For 50K, Agencies Get Powned By Disney + Julie Roehm
March 17, 2008
Disney is “is looking for BIG ideas that break the traditional movie-marketing concepts,” according to a document issued to agencies that Brandweek got its hands upon. This brief goes on to say that Disney “will pay $50,000 for your time and own all your ideas and concepts.” Agencies preparing for presentations in this project based review include Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners; Droga5, StrawberryFrog and Wieden + Kennedy, Cutwater in San Francisco; and DraftFCB in Chicago.
Rewind. Excuse us? For $50K, you get totally powned. They want to own your ideas, forever and ever and ever. Make millions of them, while you struggle to pay the staff who created those awesome concepts. Other brands have gone this route including Hilton, and Kraft. We’re not against brands attempting to own your ideas. That’s business. This is the jungle baby. In many cases, maybe some of these folks just want to add Disney to their roster, boost their agency profile and so, lie down for the lion. Two unnamed agencies pushed back. We’re going to guess one was Droga. We applaud whoever they were. However, this is a no-no. Don’t do it! If you guys go in for this, then Disney knows it really does hold the industry by the balls. Other brands will follow suit and, and, and… this is the way it has always gone. It’s cyclical and totally depressing.
Seriously? You guys are gonna go for this? Yes, it’s great to have Disney on the client list and yes, maybe you have some groundbreaking idea for movie marketing you want out in the world, but you guys are willing to set the course of I.P. ownership for the rest of the advertising business?
- Main entry: Sell Out
- Pronunciation: \ˈsel-ˌaut\
- Function: noun
- Date: 1859
- 1: the act or an instance of selling out 2: something sold out; especially : something (as a concert or contest) for which all tickets are sold 3: one who betrays a cause for personal advancement.
We very rarely use the word sell out. It no longer applies in many instances considering the time we live in, but in this case? SELL OUTS!
Something else totally depressing? Julie Roehm is involved. Back from the media cyclone, Julie was contacted to help pick the initial list of agencies. She was on the phone calls for the agency briefings, but supposedly, is no longer involved in the process. This just gets ickier and ickier.
March 17, 2008 at 4:13 pm
I believe its pwned.
March 17, 2008 at 4:37 pm
It’s spelled pwned, not “powned”. There’s never an exception to this rule. It’s pwned. Period.
March 17, 2008 at 4:46 pm
[...] Crappy to extreme levels. Agency Spy is reporting that Disney wants to give an Agency 50 grand to come up with a great idea so they can make millions [...]
March 17, 2008 at 4:52 pm
First, look at the ridiculousness of the list—Wieden AND FCB?!?!
Then I see Roehm is involved. Is Disney truly that clueless?
March 17, 2008 at 5:01 pm
The word is “Pwned.”
This kind of crap isn’t new. But in the past, A-list shops would decline these kinds of RFPs. Sign of the times.
March 17, 2008 at 5:11 pm
a “cause for “advertising” heh heh heh…
March 17, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Andrew McMains is an Adweek reporter and this story was in Adweek a few issues ago.
March 17, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Can’t find the AdWeek piece. Would love to see it if someone has the link please!
AS
March 17, 2008 at 5:54 pm
My agency pitched a small-ish account a few months ago and signed away the rights to their ideas. I just about walked out, until i found out i wasn’t working on it. It still makes me want to puke.
Any standout creative agency that does this is practically asking for the client to take their great idea and then hand it to a down-and-dirty cheapo agency to produce. Or, produce it internally. Disney definately has in-house production capabilities comparable or better than many agencies.
All we have to offer as an industry is great ideas. All the “ad manufacturing” is in the process of being outsourced as we speak.
March 17, 2008 at 6:17 pm
they’re paying that much for ideas from draft/fcb? wow, i thought disney was a smarter than that.
March 17, 2008 at 6:38 pm
the agencies will present a couple of ideas and prolly not get paid. big fucking deal. plenty of agencies participate in pitches and never see a damn penny from it. plenty of clients only pay for work they buy and don’t even cover the coats of the paper for stuff they don’t like.
places like wk have no choice if they want to hold on to other disney brands they are servicing. that doesn’t mean they will show a lot of work that a client can just take and put out there. they will show ideas, potential and examples. they will show stuff that will make a teddybeartiewearing middle manager from disney cream his panties and hope for more and even better stuff. that’s the age old trick. you show them just enough to make them really want you and then you make them sign.
March 17, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Burnett for the next few minutes at least, is the agency of record for Disney. This assignment came down the pipeline a few months back. Reading between the lines the idea is that you come up with a short movie. Disney produces a handful and shows them around, maybe posts them on-line, does a youtube thing (how cutting edge). The morons of the world vote, comment, etc and the one with the highest views wins. Disney take the “proven” material and turns it into a feature or tv show. Lets not forget this is a disney project so it has to family friendly aka rated G. Disney has been playing agencies off each other for the last couple of years, so this is really nothing new. I thought any client owned the creative rights to whatever the agency came up with, from scripts to art to props, why is this any different. Makes me wonder how burnett fucked this up?
March 17, 2008 at 9:00 pm
man o manachevitz! Nasty repliers…at a minimum, think of the PR the agecny will get and most likely an assignment. Not as stupid as it might seem. Hard to get the little minds to understand that their pockets full of magical creativity are less valuable in a resession. CFO’s don’t care about and One show awards.
March 18, 2008 at 4:35 am
What a truly sad reflection on the current state of the business. Of course Draft/FCB is on the list, Howard sent Julie another case of Effen fucking vodka.
Brucie… You’re a douchenozzle. The PR for a charade such as this is worthless, while the odds of getting an assignment are minuscule, and you should really get yourself a spell checker.
Cheers/George
March 18, 2008 at 12:03 pm
If anyone would “lay down for the Liion,” it would be Howard. And to Uncle Brucie’s point, wouldn’t a $300 million account be slightly better PR? Maybe the agencies should work on that.
March 18, 2008 at 6:10 pm
@Brucie
I don’t think any of the above posts said anything about winning awards.
My point is that creativity and innovation (from every department, not just creative) that inspires consumers to buy is the ONLY thing creative agencies have to offer that clients can’t get elsewhere for way cheaper. We are doomed as an industry if we let creativity go for free.
March 21, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Pwned = Exacerbating your own extinction. Would a mother sabre tooth take her little ones for a “swim” in the La Brea tar pits?