- The Hidden Gems: Uncovered
- Posts
- Butts in Times Square | Ben Stiller Goes Full Cats | WPP Poaches McCann's CEO | Tony Hawk on Wall Street
Butts in Times Square | Ben Stiller Goes Full Cats | WPP Poaches McCann's CEO | Tony Hawk on Wall Street
The Hidden Gems Newsletter
Welcome to The Hidden Gems Monthly Randomly timed Newsletter
5 weeks this time. I blame the M&A news, there was a lot of it.
For more information on what The Hidden Gems is: Click here to unveil the person behind it, and click here to get a fun “explainer” on us. If you work in advertising, production, marketing, creative, media, experiential, digital, product, or some funky combination - we welcome you to stick around.
Before we start: if you’re in the market for a new partner, give us a shout!
What’s (un)covered in this newsletter?
Wet Ones and Goodwipes are fighting over butts in Times Square
Ben Stiller went full Cats at Katz’s Deli
Call of Duty built a Seoul back alley inside a billboard
Ramp put a musical on Broadway, then hid Tony Hawk on Wall Street
Agency Drama: WPP poached McCann’s CEO, Coke stays put, and Publicis keeps winning without pitching
M&A season: Zimmerman bought itself back from Omnicom, MMGY bought R&R
Newly Uncovered: who our Hidden Gems have been working with, plus a brand new site
New section! Struck Gold?
Philosophical Musing: antifragile
Now, on with the show
Did you see these Gems?
Brilliant new work
Wet Ones and Goodwipes are fighting over butts in Times Square. Wet Ones ran ads of hands posed like butts. Within a day, Goodwipes answered with a Times Square billboard: “We’re actually just for butts.”
Same month, Goodwipes also spoofed OpenAI’s ad on a toilet, made with AI in 4 days. Somebody over there’s having a great year!
Ben Stiller showed up to Katz’s Deli dressed for Cats. Katz, cats. It’s the launch of Stiller’s Soda at Katz’s, directed by Nicolas Heller.
I watched the whole thing, pretty cute.
Turns out there was a 6th Spice Girl. Rachel Dratch plays Pumpkin Spice for Dunkin’, next to Baby and Ginger Spice.
Disney cut its own logo in half. Hulu’s “hu” plus Disney’s “Dis” reads “hu Dis?”. By Courage, running in Canada.
The logos ask the question for you. Love it.
McDonald’s isn’t for first dates, it’s for every date after. A 2025 UAE spot by FP7McCann Dubai that won at this year’s ANDYs.
Old, I know. Still one of the most honest lines I’ve seen a brand write about itself.
Call of Duty built a Seoul back alley inside a billboard. Two of them, actually, in London and on Sunset Boulevard, with Twitch viewers controlling the cameras.
Netflix and Walmart threw a KPop Demon Hunters night market in New York. Mattel, Colgate and Nongshim set up stalls, and thousands showed up in one weekend.
Introverts, Sweden made you a travel agency. The Introvert Travel Agency pops up in London October 28th to 31st. No small talk required.
An indie agency opened a helpline for anyone affected by a holding company. BastionBUNTIN’s 1-800 Agency Advice Helpline, plus upside-down billboards. Funny… we also made a hotline months back!
Ramp put a musical on Broadway. One night only, Bill Pay The Musical, starring as many Bills as they could find.
Then Ramp hid Tony Hawk on Wall Street. In Tony Stock: Pro Trader he’s in witness protection on a trading floor. It ended October 17th with Hawk and Bam Margera skating outside the New York Stock Exchange.
Ramp has quietly become one of the most fun brands in advertising. A finance software company, who woulda thought? I’m thinking of starting a fan account.
Sydney Sweeney posed nude for Novig, a betting app. Female athletes pushed back hard, and she owns a piece of the company.
Surely the backlash was expected… right!?
Agency Drama
September into October
WPP poached McCann’s global CEO. Tyler Turnbull jumps from Omnicom to run WPP Creative, as Jon Cook exits after about 30 years at VML.
Remember Publicis walking out of the Coke pitch? WPP is now set to keep Coca-Cola’s global media, and it’s sitting out the North America pitch.
Publicis keeps winning without pitching. Pepsi, Microsoft, LVMH, all with no pitch, and CEO Arthur Sadoun says more clients are skipping the “beauty contest” altogether.
DoorDash named WPP Media its first global media partner, Deliveroo and Wolt included.
CVS Health moved creative to Dentsu Creative and kept Omnicom on media.
Stagwell signed ServiceNow, its biggest multi-agency deal. 3 years, 4 of its agencies.
Indie agency Gut is on a tear. It took Dave & Buster’s creative from Deloitte Digital and just made its first big work for Chipotle.
Rich Silverstein is stepping down from Goodby Silverstein & Partners at the end of the year, 43 years after co-founding it. Yes, the “got milk?” guy.
M&A season. Jordan Zimmerman bought his agency back from Omnicom, 26 years after selling it. MMGY bought R&R Partners, the biggest deal in its 40-year history. And the indies keep merging: Zambezi sold a majority stake to private equity, Chemistry bought Colossus, MSQ bought January Digital and Saylor teamed up with Mutiny. Even Accenture Song bought Sagacity, and Billion Dollar Boy bought Creator Authority, all in the last week.
Between the buybacks and the mergers, independent is looking pretty good right now!
Newly Uncovered
Brands served since the last issue, and what’s new here
From BIG to small, here’s some of who our Hidden Gems have been working with lately. We can’t share the work publicly, but ask me and I’ll tell you what went down.
iShares (Finance), The League (Dating App), Target (Retail), Bloom (CPG/Wellness), Alice Mushrooms (Functional Food)… and more.
From ETFs to a dating app to functional mushrooms. Not a bad range for 5 weeks!
And here are our All Time Favorites from some Hidden Gems
Note: This only showcases creative-led work (Content, Experiential, Design) since it’s the most visibly flashy, but much much more goes on here. Curious about the teams behind any piece of work? The cost, timeline? Just ask!
Also new around here:
The new site is live. TheHiddenGems.com got the full makeover, and it finally looks like the work our Hidden Gems actually do.
We also built a Results & Testimonials page. It’s where I stop talking and let the numbers brag.
Struck Gold?
Your turn
Seen an ad, stunt or campaign lately that made you jealous? Or perhaps you worked on one? Reply with the link. If we feature it, you get the credit by name to our 18,000 subscribers
Philosophical Musing
Jonathan Haidt has a great way to explain antifragile, Nassim Taleb’s word for things that get stronger when they get knocked around.
Knock over a wine glass and it breaks. Knock over a plastic cup and it survives, but nothing good happens. Some things actually need the knock, like your immune system, or your bones (fly to Mars and they get weak).
His clip is about kids, but it really applies to all of us. Full video here.
This year knocked the ad business around plenty, between the holdco mergers, the layoffs and AI crashing every meeting. My bet is the small, independent teams come out of it sharper.
The next knock is already on its way. Might be worth having a few partners on your roster who are built for it.
What the heck is “The Hidden Gems”?
The Hidden Gems was founded by David Drexler to solve for the frequent inefficiencies in the Advertising Agency & Production landscape. We believe that certain, select small/boutique partners give the biggest “bang for the buck”, care, and craft. Your most optimal partners have yet to be uncovered.
We’re THE boutique Agency/Production network. The secret weapon of many marketers, creatives, experientialists, innovators, media mavens, and producers. Every Hidden Gem earned their spot because their clients vouched for them (vehemently!), and anyone who comes through us gets the VIP treatment. Need a partner? We’ll point you to the right one, usually flying under your radar. Literally that simple. Tapping us costs nothing and needs no paperwork.
Reach out to us at any time for questions, needs, inspiration, gutchecks… or a laugh.