AKQA was named digital agency of the year by AdWeak. Okay. Sure. The Cult of Ajaz, whose powers are supposedly as intense as a religious leader, which keeps people in the firm, have had a stellar year. Well, except for Andrew O’Dell, who was president of the interactive shop’s flagship and ECD P.J. Pereira who departed the flagship office of SF to form their own agency. It’s been described as a “post-digital” shop. What do you think “post digital” means?
And also, Martin Cedergren, the executive creative director of AKQA Amsterdam, left the agency to join creative shop 180 Amsterdam last week.
AKQA was the very long shot in our Digital Dead Pool (someone had to do it). We congratulate the agency on weathering what could of been some stormy seas with its addition of new services and companies (analytics, SEM). We also pointed to the danger inherent with navigating integration plans, which often fail to bring shops together and spur strong creatives to bail. So, hmm… Is this a Crispin syndrome where the agency also functions as an incubator for top talent or is top creative leaving because the agency has swerved away from its original small office mentality and mission? We’ll see…