Need 'Em?: DDB/Chicago Not Hunting for Help By Beth Heitzman with Jim Kir

Rocked by the defections three weeks ago of three key creatives, DDB Needham Chicago last week lost another senior creative from its Bud Li

Associate creative director and nine-year agency veteran Terry Cosgrove resigned last week to join The Leap Partnership/Chicago. TLP, a creative-only shop, was created three weeks ago (ADWEEK 9/20) by three former Needham creatives – former svp/group creative director Joe Sciarrotta, vp/creative director George Gier and vp/executive producer Fred Smith. Cosgrove had worked most recently in Sciarrotta’s group, primarily on the Bud Light account.
‘I really believe in these guys and what they want to do,’ Cosgrove said of the TLP partners. ‘I’ve been looking for a more entrepreneurial opportunity and now is the right time.’
Before his stint at Needham, Cosgrove worked at the former Grey North, Chicago, and at Leo Burnett Co.
A replacement for Sciarrotta has not yet been named and in the interim executive vp/executive cd Bob Scarpelli is running the Bud Light creative group, according to agency president Susan Gillette.
But in the wake of the latest creative resignations (co-executive creative director David Jenkins left the agency earlier this year), rumors surfaced within Needham that the agency creative ranks might be augmented with some outside firepower. Several Needham staffers last week said they had been led to believe David Fowler, chief creative officer of sister agency Tracy-Locke/DDB Needham, Dallas, would be tapped to join the Chicago office.
‘Absolutely not true,’ said Gillete of the Fowler rumor. DDB Needham Worldwide spokesman Lou Tripodi said both Fowler and Scarpelli are ‘doing great jobs where they are. We haven’t even thought of making such a change.’
Other speculation centered on DDB Needham chairman/ceo Keith Reinhard spending more time in Chicago, working with the management staff here. Tripodi acknowledged Reinhard has been spending more time in the Chicago office to head pitches for the United Dairy Association/National Dairy Board and Ameritech, but said Reinhard’s time in Chicago would ‘not be accelerated. It would be impossible with his schedule.’
Agency sources also said last week that senior vp/group creative director Fran Johns has been shifted to a new business, creative role and that creative staffers reporting to her have been transferred to other groups.
Johns was out of the office and a Needham spokesperson declined comment.
Copyright Adweek L.P. (1993)