• Beta, the agency launched by Robert Campbell and Garry Lace in 2009, has acquired the CRM and digital agency BEC, led by Chris Barraclough.

• McCann Enterprise launches globally.

NEW YORK – September 12, 2012 – Ignacio Oreamuno, Executive Director of the Art Directors Club (ADC), today announced, at the dmexco Digital Marketing Exposition and Conference in Germany, that the Art Directors Club is moving the 92nd Annual Awards Gala and Festival from New York City to Miami in April 2013. Additionally, judging will now be moved from New York, where it has taken place for the past 90+ years, to Costa Rica—only Design, Motion, Photo and Illustration will remain here.

The 3-day festival, centralized in Miami’s South Beach on April 2-4, 2013, will be based out of the W South Beach, the Shore Club and the New World Center. The festival will comprise hands-on, interactive, creative workshops throughout each day, parties at the W South Beach and Shore Club by night, and the Annual Awards Gala celebration.

The festival will culminate on Thursday evening, April 4, with the ADC 92nd Annual Awards Gala at The New World Center, home of the renowned New World Symphony. Designed by Frank Gehry, the New World Center boasts state-of-the-art technological capabilities and an inspirational artistic space within which the winners of the 92nd Annual Awards will receive their Cubes.

"New York is an amazing city and has been the home of the ADC Awards— the longest running in the world— for more than 90 years,” said Oreamuno. “To keep pace with our international growth, we are moving the Gala to create the best creative festival in North America. No city in the U.S. is better suited for hosting and inspiring international creatives than Miami. The ADC is re-focusing on its core values—the art and craft of advertising and design— and our festival will be the only one to chose if you are a creative professional in any field around the world."

While the Club is in talks with several international organizations to partner with, co-host and co-curate portions of the 92nd Annual Festival, Lürzer’s Archive is the most recent to sign on as a sponsor.

About the Art Directors Club
Founded in 1920, the Art Directors Club is the premier organization for leaders in visual communication, boasting one of the most concentrated groups of creative talent in the world. A not-for-profit membership organization, the ADC’s mission is to Connect creative professionals around the globe, while simultaneously Provoking and Elevating world-changing ideas. The ADC provides a forum for creatives of all levels in Advertising, Design, Interactive Media and Communications to explore the direction of these rapidly converging industries.

About the Annual Awards

ADC's Annual Awards (www.adcawards.org) has kept pace with the changing nature of visual communications since its inception in 1920. Considered the first international creative collective, the ADC is proud to host one of the most competitive advertising and design awards competitions in the world.

Judged by an international panel of the world’s most respected creative professionals, the ADC Annual Awards competition is dedicated to craft, honoring the best work from around the world in interactive media, broadcast and print advertising, graphic design, publication design, packaging, photography and illustration, plus the most recently added ADC Designism Award honors work for non-profits that drive political or social change.

The ADC Awards also cites Agency of the Year, Interactive Agency of the Year, Network of the Year, Design Team of the Year and School of the Year honors, based upon cumulative points for the year’s winning work.

Acquisition Bolsters Strategic, Analytic & Technological Smarts

NEW YORK CITY, September 12, 2012—Draftfcb, the global marketing communications agency network that is part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), is acquiring Hudson Global, a Tarrytown, N.Y.-based pharmaceutical marketing company that offers integrated marketing solutions encompassing the entire pharmaceutical brand management spectrum, and aligning it under its Draftfcb Healthcare umbrella.

The union with Draftfcb Healthcare will allow both to deliver even higher impact, targeted, fully integrated programming and analytics to their combined roster of blue-chip clients. The merger will create a top 5 healthcare offering in the U.S.

“Our acquisition of Hudson is part of a long-term plan to make strategic acquisitions that will bolster our clients’ businesses and strengthen our agency’s offerings in those markets that offer the greatest opportunity,” said Laurence Boschetto, global CEO and president of Draftfcb.

Hudson Global, with 55+ employees, includes among its core services: digital media and interactive marketing programs, peer-to-peer programming, consumer programming, medical strategy, and data and analytics services. It also has an important educational component that is aimed at professional healthcare, patient, and consumer audiences.

Since its founding in 2004, Hudson has provided solutions to sales and marketing teams at more than 30 pharma companies and represented more than 60 different pharmaceutical brands, which generate over $46 billion in annual sales.

Hudson currently works with three types of clients: pharma, diagnostic and biotech. It provides services to 20 major companies, including 15 of the largest pharma companies in the world. The company also works with mid-tier pharma companies and medical device companies. Hudson operates in a variety of therapeutic areas including oncology, cardiovascular, CNS, dermatology, diabetes, gastroenterology, infectious diseases, pediatrics, respiratory, rheumatology, women’s health, and biologics.

Hudson will retain its name, and maintain its Tarrytown location, with several of its employees regularly working out of Draftfcb Healthcare offices in midtown Manhattan. It will continue to be led by Robert Blink, co-founder and CEO/President of Hudson and Jason Goldklang, co-founder and Executive Vice President. Blink will report directly to Draftfcb Healthcare and Draftfcb New York CEO Dana Maiman.

Maiman cited Hudson’s ability to adapt and deliver greater ROI for clients in an evolving industry as a key attraction to the company. “The large and growing demand for digital and interactive services has created opportunities for which Hudson is firmly entrenched as an innovator,” Maiman said.

She added Hudson’s proprietary digital delivery technology, called the SmartSeat™ platform, and its exclusive video streaming partnership with MLB Advanced Media (“MLBAM”) as vehicles that are sure to enrich current and future clients.

“Hudson can deliver best-in-class broadcasting, streaming, and bandwidth capabilities through its MLBAM partnership,” added Maiman. “Combining those offerings with Draftfcb’s creative and strategic firepower and tools will propel these sophisticated technologies to the next level.”

As for Robert Blink, he is confident that Hudson’s proprietary technologies and scalable delivery platforms that maximize messages for brands will tremendously enhance Draftfcb’s capabilities and commitment to delivering results.

“For example, our MLBAM partnership lets our programs reach virtually any physician, consumer, or caregiver through almost any media format or mobile application with the bandwidth to reach millions of end-users,” Blink said.

While details of the financial arrangement are not being disclosed, Draftfcb’s acquisition of Hudson is effective immediately, with a smooth transition expected over the next 90 days.

Draftfcb Healthcare will continue to be led by its current management team of Dana Maiman; Linda Wu, chief operating officer; Carl Sherman, chief financial officer; Rich Levy, chief creative officer; Harold Corbran, chief innovation officer; and Lisa Dujat, chief human resource officer. Other companies under the Draftfcb Healthcare umbrella include Area 23, Mosaic, NeON, and ProHealth.

With more than 30 years of experience marketing to healthcare professionals, Draftfcb Healthcare produces work that is both strategically relevant and creatively compelling. The agency provides its clients with multichannel capabilities, including payer strategy and marketing, professional education, video production, strategic planning and media services. Draftfcb Healthcare was named “Agency of the Year” by Medical Advertising News in 2006 and 2009 and by Medical Marketing & Media in 2007 and 2010. In 2010, 2011 & 2012, it was named “Most Creative Agency” by Medical Advertising News. Draftfcb Healthcare is a unit of Draftfcb, itself a member of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG).

Today TBWA announces the arrival of its new President of TBWA\UK Group Lindsey Evans, the much-lauded former managing director of Sydney’s iconic agency The Campaign Palace and founding partner of the award-winning creative hot shop Happy Soldiers.
Joining the newly appointed chairman and chief creative officer of TBWA\UK Peter Souter, Evans is tasked with driving the growth of the agency and improving creative output.
She comes to TBWA after a stint client side as GM Marketing with one of her long term clients, Pacific Brands, where she was responsible for a portfolio of brands including Bonds, a top ten Australian brand with acclaimed creative work including The Birthday Project.
Evans is credited with reviving one of Australia’s most awarded and respected advertising agencies, The Campaign Palace (WPP), when she joined as MD of the Sydney shop in 2005. The agency doubled the size of its team and tripled its profits within two years through a drive in creativity, introducing digital and channel planning and new business. She left The Campaign Palace in 2009 to become one of the founding partners of Happy Soldiers – which, in just two years, became Australia's most creatively awarded independent agency in recent history. Evans sat on the board of The Communications Council, Australia's marketing communications body.
For Evans this is something of a homecoming having spent five years as Managing Director of New York based creative shop Weiss Stagliano Partners - joining when it was acquired by TBWA in 2001 – before moving on to become MD of its branding agency TBWA\Brand Architecture International, then on to Sydney as a Managing Partner of Whybin Lawrence TBWA. Evans began her career in the UK, as a graduate trainee with Cogent.
Peter Souter said of the appointment: "We’re thrilled to have captured Lindsey. One returning TBWA insider and one incoming BBDO outsider should make a potent partnership I feel. I've worked with the two best female CEOs in London, in Cilla Snowball and Farah Ramzan Golant, now I reckon I'm going to make it three. Calm, Smart, Fast and Funny are a pretty unbeatable combination. Lindsey is all four.”
Lindsey Evans said: “I’m both humbled and exhilarated by the challenge of taking TBWA\London to its next level, and to do so with a creative legend like Peter. It’s a perfect storm.”
Perry Valkenburg, President of TBWA\Europe added: “We simply got lucky with Lindsey Evans. She is British but worked most of her career in the USA and Australia. Strong strategic skills, digital native and she worked at both sides of the table for the best agencies and world-class brands. Above all she knows our culture and will be at home from day one. The amazing new hires of Peter Souter are, in combination with the young talent that scored so many wins recently, in my opinion the best team in town.”
Evan’s appointment comes as outgoing TBWA\UK Group President, Robert Harwood-Matthews, moves to take up the position of President of TBWA\Chiat Day, New York.