William Byrne has joined Euro RSCG/Chicago as manager of corporate communications. Byrne most recently served as manager of public relations and corporate communications at Classic Residence by Hyatt. In his newly-created position at Euro RSCG, Byrne will report to Euro RSCG Chief Communications Officer Eric Edge.
Byrne will work closely with the Euro RSCG Chicago leadership team to develop new communications programs, both for the agency's employees and its various external audiences. "(Byrne's) passion for communications, specifically its role in the digital and social media space, will be wonderful as we promote the agency's unique thought leadership," added Edge. Byrne received his Bachelor of Arts in communications from DePaul University. He also is part of the Second City Training Center in Chicago.
Recently in Euro RSCG/Chicago Category
Learning Curve Brands, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RC2 Corp., has retained Euro RSCG/Chicago as agency of record for its mom, infant and toddler business, following a review. Euro RSCG's first effort will be development of an integrated ad campaign for the company's The First Years brand, which will introduce a line of infant nursing, sleep and care products in 2010. "We're delighted to be working with a brand that plays a critical role in the lives of families across the country," said Jamie King, president of Euro RSCG/Chicago, adding "we look forward to helping this brand realize its full emotional and economic value."
Euro RSCG/Chicago has been ranked No. 4 on the list of the top 50 Gen Y employers in Chicago in a new study released by Brill Street. The study, conducted over the past six months, explored areas such as compensation and benefits, employee perks, corporate social responsibility, advancement potential, training opportunities and the nature of the day-to-day work. Chicago employers whose workforces are comprised of at least 10 percent Gen Y employees were eligible for consideration in the study.
Brill Street, in its report, described Euro RSCG as a shop where "ideas flow freely, voices are heard, and Gen Y is valued." The study went on to say that Euro is a "leader in a highly creative industry and a great place to work." Responding to the study release, Euro RSCG Chief Communications Officer Eric Edge said the shop was "honored to have been the only ad agency to make the top 5 in this ranking."
Now if Euro could only win some big accounts for all those apparently happy Gen Y'ers!
Maybe it's time for Euro RSCG/Chicago to embrace its truest self. For it seems to us the agency has done most of its best work in recent years for boutique-type clients with small budgets and a limitless hunger for creative advertising. The latest such campaign to emerge from Euro is the "Make A Fashion Statement" campaign for Pivot, a Chicago-based online boutique that aims to sell fashionable and eco-conscious clothing and accessories. The ad campaign formally debuts on Wednesday at a Pivot fashion event at 1101 W. Fulton in Chicago, where Pivot owner Jessa Brinkmeyer will present a trunk show of fashion by Chicago designer Lara Miller.
Euro's new campaign for Pivot manages to be colorful, stylish and message-driven all at once. We especially like the execution that embeds the pressing question "do the clothes you wear wear out the world?" inside a silhouette of a fashionably-dressed woman. Another execution reminds viewers of the possibilities of eco-conscious fashion with copy that says "be green in any color you like." Again the message is framed in the lines of model's silhouette drawn in a bold, purplish color. Nice.
Euro RSCG/Chicago is hosting the annual Off the Street Club holiday luncheon later this year, but the agency is expanding on that project with other efforts to raise funds for Chicago's oldest club for boys and girls. One such event is slated for Friday, Sept. 25, when Euro and the Off the Street Club will set up a number of life-sized cut-outs of kids in Pioneer Court, near the North Michigan Avenue Bridge. The hope is that the cut-outs will draw attention to the kids the club is in business to help and encourage passers-by to make a contribution of at least $10 to the cause on the spot. Euro and the Off the Street Club are emphasizing that every little bit helps. For instance, $10 will buy a healthy snack for kids in the small-fry program, while $25 will help provide supplies for the club's music program. Euro RSCG's overarching theme for its Off the Street Club project this year is "Off the Street and On To So Much More."
Euro RSCG/Chicago has just unveiled a new Web site for Chicago's oldest boys and girls club -- the Off the Street Club. The site, www.offthestreetclub.org, invites visitors, via a click of their computer cursors, to literally take a kid off the street by dragging animated children off the street and into the Club for a $10 donation. Whenever someone contributes $10, a real-time video plays with footage of actual children at the club holding up "thank you" signs.
Euro RSCG is sponsoring the annual Off the Street Club fundraising luncheon this December. The new Web site is part of the agency's ongoing campaign on behalf of the Off the Street Club -- a campaign with the theme line "Off the Street and On To So Much More."
Euro RSCG Worldwide has named Ron Bess president of Euro RSCG North America. Bess was previously chief operating officer of Euro RSCG/North America. Bess will continue to serve as CEO of Euro RSCG/Chicago, where he is based.
Bess's promotion follows last year's rollout of Euro's "digital at the core" strategy and the consolidation of agencies that led to what the network is calling a "future-focused strategy." Bess will work with the region's key CEOs alongside David Jones, Euro RSCG's New York-based global CEO. Ron Berger will continue as Euro RSCG's North American chairman.
As president, Bess will be responsible for the overall profitability and growth of the agencies and nearly 3,000 employees that make up the Euro RSCG network in this region. Bess joined Euro RSCG in 2004 as CEO of the Chicago shop, which he restructured and started to turnaround via the introduction of digital into the agency, as well as a unified management team and single P&L.
The folks at Euro RSCG/Chicago didn't come home from the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival with a boatload of Lion trophies, but at least they were lucky enough to be honored by the Mayor of Cannes and a group called ACT Responsible for a print ad the agency created for an organization called the Juvenile Protection Association. The honored ad called "Choke" was part of a series designed to make the point that verbal abuse towards children is just as damaging as physical abuse. The tagline for the honored campaign is "verbal abuse is still abuse." The public voted the child abuse campaign their favorite caused-related effort from among a number of ad campaigns on display in an exhibition at the Cannes fest.
Just as the doors were about to close for good at JWT/Chicago, there appears to have been a reprieve. The shop is believed to have prevailed in a review for the $5 million Illinois Bureau of Tourism advertising account. JWT was the incumbent on the business, and in recent weeks, it had been competing with Euro RSCG/Chicago and Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago for the account. JWT's apparent win, sources say, means the Chicago shop would stay open at least as a satellite office to service the tourism account with approximately 20 staffers, including creative and account executives.
Perhaps the strongest aspect of JWT's work on the tourism account in recent years has been the eye-catching posters promoting a number of off-beat tourist destinations around the state. These executions helped pique interest in some attractions that vacationers otherwise might not have given a second thought.
Just in time for the annual vacation season, the Illinois Department of Tourism is in the final stages of a review of its ad account. The finalists are said to be incumbent JWT/Chicago, which will cease to have a fully-functioning office in Chicago in about two weeks (go figure), Euro RSCG/Chicago and Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago. Of the three shops in contention, Euro RSCG arguably has fewer internal issues to deal with at the moment. It at least has a chief creative officer in place. C-K recently parted ways with its Executive Creative Director Dean Hacohen. The agency said it will look for a new exec creative director with a pedigree it can leverage. While that search is in progress, Marshall Ross is running the show creatively at C-K.
No one watching this review play out can figure out how the state's tourism department could realistically hand the account back to JWT, given that the agency has pulled the plug on its storied Chicago outpost. JWT/Chicago shop did some great poster work for the account, but that was about it. Some speculate that JWT could keep some sort of service office open here to handle the tourism account, but for such a relatively small account, it hardly seems worth the bother.
