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The dizzying move of CDs at agencies has something of a new twist to it, says a knowledgeable recruiter. The times, they are a changin’. So are the top CD posts at agencies all over the US. In recent weeks, a spate of top creative directors have switched jobs. (See chart below.) The list includes the typical movement from one shop to another, as well as slightly more significant moves that involve top creative executives at major multinational network agencies going out on their own to work at either new start ups or smaller, independent shops. The movement has been enough to prompt Advertising Age to publish a lengthy analysis piece on the trend, in which it recounts many of the recent moves and tries to put them into context. For more on the story, click here .) On top of that, the magazine's mystery agency blogger, who goes by the name Creative X, also weighed in on the topic with a posting that went up this week under the headline, “Why New-Hire Creative Bigwigs Barely Make it Through the Appetizers.” In it Mr. or Ms. X calls 2010 “the summer of amicable departures” and warns many of the shape-shifters to “watch where you step.” Leading the report, of course, is the recent announcement by Alex Bogusky of Crispin Porter + Bogusky and MDC Partners that he is leaving the ad business to pursue a raft of other lofty endeavors. But there’s been more than just a single defection of an industry rockstar. Creative director shifts have occurred at smaller agencies, bigger agencies, international agencies, well-regarded agencies, slumping agencies—pretty much a cross-section of the business. For example, Will McGinness, a longtime Goodby CD, has moved cross-town to independent agency Venables, Bell & Partners. In New York, former Y&R Creative Director Darren Moran has been named the new Chief Creative Officer of Draftfcb. Also making news has been the move of Mark Peters from the blazingly hot mcgarrybowen to Deutsch in L.A., where he’ll work on the VW business. In Amsterdam, Jeff Kling resigned from Wieden + Kennedy and has been replaced in the ECD role by the creative team behind the “Write the Future” Nike campaign, Mark Bernath and Eric Quennoy. Marty Cooke, former Creative Director at Chiat\Day’s offices in both New York and Toronto and most recently a partner at SS+K, has left to take on the Chief Creative Officer post at Rapp, the direct response agency. Two moves are notable in that they represent a new holding company-driven agency model dedicated to a single advertiser: Harvey Marco has resigned from JWT New York, where he was Chief Creative Officer, to return to the West Coast (where he was the top creative at Toyota agency Saatchi & Saatchi in Torrance, CA) as the lead creative at Team Mazda, while Sean Thompson leaves 180 Amsterdam to head up Team Volvo, the joint venture agency that includes units of Arnold Worldwide, Euro RSCGT and SapientNitro. Former DDB New York CCO Eric Silver is now a majority owner of Amalgamated.

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