A 180-Metre Moustache, the Un-Holding Company and the Happiest Fans in Baseball

Named T-Mobile’s lead creative agency, billing it as “the Un-carrier meets the un-holding company.” The remit covers enterprise-wide creative strategy and full-funnel advertising, with multicultural partner MEL brought in to grow T-Mobile’s engagement with the Hispanic market.

Started in Auckland in 2007 with one desk, three chairs and zero clients. Now spread across eight offices from Tokyo to New York, it has partnered with Waterman Capital for a significant investment to “go further, faster,” while being clear it’s not a change in who they are.

Kicked off a new partnership with Mondelēz International with its first project for Halls Mexico: a slow-down-and-breathe pit stop at the Mexican Grand Prix built around Checo Pérez.

Had been sitting on a secret for two years. In front of 3,000 hoteliers, BWH Hotels officially became WorldHotels: one masterbrand and one loyalty program uniting 4,000 hotels across 18 brands in 100+ countries.

Tapped Jenna Martin as SVP, Director of Strategic Growth, with coverage landing in MediaPost and LBB.

Named Global Independent Agency of the Year at the LIA, London International Awards, with its Toronto office taking Regional Independent Agency of the Year for North America.

Took home three “Of The Year” titles at LIA: Global Independent Network, Europe Regional Independent Network, and Europe Regional Independent Agency for Serviceplan Munich. Sister company Mediaplus Group placed second in Media Company of the Year.

Named Global and Regional Independent Health & Pharma Agency of the Year for the fourth consecutive year, and picked up Global Independent Health & Pharma Network of the Year for the first time. That came on top of 23 recognitions: 3 Gold, 5 Silver, 6 Bronze and 9 finalists.

Amy Reynolds, SVP Communications Strategy & Media Investment, made Ad Age’s 2026 Media Buying Power List. The stat that stands out: 42% revenue growth on just 15% more spend for a client.

Work for American Century Investments reached 127 million people across 34 media outlets with $0 in paid support, collecting one Platinum and two Gold MarCom Awards. Their favorite part: the story had been true for 37 years. “It just needed something to wear.”

Elsewhere on the shortlists, McKinney’s Pickle Quest landed on the Clio Entertainment shortlist, and Special New Zealand is a finalist in four categories at Campaign Asia-Pacific’s Agency of the Year Awards, including an Agency Head nod for SPECIAL PR Managing Director Kelly Grindle.

Wrote down what an agentic vendor had to prove before booking a single demo, then scored more than 70 partners against those criteria. Their working principle, “LLMs recommend, and rules approve,” let one national franchise launch campaigns across 143 locations in a single day with zero manual builds.

Darcy McCarthy and David Mihalovic dig into how Generative Engine Optimization is changing health information discovery, arguing the new question for brands is what AI is saying about them and where it’s getting that from.

The latest Klick Wire looks at AI’s growing role in health insurance decisions, with 48% of Americans reportedly using it to choose coverage, and takes a closer look at the evidence behind the adoption numbers.

Renee Williams Royal, President of Test Tube Productions, has a one-word answer for how to use AI on a production: “Carefully.” Her piece makes the case for AI joining the crew rather than replacing it.

Countering a 2026 survey where 49% of Americans see AI as a risk (versus 43% who see a benefit) with “Codex Originals” for OpenAI, spotlighting builders like Sotira’s Amrita Bhasin, who’s working on preventing product waste.

If you want to hear agency CEOs talk shop on it, Jean Freeman joins the Mirren AI Forum tomorrow, November 4, for a session on how AI is reshaping the agency model.

Ran 108,303 fan comments through its ellain platform to rank MLB playoff fanbases by sentiment. Milwaukee Brewers fans topped the list at +31.42%, nearly double second place, while Houston Astros fans came in dead last at −28.02%. The Yankees and Red Sox also landed in negative territory.

Spotlighted Langrand’s “Still Waiting” women’s health report: 73% of women surveyed have felt dismissed by providers because of their gender, a third have experienced a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, and only 14% fully trust traditional healthcare institutions to understand their needs.

A conversation with Hostfully’s Frank Bosi has a stat built for the hospitality crowd: midterm stays are just 1.72% of reservations but 20% of booked nights. Bonus anecdote: an AI tool flagged the word “fire” in a guest message and alerted authorities, saving an estimated $30,000 in damage.

A busy week in the press. The firm turned up in The Economist’s piece on Google’s $500bn bloodbath and the danger it faces from AI, and a Brian Wieser note cited by Adweek found pass-through costs accounted for almost all of Omnicom’s Q3 headline gain, with net organic growth likely flat. On the latest podcast, he and Luke Stillman cover slowing ad growth at Amazon and Google plus Anthropic’s S-1 and its $1B+ ad budget.

Franziska Gregor decodes the kidult economy for Campaign Germany: toys for people 12 and up generated around €1.8 billion in German sales over the past year, 35% of the total market and up 15% year over year.

Spotted the same trend from a different angle, noting how Thinkerbell helped Mattel sidestep LEGO by selling its kidult construction sets on Australia’s largest car-selling platform. DCA also unpacked Coca-Cola’s 11% customer base growth after ditching brand love as its main metric, and e.l.f. and Tombras going full goofy to sell haircare.

CCO Amy Ferguson told Ad Age why the backlash to Liberty Biberty, a 40,000-member hate group and a protest outside HQ, might be marketing gold. Bandits & Friends shared the story too, with nothing more than a Statue of Liberty and a crown emoji.

Teamed with Ogilvy PR ANZ to carve a 180-metre moustache into the red dirt near Broken Hill, NSW for Movember. Australia’s Giant Mo, ideally visible from the International Space Station if it’s willing to take the picture.

GPJ and sister agency Raumtechnik Messebau & Event Services GmbH built a 1,700-square-meter ecosystem anchored by “The Halo” for Schneider Electric at Hannover Messe. Raumtechnik also delivered a 740 m², two-storey stand for voestalpine Railway Systems at InnoTrans, complete with a 180 m² double-decker lounge.

Went to Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia to cover Canada Goose’s Snow Goose FW26 Expedition on social, juggling limited connectivity and tight edit turnarounds in one of the most remote shoots you’ll read about this year.

Ran four shooting teams simultaneously at Sonoma Raceway for Toyota NorCal’s GR lineup, arm car, custom FPV drone and all, rain notwithstanding.

With Texas Pete, made a six-episode found-footage horror series built for vertical video, with a hot sauce twist on every classic horror trope.

Helped MUJI Canada open its first Vancouver Island store by inviting Victoria residents to nominate local businesses as official partners. More than 500 people lined up on opening morning.

CEO Stephen Brown told Advertising Week’s Agency Alchemy show that great work should drive growth, not the other way around, in an industry fixated on consolidation.

CEO Hannah Hattie Matthews argues in LBB that a brand idea creators can’t pick up and play with is just a corporate monologue.

Swapped designers for a week with Iceland’s Brandenburg and is turning the experiment, called ShopSwap™, into a program. Applications to swap talent are open.

Karl Sakas has advice for owners whose clients keep skipping the account lead, and Legal+Creative | Toerek Law offers a timely reminder on handling “can we add one more thing?” before it becomes an invoice-time fight.

Drew McLellan sat down with Play Bigger co-author Kevin Maney on why being “better” is a trap and owning a category isn’t, while Gus CCO Spencer LaVallee told Muse by Clios about living at the intersection of strategy and creative.

Danielle Wiley and Casey Benedict tackle why creator partnerships break down, including why campaign interest isn’t a confirmed booking.

Created a koozie that “turns alcohol into consent in a can” to call out a New York loophole that can sink sexual assault cases if the survivor had been drinking, and to push for a vote on Bill A101.

Marks Men’s Health Awareness Month 14 years after launching Man Therapy®, the campaign built to help men take mental health as seriously as physical health.

Opened applications for Dream Big 2027, its pro bono program for nonprofits ready for their biggest year. Vladimir Jones is marking Native American Heritage Month by supporting the American Indian College Fund, and Mintz + Hoke was recognized at the FOX61/CW20 and United Way ImpaCT Awards for its work with AllWorkCT.