Grey–the advertising agency that invented “Leave the Driving to Us” for Greyhound, created the E*TRADE baby, and more recently made your hearts melt with Pantene “DadDos”–is celebrating 100 years. Rising from a one-room, one-man operation to Global Agency of the Year, Grey is kicking off this monumental achievement with a global summit and the reveal of a new visual identity for the entirety of the 2017 Centennial year.
On Monday night (5/15), 200 agency leaders from around the world came together at the Whitney Museum to begin a week-long series of activities that look at the legacy of Grey and discuss the future of advertising. At the dinner, Jim Heekin, chairman and CEO, and Michael Houston, global president, revealed a new commemorative logo to celebrate this legacy: a remarkable combination of design and technology that celebrates the colorful minds of its 5,000 employees by scanning their brainwaves and turning them into art.
“As Grey turns 100, we want to celebrate our individual and collective creativity, the power of diverse minds colliding to create new and beautiful things,” said Houston. “Our new logo represents the power of our diverse and colorful minds and the people whose ideas have made Grey into a leader in creativity.”
The logo was created using a 3D-printed bio-sensing, brainwave-monitoring headset. The headsets read electrical activity as employees worked on real briefs and a custom algorithm then generated colorful images of these brainwaves that Grey termed “Brain Portraits.”
Each portrait was unique, but many of them were combined to create the new Centennial logo, integrating global employees’ readings into the final product, which represents the diversity of thought that fuels Grey’s creativity. The headsets were shipped to Grey’s offices around the world, including Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, and the UK.
The Centennial celebration kick off will also include the debut of a book on the history of the agency’s first century, a global leadership summit with speaker Martine Rothblatt, a gala dinner at Madison Square Park–hosted by actress and singer Jane Krakowski–and future-facing announcements.
SMPTE elects board officers, regional governors
SMPTE®,the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has revealed the board officers and regional governors who will serve terms beginning in January 2025.
Three new officers--Richard Welsh as SMPTE president, Eric Gsell as SMPTE executive VP, and Polly Hickling as SMPTE Education VP--have been elected for a two-year term from Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2026. One SMPTE officer, Lisa Hobbs, will be continuing her service as SMPTE secretary and treasurer for another two-year term. Additionally, Raymond Yeung will be stepping into the role of standards VP on Jan. 1, 2025.
“SMPTE’s membership has spoken,” said SMPTE interim executive director Sally-Ann D’Amato. “These officers have been tasked with an important responsibility, one each of them is prepared to tackle head-on. These next two years are looking bright for SMPTE!”
In addition to the officers, 10 regional governors were elected by the Society to serve two-year 2025-2026 terms.
These include the following regional governors, re-elected to continue their service:
Asia-Pacific Region Governor
Tony Ngai, Society of Motion Imaging Ltd.
EMEA - Central & South America Region Governor
Fernando Bittencourt, FB Consultant
United Kingdom Region Governor
Chris Johns, Sky UK.
USA - Central Region Governor
William T. Hayes, Consultant
USA - Eastern Region Governor
Dover Jeanne Mundt, Riedel Communications
USA - Western Region Governor
Jeffrey F. Way, Open Drives
Also elected were four newcomers to the SMPTE Board:
Canada Region Governor
Jonathan Jobin, Grass Valley
USA - Hollywood Region Governor
Allan Schollnick, Voxx... Read More