San Francisco agencies Heat and MUH-TAY-ZIK |HOF-FER have traded talent. Specifically, director of talent Katie Ramp, who moved from the former shop to the latter after nearly 6 years.
Both agencies have made some changes since they were acquired last year by Deloitte and VCCP, respectively. (No, the latter deal was not a “traditional” M&A. But its details remain unclear.)
As we hear it, new business efforts have been challenging for both shops over the past year, with many pitches but no PR-worthy wins.
According to one party with direct knowledge of the matter, Heat has increasingly been working on Deloitte-related projects as its parent company becomes one of its largest clients. Longtime employees have adjusted, and some members of the leadership team are allegedly constrained by generous “golden handcuffs” benefits packages designed to discourage them from going elsewhere.
That said, Heat did hire several parties away from shops like AKQA, Pereira & O’Dell, VB&P and Havas directly after the Deloitte deal. It then opened a New York office led by founders Steve Stone and John Elder with Evan Slater on creative, and its c-suite remains largely unchanged.
On the MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER side, the agency went thorough a small round of layoffs in both offices earlier in May, several months after promoting four new associate partners. As we hear it, less than ten individuals were affected, though the group did include creative director Todd Bois.
An agency spokesperson declined to comment on the news.
For the parent companies, Deloitte recently announced a new partnership with British engineering company McLaren Applied Technologies to “build data-driven business products” while VCCP debuted its first campaign as Canon’s new global creative AOR.