January

> News

• Saatchi & Saatchi, Los Angeles’ head of integrated production Damian Stevens leaves to start edit house Arcade, foreshadowing many top agency producers who migrate to the production side in the coming months.

• Tool of North America sign EVB founder and former ECD Jason Zada as a director, one model for traditional production companies pushing into hybrid roles as multi-platform content creators. Similarly, this year sees digital and interactive companies like B-Reel competing for and shooting more live-action and integrated work.

> Work

• Cadbury “Eyebrow Dance”   
• BK Whopper Sacrifice
• Fever Ray “If I Had A Heart”   
• Careerbuilder.com “Tips”   
• VW “Engineer”

February

> News
• Much-vaunted droga5 and Smuggler co-owned online channel Honeyshed shutters in the same month as DDB, Chicago’s ill-fated Bud.TV, while similar initiative adidas.TV cautiously launches.

• Mobilizy’s Wikitude GPS-based augmented reality app launches, overlaying historical facts live over a camera phone feed. AR spreads like wildfire through the year as Burger King, BMW, Topps, Yelp, USPS and many more rush to embrace the technology in a mix of executions that range from the gimmicky to the ingenious.

• Former TAG, San Francisco and Cannes Grand Prix-winning CDs (for their Halo 3 Believe campaign) Mauro Alencar and Geoff Edwards retool Fancy, an integrated marketing firm servicing the music industry. The year sees a number of music labels using interactive, integrated, AR, social media and ARG initiatives to promote their artists, including Eminem, Dido, Soy Tu Aire, City and Colour and Cold War Kids.

• Epoch directors Stacy Wall and Doug Halbert launch new prodco Imperial Woodpecker, with the backing/support of Epoch.

> Work
• T-Mobile “Dance”
• Beast “Mr. Hurricane”   
• Johnnie Walker “Crossroads”
• Monster.com “Double Take”
• James Boags “Pure Waters”

March

> News

• Omnicom hardens its sequential liability contractual language to howls of complaint from US production companies who fear being left carrying untenable production costs if clients go bankrupt. In the UK, the APA forces Omnicom to back down on the terms. Through the year agencies impose increasingly egregious legal and financial terms on production companies leading to heated debate within AICP.

• Leo Burnett North America CCO John Condon leaves the agency.

• Skittles replaces its homepage with a Twitter feed that filters all mentions of the brand, effectively handing its website over to users of the micro-blogging site. Twitter and the social media sphere increasingly feature in culture and agency campaigns alike in wildly different ways. A Twitter agency launches, Comcast harnesses the tool for real-time reactive customer service, Zappos uses it as a marketing channel, Google and Microsoft are soon to incorporate tweets into search.

• MCBD and Ringan Ledwidge’s “Go On Lad” for Hovis wins the BTAA Thinkbox Award for best television commercial. Meanwhile at the ANDYs, Oasis’ integrated Dig Out Your Soul in the Streets campaign picks up the Grandy, the first of a slew of top prizes.

• Wieden+Kennedy names its London ECDs, Tony Davidson and Kim Papworth, as partners.

> Work

• Puma “Lift”
• Depeche Mode “Wrong”   
• Sagami “Love Distance”   
• Virgin Mobile “Right Music Wrongs”
• Hulu “Seth’s Giggity Goo”

April

> News

• JWT shutters its 118-year-old Chicago office as the financial crisis deepens, as most agencies respond to marketing budget cuts with mass countrywide layoffs and office closures. In the same month, Chrysler files for bankruptcy, owing BBDO, Detroit an estimated $58 million.

• Smuggler sign Psyop for worldwide representation.

• AKQA co-chief creative officer Lars Bastholm quits the agency to become Ogilvy’s chief digital creative officer, North America.

• In a foreshadowing of a later ghost ad controversy, organizers of the Dubai Lynx Awards strip Qatar-based agency FP7 Doha of its Agency of the Year award after 18 submissions are found to not meet the entry criteria that all work must represent the client who approved it.

> Work

• Scrabble The Beautiful Word
• Moray McLaren “We Got Time”
• Phillips “Carousel”
• VB “Raise a Glass”
• Liberty Mutual “Pilot”

May

> News

• Digital consultancy TBWA\Digital Arts launches, headed up by chief digital officer Colleen DeCourcy, with an all-star team including Goodby’s Hashem Bajwa and droga5’s Scott Witt. The move highlights the increasing role of creative, strategic and media technologists within agencies.

• Queensland Tourism’s Best Job In The World integrated campaign from Cummins Nitro, Brisbane wins Best in Show at One Show, while at One Show Interactive AKQA’s eco:drive wins Best in Show and Goodby scoops inaugural Interactive Agency of the Year.

• New York- and Toronto-based agency TAXI purchases a majority stake in Amsterdam-based digital agency Ottonico.