I’VE TAKEN A PARTNER.

The partners here have had a lot of discussions about moving the agency forward and getting to the next level. It became clear that if I could find someone who had a track record of creating award-winning work across all channels, who was renowned in the industry for his new media prowess, and who was a really nice guy, well, then there would be nothing VB&P couldn’t do. To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure this mythological creature existed. But it does. And it goes by the name Will McGinness.

I’m thrilled and downright giddy to say, Will McGinness is joining forces with VB&P (you can read the press release here). He’ll be my creative partner, and he’ll work across accounts just as I do. His title will be my title: Creative Director. The creative leaders here now have another complementary resource to turn to for guidance and direction and multi-platform thinking.

It’s an exciting time. For the agency. For me, personally. And even for the industry, if I may be so bold. It’s going to expect great things from this combination. And I can tell you with complete certainty, the people of this agency are ready for the challenge. Especially the new guy.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND.

Last week Paul returned to the Ron Owens show on ABC radio out of San Francisco. If you want to know what his biggest pet peeve is when watching football, the best place to learn how to be a copywriter and why McDonald’s uses the colors yellow and red to sell hamburgers, tune in here.

THE SF EGOTISTS ASKS. PAUL ANSWERS.

This week, the San Francisco Egotist featured Paul in a Q&A. Read here about the best advice he ever received, why the world doesn’t need another ad agency, and why he thinks San Francisco trumps New York.

OUR CLIENTS AREN’T LIKE YOUR CLIENTS.

Ad Age has named our Intel client, Deborah Conrad, a “Woman to Watch.” This is not exactly news to us. We fell in love with her as a client on day one, and she’s been pivotal in leading our work for “Sponsors of Tomorrow.” As Paul Venables tells Ad Age, “All great clients are smart, intuitive and courageous, and Deborah Conrad is all of the above. But what makes her the kind of client the agency bleeds for is how she is as a person.” Thanks, Deborah, for being a rockstar client and for making us all look good.

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE ADS.

In a recent Adweek article, Paul Venables gave some wise advice on starting your own agency. According to Paul, his smartest business decision was not just opening VB&P, but also building the right agency culture. “The tendency is for grizzled creative veterans to open a shop and think it’s all about the ads. It isn’t. It’s about the people. Attract the right people and they will create the right ads,” he said. And there’s more. To learn about his biggest mistake, read here.

HE CAN’T TYPE.

But boy can he run an ad agency. Listen to this BrandTrackers podcast and hear how Paul Venables rose from receptionist to advertising entrepreneur without ever passing a typing test.

VB&P UNPLUGGED.

Last month, advertising blog I Have An Idea came into VB&P to find out what’s in our secret sauce. After sitting down with Partners Paul Venables and Lucy Farey-Jones to learn about our agency’s culture, work and philosophy, author Maya Zaremba concluded, VB&P’s “very unique culture and creative approach will have us banging at their door and begging to be let in for as long as we work in advertising.” Read about what makes us so unique here.

THE OLD WORLD MEETS THE NEW.

Want to know what the New York Times said about the meteoric rise of the automobile circa 1914? Or when astronauts landed on the moon in 1969? Then check out our expandable takeover of the New York Times homepage that celebrates the century’s great achievements via a virtual museum of original New York Times articles. This Intel-sponsored tour begins right here.

INSPIRATION, VB&P STYLE.

Paul Venables was recently asked by Fast Company’s 30 Second MBA how he inspires employees. Instead of using the allotted 30 seconds, Paul provided a three word answer. See it here.

THE BUZZ AROUND VB&P’S VIRTUAL WATER COOLER.

Today, Venables Bell & Partners launched its Twitter Cooler MMX to house a virtual office environment that data visualizes the online conversations happening around our Super Bowl ads for VIZIO, Intel and Audi.

Say what you will about the death of the TV spot — the Super Bowl is still the biggest stage for brands to reach a mass audience, reaching 100 million consumers. And, the life of an ad won’t stop on Sunday. VB&P found that 41% of Super Bowl watchers plan to re-watch their favorite ads online and that Americans are just as likely to discuss ads as they are plays after the game.

“A Super Bowl spot is a pretty important marketing asset, but perhaps what’s more valuable is the amount of chatter and buzz that spot creates online. So, today, we’re unleashing a virtual water cooler – a data visualizer to track the conversations our three Super Bowl spots ignite,” said Paul Venables, founder and creative director, VB&P.

The Twitter Cooler is an extension of a project VB&P created last year to track the online chatter around its 2009 Super Bowl spot for Audi. The Twitter Cooler MMX builds on the idea but replaces the simple infographic approach with a retro videogame-styled office environment and pixel avatars to represent tweets related to the three, different Super Bowl spots it made for Audi, Intel and VIZIO. The visualizer tracks twitter messages from a week before the Super Bowl to a week after, and displays them in a time-lapse animation that the user can also control manually.