Execs & Accounts for May 20, 2005
R/GA hires four account directors into newly created posts; Unilever taps WildTangent for 3D advergame; Jarvis takes post with NYT Co.
R/GA hired four account directors into newly created positions. They include Greg Faherty, previously a senior partner and account director at Ogilvy & Mather NY; Jenny Harris, who spent seven years as a partner and management supervisor at OgilvyOne; Y&R Brands/Wunderman veteran Robert Pulciani, former management supervisor of the AT&T Internet Services account; and Gabe Weiss, who led the Procter and Gamble account for Novo/Blue Marble.
Unilever tapped WildTangent to built an elaborate 3D branded game featuring its AXE deodorant brand. The game, called Mojo Master, places young men in scenarios where they’re forced to employ female seduction techniques against one of approximately 100 virtual girls. As “players” advance in the game, girls get harder to pick up.
Advance.net President Jeff Jarvis quit to consult with the New York Times Company on content development for About.com. Jarvis is well known as author of the BuzzMachine Weblog, and as a blogger has taken the mantle of citizen’s media advocate. Over the course of his career, he has served variously as a journalist and media executive, including with TV Guide, Entertainment Weekly and the San Francisco Chronicle.
In addition to his work on About.com, Jarvis will serve as editor-in-chief of a news start-up, still in pre-launch, and do consulting gigs. He’s also designing curriculum for CUNY’s nascent journalism school.
Deep Focus hired Joshua Kornblit as senior interactive media planner. Kornblit joins the entertainment-focused digital agency from Universal McCann, Los Angeles, where he handled online media planning for Sony Pictures.
