The Diary of Putney Swope.

AdAge's Women to Watch 2006 | Blacks and Hispanics Need Not Apply

We were reviewing AdAge's Women to Watch 2006 and we were struck by the fact that there's apparently no Black or Hispanic female ad execs worth watching this year.  Out of a list of 26 women that AdAge's editors deemed worthy, there's not one darker than a pale shade of maple on the entire list.  Are you kidding me?  Considering the explosion that has taken place in multi-cultural advertising, there's not one sister or hispister (Hispanic-sister) worth listing and watching?  We're not claiming that AdAge is racists, but rather lazy.  If there wasn't an obvious candidate for the list, they should have worked harder, researched deeper and found a not so obvious one. 

There was one person on the list that we thought might have had some soul power in her blood, but it ends up she is just an Italian woman back from the beaches of Miami roughing it at the Clios.

AdAge's Women to Watch 2006

psst....There weren't any sister's in last year's list either.  And we wonder why we can't attract more minority talent to our industry.  Who the hell are they supposed to identify with?

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Agency Compensation - "Lets Get Serious"

We know this is a hot topic and we know that as procurement people get more and more involved it will only get hotter.  What's a guy who's experience is squeezing the price on the three widget makers going to do when they throw ad agencies at him as a contract he needs to negotiate?  One guess.  He's going to squeeze.  You guys ever hear the story of the scorpion and the frog.  Well lets not expect scorpions to change lets try to work with the way they are...  Just our opinion.

Last month, Ron Berger, outgoing chairman of the 4As gave an inspiring speech on what would make the advertising industry better.  It was really terrific.  He did make one comment about compensation that we challenge.  Ron said that he thinks the ad industry would be better if the agencies that made great campaigns got paid a piece of the action (poorly quoted, but you get the point).  That would be great Ron, but let us ask you....would you be willing to pull a few million out of the coffers to help offset the losses on all the bad advertising that is done?  If you think it's fair to get a piece of the good stuff it's only fair that you're willing to underwrite the bad.  Just one blogs opinion. 

In the end, the only logical way to address this is...cost plus pricing with a bonus for really "effective work".  The days of 10% or 15% off the top are gone.  Good, it incentivized bad behavior and decisions.  Lets get over this debate and move on.  Lets not forget one other incentive for an agency doing great work.  They get to keep the account another year.

Are the Clio Awards DOA?

DOA as in Dead on Arrival.  There is virtually no coverage of them anywhere.  Nothing in the NYTimes advertising section, nothing in WSJ's advertising section, nothing in USA Todays, etc.  Even AdWeek's coverage (having the same parent as Clios you would thing they promote the crap out of it) is a mere button on the homepage and a few stories and 6 photos.  "6 Photos", damn they had more art work of Mr. Clean and The M&M twins during their Advertising Week of NY coverage.  It begs the question.....

Are the Clio Awards dead?
Are all of the industry ego-stroke awards dead?
Has Al Gore killed the award by inventing the Internet?

If you are interested...here's Adweek's Clio coverage.

And here's the rest....

Lowe London Shit-Cans Lace After Probe.

AdWeek.com reported yesterday that the Lowe London office and its suspended CEO, Garry Lace, have officially parted company.  The official word is that Lace "resigned", but there have been eye witness reports that the company's worldwide chairman, Tony Wright, was seen holding Lace by his ankles out of an 8th floor window at the Lowe's offices there.  Maybe he was getting him to sign a resignation letter, maybe he just wanted to show him the view of changing of the guards.

We haven't seen the final report initiated by Lowe, but it was leaked that the report includes references of the former CEO's propensity for relieving himself in the office garbage cans and the fact that the office mascot, a 5 year old female Yorki, is pregnant.  We have no idea if any of those things are linked.

AdWeek.com story here.

Burger King King was at Lacrosse house at time of alleged rape.

In a shocking discovery, it has been reported that the Burger King King was at the lacrosse house during the alleged rape.  Originally police did not require him to provide DNA evidence as it could not be determined if he was a Caucasian or what and the accuser specifically stated that the attackers were white.  It is not yet known if the King is the third man the DA is looking to press charges on, but it doesn't look good.  Ronald McDonald was questioned but reports state that he has an alibi.  Evidently, he was diddling Dairy Queen and there is physical evidence to support his story.

GM to buy exclusive ad rights to final American Idol episode for record $4 Trillion

In an extraordinary gamble, rumor has it that GM has contacted the producers of the ever popular American Idol to offer it $4.0 Trillion for exclusive ad rights to the final episode.  It seems like a lot of money, but the marketing powers that be at GM have performed a detail ROI analysis and have determined if they sell one mid sized car to every man woman and child in the country, they can make $125 Million.  And even today, that's real money.

Next New Thing in kids advertising....Direct Mail.

Marketing to kids is important.  They're decision makers and influencers on a whole host of purchases.  Historically, marketers have targeting them through 30 second spots on Saturday mornings, when TV was dedicated to cartoons.  Lots has changed.  Kids of today don't behave the way kids of 10 years ago did.  They're more likely to be on the Internet than watching broadcast television.  Some kids think of the TV set as a "Video Game Monitor".  Okay, none of this is new to any of us.  Interactive and video gaming advertising have been the main places to turn when targeting the elusive kids market, but we think there's a big one missing.

Go to a house where a couple of preteen and teens live and check out the behavior when there's a physical piece of mail for them.  Something interesting.  It's a completely foreign medium to this age group.  Direct mail does and can break through more than interactive, TV, or most other channels simply because it is so uncluttered and in some ways new.

We decided to test this.  We went to the home of a friend a recent Saturday morning and rousted their 10 and 13 year old boys out of bed.  We brought them down stairs to the kitchen table where they found a laptop online and ready to be surfed, the TV controller with the TV close by and a couple of direct mail packages addressed to them.  We said "go to it boys", but you're not eating breakfast until you finish the god damn experiment.  They seemed a bit scared to be honest, but quickly got in the spirit of things.  The first thing that drew their attention and the first thing they were interested in engaging in was the direct mail, by far.  They were so intrigued and in awe of this thing known as mail which didn't come to them digitally or through an eMail account.  They seemed to not be aware that there was this little organization called the US Postal Service which periodically sent out packages and letters.  They asked, "Why would anyone send out a message like that".  It was amazing.  They didn't even think in terms of letters but rather "messages".  Strange new world.

I think the sugar water salesman, fast food joints and other pagan organizations better jump through this open window before it gets slammed shut.  Heck, maybe even the tobacco companies can send a couple of cigarettes to young targets to get their hooks in them early.

Why the hell can't agencies hold onto their clients?

The way we see it, there are three key professional service companies that most every company works with:  Law Firms, Accounting Firms and Ad Agencies.  The first two tend to have tenure-like security with their clients.  It's rare for a fortune 500 to change their auditors or main legal counsel, but they trade in agency relationships as if they were the office supply company providing them with pads and paper.  Why is that?  The way we see it.....

1.  Agencies just are not good at managing relationships with or the expectations of their clients.  Probably happens during the pitch process when the agency team will say anything to win the account.  After telling the potential client that they have the perfect plan to reposition the brand and double the sales, maybe the agencies are setting themselves up for failure by over-committing just to get the gig.  It's possible that law and accounting firms do a better job managing client relationships and maybe agencies can learn from them.

2.  Advertising work is now considered a commodity.  It's just a theory, but maybe CMOs and marketing teams believe that the process of creating ideas and campaigns is the same everywhere and as such constantly looking for someone to do it cheaper and possibly different isn't such a bad thing.

3.  The advertising agency is the most easily "non-proprietary" organization to blame bad business performance on and therefore is an easy target.  After all, the General Counsel is rarely brought into the CEO's office for an ass tearing when sales are down 5% while the marketing and sales guys shuffle out with a trail of blood dripping down the back of their legs.

We believe it is a hybrid-reason.  Agencies tend to over-commit when trying to win business and then when the client's overall business is not meeting expectations (regardless of the reason), the agencies have set themselves up as easy targets to blame.  There you have it.

Here's what's wrong with the Ad Industry trade press...

The advertising industry is arguably one of the top 3 most creative focused industries on the planet, along with Hollywood and the music industry.  That said the media covering the industry is about as uncreative and unexciting as can be.  No offense to AdWeek or AdAge, ok...maybe a little offense, but they should feel an obligation to raise their games a bit if they want to be taken seriously as journalistic mediums.  Take an editorial stand.  Don't be so afraid of pissing off anyone that you write nothing but fluff pieces complete with "happy endings".

I know it's difficult.  The people you cover are also your subscribers, but if you put out an interesting, creative and important editorial product, this industry that is starving for just that will eat it up.  Once that happens, the advertisers will come in droves.  It's how media works and has for over a hundred years.  I think this space is ripe for someone to come out of the box strong and make a big splash.  AdWeek and AdAge are best positioned, but probably won't as they have the largest existing franchises to hold onto.  It will more than likely be done by an upstart, but it would have to be one that is well financed.  MediaPost is interest, but clearly trying to just pump out tons of stories, regardless of relevance or importance, to create more advertiser space.  The blogs are a start, but truth be told no one blogging has the embedded network or wherewith-all to get the real stories of interest and importance.  Hopefully someone will come in a fill the gaping hole that currently exists.  And if they do, I bet they'll make a ton of money on a few years and put a real hurt on the existing trade press players.