adweek: Alex Bogusky Resigns From MDC

In recent years, the legendary creative exec had less input at holding company's flagship agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Alex Bogusky's resignation from MDC Partners and its flagship agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky underscores one of the biggest challenges the Toronto-based holding company faces moving forward.

MDC's business model of acquiring entrepreneurial companies is being tested as the founders of its early acquisitions now cash out. At the beginning of this year, MDC was due to pay the remaining earn-outs of $47 million in cash and stock to principals at its two largest agencies, Crispin and Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners. KBS+P and Crispin together contribute about 35 percent of MDC's revenue.

Bogusky's exit from MDC, where he had become a creative figurehead at the holding company in January, follows the departure of Jon Bond in February, who left KBS+P after 23 years. Bond has since reemerged to bankroll new digital competitors to MDC companies.

The delicate art of institutionalizing agency culture at MDC agencies was made all too clear after the collapse of the holding company's first U.S. acquisition, Margeotes Fertitta Powell, which was folded into Kirshenbaum in 2007 after the departure of its founder, George Fertitta.

But Bogusky is MDC's biggest star, earning him praise as Adweek's Creative Director of the Decade last December. While he stepped back from a day-to-day creative role at his agency two years ago, his departure, from an image perspective, is a huge blow. At present, visitors to MDC's new home page are greeted with the 47-year-old hosting a video showing a new digital feature that allows "high-tech stalking" of MDC's execs. (Bogusky kicks off the exercise by pointing to Boulder, Colo., on a map where he reports he is "rockin' my new Birkenstocks at Sherpa's.")

MDC has been preparing for Bogusky's possible departure from an agency he joined in 1989. In early 2008, he was named co-chair at Crispin, with agency execs Andrew Keller and Rob Reilly assuming top creative responsibility as co-ecds and becoming partners. After Bogusky assumed the top MDC creative role, he is said to have spent half his time on his outside projects, which have included writing books like 9-Inch Diet and Baked In.

In a statement, MDC Partners said: "Alex Bogusky has resigned from MDC Partners in order to focus his time and energy on pursuing a number of initiatives and issues apart from advertising and marketing that he feels strongly about. We have enjoyed a long and tremendously productive partnership over the past 10 years and have the utmost respect and admiration for Alex. We're confident that many important causes will benefit from his passion and brilliance, and wish him the very best in all of his future endeavors."...adweek.com

RealTimeCannes: Mark Zuckerberg's dream of an open world

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage in a packed auditorium here in Cannes to explain where he sees the world going. It's going to be a lot more open, a lot more connected and a lot more personalized. He believes Facebook, if it executes correctly, can get to 1 billion users worldwide from the 500 million it has today. In an interview with Ad Age executive editor Abbey Klaassen, Zuckerberg said he's banking on people seeing continued benefits to sharing information with each other—and critically, altering their notions of privacy.
The privacy question, to Zuckerberg, involves balancing the need to give people control and maintain openness. He said there's a "natural tension" between the two. Zuckerberg didn't make any grand pronouncements. Instead, clad in a T-shirt rather than his trademark hooded sweatshirt, he explained to the ad world how he sees communications becoming more transparent and more two-way. That applies to advertising, too. Facebook has offered advertisers ads that allow some measure of dialog with users, whether letting them broadcast to their friends that they "like" a brand or through polling and other social features of the site.

The key is that media is getting personalized. "We're going to look back at this and wonder why it wasn't always like that," Zuckerberg said. That's going to upend sectors. Gaming is one area that's seen a big shift, with companies like Zynga stealing a march on incumbent gaming companies by building social games. "The games are designed around the core assumption that you're doing it with your friends," he said.
Regarding the company's future, the 26-year-old Zuckerberg said he doesn't plan on stepping aside for a more seasoned CEO anytime soon. He'll continue to focus on product development, he said, since that's critical to Facebook achieving its mission of leading a more open and connected world...ADWEEK