6 CP+B Boulder Executives Leave to Launch Their Own Agency

By Patrick Coffee 

Six VP-level staffers in the Boulder headquarters of Crispin Porter + Bogusky — all of whom worked on the Domino’s Pizza account — left the agency this week to launch their own project with Chuck Porter’s blessing.

VP/ECD Matt Talbott, VP/CD Andrew Lincoln, VP/account director Alex Guerri, VP/account director Evan Russack, VP/ executive integrated producer Stafford Bosak, and VP/executive creative technology director Harold Jones all quit their jobs this week; their last day was Tuesday.

A statement from the CP+B organization:

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We are very grateful to Matt, Andrew, Al, Evan, Stafford and Harold for all of their contributions to CP+B and congratulate them on the launch of their new venture.

Our culture embraces creative thinking, invention and an entrepreneurial spirit. This is the DNA of what has made CP+B one of the most desirable places for creative thinkers to thrive for decades but also means that many of our people ultimately go on to form their own businesses. The Domino’s account, which Andrew and Matt have been recognized for in the past, will continue to be run by Managing Director, Devin Reiter, Chief Creative Officer Ralph Watson, EVP, Executive Creative Director Tony Calcao, and their whole inventive, integrated team who help the business thrive every day.

We do not currently have any details about these six executives’ next venture beyond the fact that it will be based in the Boulder area. It’s not clear whether the new co-founders will bring any accounts with them.

Again, all of the departing staffers worked on Domino’s, which has reinvented itself as “a tech company that happens to sell pizza” with projects like April’s “Zero Click Ordering” app. That app was the last work we saw promoted by the agency, and this spot, which debuted earlier this week, appears to be the company’s first TV ad in several months. But agency spokespeople and the statement above assure us that the relationship between CP+B and Domino’s will continue.

The pizza giant picked CP+B in a late 2007 review after working with Deutsch and JWT; this happened more than two years before Alex Bogusky resigned. Company CMO Russell Weiner, who joined from Pepsi after Domino’s hired Crispin, is now the company’s U.S. president.

In extending the relationship with CP+B in 2014, Weiner credited the agency with Domino’s turnaround following a 2009 video scandal and said, “the thing that has impressed us the most about working with CP+B is the way we have found ways to sustain both our strong results and consistent messages in the four years since.”

Domino’s also announced its Q2 results today, with domestic same-store sales growing at a 9.7% rate to mark the chain’s 21st consecutive positive quarter.

Now, for a blast from the past, here’s Chuck Porter talking Domino’s with a guy you might recognize.

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