CORPORATE shuffleboard has been the summer game of choice for OgilvyOne, Cramer-Krasselt and J. Walter Thompson.
OgilvyOne Worldwide lost Wendy Riches to Hasbro, and the story on the street is that she’s irreplaceable. Literally. Riches’ duties will be assumed by Carla Hendra, who was recently appointed president.
As for Hendra, the word on the street is mixed. Rumors that she has been doing a good job are balanced by questions about whether she is capable of taking on some of Riches’ former responsibilities. But that could just be grumblings about changes in management style.
Cramer-Krasselt has been getting press about its management style. The Chicago Tribune’s George Lazarus gave Peter Krivkovich almost as much ink for his fondness for war and strategy games as he did for Krivkovich’s finally being promoted to CEO, unintentionally (we hope) making the executive sound like “Pinky and the Brain’s” Brain, a cartoon lab mouse who wants to take over the world.
As for the 100-year-old agency itself, it has been getting used to having a CEO based in Chicago rather than Milwaukee. To make the transition from Paul Counsell-general manager of the Milwaukee office-as smooth as possible, Paul Bentley has been promoted to executive vice president, general manager.
J. Walter Thompson, meanwhile, has decided to apply the same skills it offers clients to itself. Some 24 offices that were known variously as JWT Direct, Dialog and Enterprise are being combined and branded as ThompsonConnect Worldwide.
Debra Brown, who had been managing director of JWT Direct/New York, is now managing director, ThompsonConnect Worldwide/New York. Michael Graham is CEO of ThompsonConnect, which will be part of Thompson’s Total Solutions Group (for integrated marketing).
Whether ThompsonConnect’s own rebranding will “deliver the right message, to the right people, at the right time to ultimately create the right brand experience” (as they phrase it) remains to be seen.
And how was your summer?
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