The Diary of Putney Swope.

Maurice Levy....Classy Guy

We just received a report from someone that was at a meeting with Maurice Levy and other Publicis team.  Word is, he's as classy a guy as you'll ever meet.  Word from the meeting was...Maurice is a guy that you'd love to be in business with.  Good to hear.  Is John Wren or Sir Martin worried?  Probably not.  Maybe they should be.

OK, You’re About to Lose Your Big Client. Now What The Fu-- Do you Do?

First, put an ad in Craigslist and find a hacker that can break into the client's CMO's computer and find whatever kiddie porn sites he's visited.  If he hasn't visited any, have the hacker make it appear as if he has.

Second, send the client a dead fish wrapped in last week's edition of Ad Age magazine with the message:  "Put your account up for review and your family is going to have to come down to the pier to identify your body."

Third, have your designer photoshop a picture of the client in Michael Jackson's bed at the Neverland ranch.  Have him put in the CareerBuilder's monkeys for good measure.
[Note:  Best to have the designer killed off when he's completed the job so the trail doesn't lead to you so don't use your best person.]

Forth, tell the client "You can't fire us because we're dropping you."  One in five times, a really insecure client will keep you as their agency if you confuse them with this one.

Recently awarded Auto account might be pulling away leaving new agency at the curb wondering "Whaa Happened?".

Per an annonymous tip......our favorite kind.

Someone who characterizes themselves as being on the client side, though not on the marketing team (could be purchasing, consultant, we're not sure) tells us that an auto account that was recently awarded to an agency might not stay in the driveway too long.  Apparently, they liked the pitch team, but aren't too happy with the actual account or "strategy" folks that they've been meeting and there's also been problems with finalizing the financial aspects of the contract.  Seems unnamed agency is taking a hard line on the compensation they're looking for and the client is looking to get them to agree to a lower amount in year one with an escalation in year two based on results.

The tipster added that the agency is being "stupid" because it is a high profile account and will result in them getting a lot of new business.  We replied to annonymous that maybe the client was being "stupid" because it is likely a high profile agency with unique ideas (otherwise they wouldn't have been selected) and not working with them might result in the company selling fewer automobiles.

Wonder what the auto client would say to to a car buyer that asked, "Give me the car for 15% off and if I like it after the first year I'll make it up to you."  Probably something like, Eat Shit.  Everyone needs to remember that every client has clients of their own that they rely on to make a living.  Treat your vendors, service providers, etc. the same way you would want your clients to treat you.  We're not saying you shouldn't go for the best possible price, but understand that people are in business to make money.  If you squeeze all of the money out of the contract, don't be surprised when the provider doesn't seem as motivated to provide their best effort or best people. 

What would you rather win, a OneShow, Clio, D&AD or an Effie?

Last week's unscientific poll about which hot shop was the hottest was very popular given the eMails and views, so over the weekend we decided to do another.  For those that care, there was a little pre-Easter bash going on down in Soho (that's SOuth of HOuston for you non in the know types or out of towners) on Saturday night.  Half of the group was late twenty and thirty year old advertising crowd.  The other half was normal humans.  As the 2006 award season is kicking off the subject of awards and the festivals came up.  It was fairly clear and undisputed that a Cannes Lion is what everyone dreams about.  Even the normal human half said they thought Cannes Lion was the best award.  We can only assume the SoFra (South of FRAnce) location was a contributing factor as none of them had ever heard about the Cannes Lions before.  After that was agreed we took a vote to see which was the second most prestigious award and the results surprised us a bit.

#1 Cannes Lion - Evidently, there is no substitute.

#2 D&AD - The group deemed a yellow pencil to be the next most praised prize.  The overall feeling was that it was the most internationally recognized of the three runner-ups and therefore the best CV stuffer.

#3 OneShow - A best of show here was spoken about in high regard.  That said, the consensus was if you wanted to win one, you better be working on an auto account as Honda work has won the last two (W+K Honda work to be exact) and BMW and Mini work the two years before that.

#4 Clio Award - This was interesting.  The ad industry crowd at the party thought a Grand Clio would have been great for their dads to have won, but not themselves.  While the award has been around for over 40 years, insiders think it's been showing its age the past 5 or so years.  On the other hand, it was the by far most recognized award of any of the non industry people.  Obviously, the brand has extended beyond the industry and quite possibly has higher regard outside rather than inside the advertising community.  It seems the Clio people have more work to do to convince the young ad crowd that it's not your father's Clio any more.

#5 Effies - The group didn't have a lot of awareness of the Effies but agreed anything that took effectiveness into account was a good thing and it was felt that for an agency, a roomful of Effies might impress clients and prospect clients more than Lions, and statues and bears...oh my.

Ernie Schenck wrote a piece this morning asking whether ad award shows were dead.
Here it is.

Check out last year's award show winners to get ready for this year HERE.

Good news for Ogilvy. Their client list just got easier to download (i.e., it's shorter).

One week after losing Motorola, Ogilvy & Mather watches another big name account head for the exit.  Adweek reported that Delta Air Lines has taken its $50 Million account away from Ogilvy, which serviced the account since October 2004.  While Delta certainly can't complain about the quantity of buzz about the airliner, they just wish it was for their terrific service and not their pending bankruptcy.

Ogilvy put together the "Good goes around" work for Delta in early 2005.  Evidently the client thinks good might go around but shitty ad work gets shown the door.

For those keeping score, Ogilvy employees are now forbidden from using Motorola cell phones and flying on Delta planes.  Hopefully they don't lose the Dove Soap account anytime soon, otherwise their offices are going to start reeking worse than the crappy creative work it's been pumping out.

Adweek article here.

Who's better: Crispin, Mother or Strawberry Frog?

First, this is a bit subjective and kind of like asking the question; In a fight between Superman and Spiderman, who would kick the shit out of the other.  Subjectiveness aside, this question was thrown out at a recent industry get together.  The group consisted of a handful of creatives, one account guy and a couple of marketer types with real jobs (product manager types). 

Everyone thought Crispin has done some great work in the past (except the marketer types who thought they heard of Crispin Porter but weren't certain), but the feeling was that they went more for the creative punchline than "effective marketing".  Specifically brought up was the Subservient Chicken work.  While everyone loved it (except for the marketer types who hadn't seen it) they felt it did a hell of a lot more to promote the agency than the client or its product (chicken we all guessed).  Mother was thought to be very creative in developing a new process for being creative but no one could point to any specific creative.  We didn't think that was necessarily fair and pointed out the Miller Draft and Fanta-Z work they did in the UK.  Everyone (except the marketer types that had never seen it or heard of Mother) agreed it was great, but felt it epitomized Mother in that they were great at 30 sec spots but haven't moved beyond that while Crispin had.  Then comes Strawberry Frog.  Very impressive said most and they all agreed it was the agency they'd most like to work for now.  Noted by all (except the marketer types that had never heard of Frog, but thought it was a cool name) was their work for Heineken and Old Navy.  When specific work was pointed out it was the first time the marketer types acknowledged having recalled it and thought it was terrific.

Without further adieu....the very scientific rankings of Superman, Spide...ahem, we mean Crispin, Mother and Strawberry Frog by our 9 person panel are as follows:

#1  Strawberry Frog

#2 Crispin Porter

#3 Mother

There you have it.  Congrats to Frog and better luck next time to the other finalists.  We thought the interesting thing was the fact that the marketers had such little knowledge of what industry people think are the hot shops.  These weren't CMOs, but they were people in key marketing roles at the director and vp level.  Is it possible that we're a bit too self-important about our industry?  One marketer specifically said, I can count all the agencies I know by name on both hands (means 10 or less dumb asses), but that doesn't mean I'd want to work with them.  I'd rather work with some new cutting-edge group.  I'd just have to be told who they are.
Cheers to that.

Open Season on Ad Industry Journalists (Wren take's AdAge's Cramer behind woodshed for old fashion ass-kicking)

First it was Ron Berger at last week's 4As conference stating that the Ad Industry would be better if the reporters that covered it knew more about the industry they wrote about.  Ouch...

Industry Execs: 1  |  Industry Journalists: 0

Now John Wren, CEO of Omnicom, takes a couple of pieces out of the ass of AdAge reporter Matthew Cramer.  Here's a couple of his remarks in an article about why Wren selected a relatively unknown and non-traditional agency guy as the new CEO of DDB.

"With all due respect, I have to bring you up a little bit short in thinking about the ad-agency-proper, as you would put it, the idea that magazines like yourselves and your competitors are the voice of what's happening in marketing today. You're not."

Industry Execs:  2  |  Industry Journalists:  0

He went on to bash poor Msgr Cramer

"I'm not trying to be difficult. You're really wrongheaded about it if you look at it on a global basis. This is marketing services, not advertising. It's a point I'm railing [about] with you and it's a point I make in front of every group I can."

Industry Execs:  3  |  Industry Journalists:  0

Something tells me that John Wren will not be getting a Christmas card from Matty this year.  Anyone that has read this blog before knows that we are not big fans of Adage's reporting.  That said we give them and Cramer a lot of credit for publishing the piece as is.

Adage Article here.

We're just waiting for Stuart Elliot's turn at bat.  He brings a significantly larger stick to the plate so it will be interesting to see if the execs are as willing to take him on directly.

4A's Management Conference for CEOs, sans the CEOs.

We got a copy of the attendee list for last week's 4As Management Conference for Agency CEOs.  It looked like a great group, but was surprisingly lacking in real CEO attendance.  Of the top 10 U.S. agency brands only 4 CEOs were in attendance (Leo Burnett, McCann, BBDO and FCB).  There was not one, repeat, not one, holding company CEO that made the trip.  On top of that, two of the top 10, JWT and Grey, sent absolutely no one to the conference.  Not a CEO, not an EVP, not an account manager, not a creative soul, not a receptionist...no one.  I know they're touting their high attendance level, which is great, but maybe it's time they rename the conference something more appropriate.

AAAA 2007 Management Conference for 40% of the Agency CEOs and Other Randoms

Yes, that should do nicely.

Ron Berger calls for Jihad on Martin Sorrell and Ad Industry Reporters.

At this year's 4A's meeting, outgoing chairman, Ron Berger, made some candid comments to the 400+ attendees about what would make the ad industry better...And we quote:

"The advertising industry would be better if there were more holding company ceos like John Wren and less like Martin Sorrell."

.....and he continued....

"The advertising industry would be better if the reporters that covered it knew more about the industry the wrote about."

He also gave some shit to ANA ceo Bob Liodice and MediaVest's ceo Jack Klues.  We have no word on what exactly was up his ass, but clearly he wasn't looking to go out with a warm and fuzzy.  And all we can say is:  Good for him.

We've tried to reach Sir Martin's PR machine, but we're told they are in the war room preparing a full scale attack.  Stuart Elliot and Scott Donaton were overheard speaking about enlisting with Sir Martin's merry-men after the reporter comment.

adage's take on the first strike