Speaking at the Fairmont Southampton resort in Bermuda at the AAAA management Conference, Volvo CEO and President Anne Belec openly asked the audience, ad agency managers, for new advertising ideas. Apparently, it was as if Vida Guerra, clad in a thong, bent over in front of a bunch of salivating drunks at a bachelor party. You could hear the drool hitting the floor as agency execs suddenly realized one of the biggest car accounts might be looking for a new agency.
Pulling a proverbial Burka over this tantalizing thought, Volvo agency Euro-RSCG CEO Ron Berger calmed the crowd saying, "Those of you who just think that account went into review, that's not what happened, just to be clear." Party pooper.
Ad Age has released its annual Agency Report indicating U.S. agency revenue grew 8.6 percent to $17.59 billion. Fifty Seven percent of that figure was generated by the four agency holding companies; Omnicom, WPP, Interpublic and Publicis.
Sadly, we're behind on this one but AdFreak brings us up to date informing us ten year veteran Deutsch art director Jeison Rodriguez was fired last week a few months ago for sending out, via email, pictures of Donnie Donny Deutsch, wearing a Speedo and sporting a Mullet, he found on company servers. While Rodriguez meant it as a joke, Donny did not see it that way. Perhaps he's just in a bad mood over his agency's recent hemmoraging of clients.
In-game advertising company IGA Worldwide, Wednesday announced the formation of a global specialist media group dedicated to advertising opportunities in the game space, using their technology enabled media network to help brands reach millions of consumers.
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Troubled Young & Rubicam network is replacing Chairman and CEO Ann Fudge even though she will retain the position at Young & Rubicam Brands for the last year of her three year contact.
With the loss of the $150 million Jaguar account, top executive defections and recent IPO and takeover activity, times have been tough for Young & Rubicam and its CEO Ann Fudge. Business Week takes a look at the struggling agency and asks whether CEO Fudge's time has come.
Adland publisher Åsk Wäppling has posted an old commercial on her site in which she appears. She ended up in the commercial through a strange turn of events ten years ago while working on a new business pitch for Expressen Fredag for which she was charged target audience research. Unfortunately, her agency did not win the account due, apparently, to her "fool" of a creative director.
"I had spent days researching the target group (even though I was just 22, I thought I'd interview the target kids between 16-25 to understand them better) to figure out what would appeal to them/how to talk to them," Åsk said. "When I presented that and my conclusions and my ideas, he CD self confidently stated that he "knew" what kids liked, saying, 'I know what the young kids like, I have a VIP card to [name of hip club],' and proceeded to ignore my advice."
Oddly, while not winning the account, she ended up in the commercial anyway. Upon her insights being dissed, Åsk said, "I went out and vented my frustrations by playing pinball all night (there is a machine behind me [in the ad]), and a photographer came up and asked to shoot me for some 'Hip kids reportage'. Turns out the photographer was working for the competing agency, they won the account, and a few weeks later my face was all over MTV."
Gloating happily, she adds, "I was pretty damn chuffed to end up in the competing agencies winning campaign. It was like really rubbing that guys nose in it." The commercial can be viewed here. And yes, you have to subscribe to view.
