We Hear: Staffing Changes at Factory Design Labs

By Patrick Coffee 

Factory DesignWe have yet to receive an official statement from the agency after multiple requests, but we can confirm that some staffing changes have occurred at Denver-based Factory Design Labs.

The most visible move comes atop the shop: Scott Mellin, who until recently served as CEO, now occupies the chief brand officer role. Agency founder Jonas Tempel has stepped in to assume the chief position moving forward; he served as both CEO and creative director for several years before launching a separate project called Beatport, and he has held the Chairman/Special Projects title since 2010.

We hear that other staffers are no longer with Factory’s Denver office, but we do not have concrete details at the moment.

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Sources list past and pending business shifts as the reason for the change.

More than a year ago, we posted on the dissolution of the relationship between the agency and Callaway Golf, a client whose account it won in 2011. (Callaway’s “creative director” Justin Timberlake worked on related campaigns back in 2012.)

At the time of that post, readers also mentioned Oakley, which had tapped Factory for project-based work in the past. Back in May the company’s CEO told AdAge that it was conducting a review but has yet to announce a new AOR or confirm any of the names among a list of “at least 15” agencies. Factory has also produced work for Jim Beam, which sent its digital work to Mekanism in August after sticking with US incumbent StrawberryFrog in an early 2013 review.

The most recent change, however, concerns The North Face. The company has released no statements on its supposedly ongoing agency review, but in November general consensus held that the outdoor brand, which picked Factory as its AOR in 2007, was reviewing its options after assigning the TV portion of its business to Mekanism and launching a new campaign.

Updates when we get them.

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