Reports that:

Toys R Us today said it would take the broadcast creative portion of its ad account in-house.

That work was awarded to Interpublic Group’s Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos here one year ago following a review. The client spends $85 million annually on ads, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

In a statement, the client said: “Toys R Us and Hill, Holliday have mutually agreed to end their agency-client relationship. Going forward, Toys R Us has decided to take advantage of its growing in-house creative and strategic resources to develop its broadcast advertising, but will continue to utilize outside strategic, creative and production resources on an as-needed basis.”

As far as I know, Hill Holliday done a decent job in keeping accounts i wonder what REALLY happened here. Certainly companies can build in-house creative departments but usually there’s an instigator for this, whether it’s quality control, tighter budget, etc. Anyone know? Drop us an email agencybs AT gmail DOT COM

AdWeek ran an article about VC, Mark Kvamme, and his advice to agencies for the future. His thoughts are that being a world class creative shop exclusively won’t be enough.

“You have to have world-class creative but you have to have world-class tech folks who can translate that into conversations,” said Kvamme, currently a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley’s leading VC firms.

For those of us that have been working in the interactive/digital since it began know that you need to have a tech base. After all “back in the day” creative was minimal if at all. Even today with fast broadband speeds, all flash/video sites are still reserved for a specific target audience and relegated to the “Micro/mini” site. If this were Japan or Korea it’d be a different story. I think it’s largely common sense to either have an in-house tech/dev solution or to at least closely partner with a shop that does. The shops that decide they’re only going to do creative and nothing but have their days numbered.

-By Andrew McMains

NEW YORK Young & Rubicam here has landed creative duties on Cellular South, a regional telecommunications provider based in Jackson, Miss., the client confirmed today. Estimated billings are $30 million, per sources.

The WPP Group shop added the account without a review. Previously, Omnicom Group’s Martin/Williams in Minneapolis handled the business.

Media duties, also at M/W, are shifting to WPP’s Maxus here, according to the client.

“From a strategy standpoint, we do make changes from time to time. And, at this point, we felt [it was] best to make a change,” said a client representative.

Interactive duties remain at Huge, an independent in New York.

Cellular South, which describes itself as the largest privately-held wireless provider in the U.S., focuses primarily on four states in the Southeast: Mississippi, Tennessee and parts of Alabama and Florida.

Past major media spending on the brand has ranged between $5-10 million. Last year’s total was nearly $10 million, up from about $6 million in 2006, according to TNS Media Intelligence. This year’s spending, however, will increase “significantly,” according to the rep, though he declined to provide a specific figure.

Y&R, which referred calls the client, announced the win internally today via an e-mail from New York managing partner Shelley Diamond and co-executive creative directors Scott Vitrone and Ian Reichenthal.

The agency’s creative is expected to take the form of TV, radio, outdoor and in-store ads, as well as promotions