand image responsibilities on Southwest Airlines in 2012 and is a finalist in Wells Fargo's current creative review.

Other key clients in Playa del Rey include Pepsi's Gatorade, Nissan, Adidas and Energizer. The office, long considered the epicenter of TBWA, employs some 550 staffers and is home to global chairman Lee Clow.

In recent years, Clow has stepped back from day-to-day operations, though he remains close to Adidas and Apple, which is run by the TBWA\Media Arts Lab next door. So, the Kolbusz hire and pairing with Butler is crucial not only to growing the Omnicom Group agency but also its reputation as a top creative player in the industry.