DraftFCB Is Running On Empty
November 9, 2007
Maybe you know this and maybe you don’t, but as of October, Draft/FCB was running low on bodies in the new business department. In the US, all the folks who had been on the team had either been canned or left for greener pastures. Well, everyone that is, but the Global Head of new business, the New York Director of New Business and one or two other loose faces. This means they only have a senior new biz person working out of Chicago.
George Parker over at AdScam is always talking about their impending doom. We think the agency is going to be around a bit longer, but holy cow! It sounds like they’re running on fumes.
Read More: The Digital Agency Dead Pool
November 9, 2007 at 5:15 pm
The reality is that Draftfcb has full new business teams in New York and Chicago, and has won 16 new clients in the USA this year, including Kmart, US Census, Electronic Arts and Bristol-Myers Squibb, among others. Plus, we’re in quite a few pitches right now, including Royal Caribbean.
November 9, 2007 at 6:08 pm
??
So they’re probably looking for new business people now. Didn’t they recently win the US Census assignment?
Can’t imagine finding people to work on new business at what’s still a very large global agency network with pretty deep pockets is going to be too hard.
I still wish Parker would tell us why he’s got it in for them
November 13, 2007 at 2:59 am
Anyone who has had to deal “on the other side of an issue” with Howard Draft, Laurence Boschetto and Jonathan Harries would understand instantly why George Parker (Adscam) and many others are critical of Howard & his two cronies. It isn’t so much the agency per say that people are so critical about but rather the deficient and thug-like management team. There are some decent people there but the term “decent” could never be used in reference to Howard, Lawrence and Jonathan. The Draft/FCB leadership trio is a fairly expedient bunch who are considered by many to be amoral, arrogant, self-serving and fairly unethical. Also, you might want to compare the list of accounts won since Draft’s merger with FCB with the list of accounts lost (including Wal-Mart, of course) and report back on where you net out….just a suggestion. If one really pays attention you’ll soon learn their “win” list isn’t quite as impressive as they’d obviously like you to believe.
BTW: Is this a new PR technique: AgencySpy blogs and then two of the D/FCB PR people jump on the blog with comments….guys, you can’t make a silk purse out of a smelly sow’s ear…to be correct, that’s actually three smelly sow’s ears…..
December 6, 2007 at 4:52 pm
I knew the gig was up when I attended the pre-merger rally with a video on creativity consisting of animated pencil segments. Had to leave mid-meeting because it made me ill. Mr. Boschetto had hired his partner Mr. Kinder to run Draftworks – only problem, the man knows nothing about graphics, only nepotism. Draftworks claim to fame is that they can produce any mechanical in 2 rounds or less. As anyone experienced in direct mail knows, there are often MANY more rounds of corrections than that. To hide the truth, only two documented paper copies of any mechanical were allowed – even if there were ten corrections. The resultant confusion and waste was downright staggering. The direct mail song: What you think is the holy grail, winds up going in the garbage pail.
April 4, 2008 at 1:00 am
As a former employee of DraftFCB, there isn’t anything much there to even comment on anymore. The FCB of the old days it isn’t. When True North sold it off that was pretty much the end of anything good. I wouldn’t even waist your time wondering what these guys are up to. It’s a bunch of people that are more interested in office posturing than actually doing any good work.