This video pokes fun at the ad industry’s obsession with awards

In the “Beautiful Sounds” campaign’s 60-second spot, people are shown listening and identifying unpleasant sounds such as traffic, typing, a toilet flushing and a kettle’s whistling. At the end of the commercial, it is revealed these people are only able to hear these ugly noises thanks to HearingLife hearing aids.

The campaign, which launched earlier this month, is running on broadcast and is supplemented with social executions.

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Summit Hill Foods keeps media business in Cincinnati

Cincinnati-based agency Curiosity has been named media AOR for Summit Hill Foods, without a formal review. Under the new relationship, Curiosity will manage above-the-line media strategy, planning and buying, along with strategic partnerships across the food company’s full product portfolio with an initial focus on its Better Than Bouillon and Louisiana Hot Sauce brands.

The account was formerly handled by fellow Cincinnati-based agency Empower while creative duties, which were not up for review, remain with Blackbird NYC.

“Moving our media business to Curiosity wasn’t just about their capabilities and experience,” Brad Olsen, VP of marketing at Summit Hill Foods said in a statement. “It was also about their culture and values, both of which were so deeply aligned with our own. We’ll be ramping up marketing efforts across a number of our flagship brands throughout 2022, diving more heavily into a mix of national TV and unique influencer partnerships. Curiosity is the perfect partner to help bring these initiatives to fruition.”

S4’s third-quarter earnings

S4 Capital announced its third-quarter earnings this week. The Martin Sorrell-led company reported third-quarter like-for-like net revenue up over 42%, to £144.4 million, which will keep it on track to surpass its full-year target of 40% net revenue growth.

“Following an exceptionally strong second quarter, we saw continued very strong momentum in the third quarter, which was ahead of the revised 40% top line like-for-like guidance,” Sorrell said. “We now have secured six “whoppers” and identified nineteen more potentials, setting up the possibility of exceeding our 20 target. The pandemic has proven to be an accelerator of digital marketing transformation and we are taking full advantage of this opportunity by choosing to invest a proportion of our EBITDA margin in growth.” In S4 parlance, “whoppers” are accounts over $20 million.

The company’s numbers come after S4 launched its unified brand under the Media.Monks name in August.

Just briefly

Havas Media has been named global media partner for four International Airlines Group airlines: Iberia, Vueling, Level, and IAG Cargo. Havas was chosen as part of a wider IAG review that saw Omnicom Media Group pick up the British Airways media account from WPP.

Dentsu has appointed Kai Weidle as its first senior VP of diversity, equity and inclusion for its media operations in the Americas.

Circus Maximus has named Alberto Quintero as its first executive creative director and Meghan Cermack as its director of account services. The agency also promoted Ashley Richardson-George to its first-ever chief content officer and partner. Cermack replaces Alaina Andreozzi, who left to take on a role as head of brand marketing for Suma Brands.

MRM, which is part of McCann Worldgroup, has appointed Félix del Valle as chief creative officer of it’s Spain office.  Valle takes over for Miguel Bemfica, who left the agency in July. Valle previously served as Ogilvy Brazil’s chief creative officer for six years.

GroupM’s Essence has named Anthony Reeves as its president and global client partner. Prior to taking on the newly created positions, Reeves served as managing partner at Courageous.

Settle-based agency DNA has brought on Mishy Cass as creative director. Before taking on this role, which is part of an expansion of the agency’s creative department, Cass served as group creative director for outdoor recreation brand REI.

Deloitte Digital has hired Lauren Lavalle as head of client engagement and Brooks Day for the newly created role of managing director and studios leader for the west coast. Lavalle is taking over duties for Leyland Streiff, who was recently elevated to general manager, leading advertising across the business.

Natural food products distributor Bolthouse Farms has named The Many as its advertising AOR and Finn Partners as its public relations AOR. Both agencies won the account as part of a competitive review process. New York-based PR firm Peppercomm was the incumbent for communications. Bolthouse Farms says it has worked with multiple agencies on projects in the past but none in AOR capacity.

Contributing: Keira Wingate