BBDO Is Recession Proof

“I personally think there is an opportunity for optimism,” said John Osborn, president-CEO of BBDO New York. Osborn was talking about the recession during his speech at Davos. Oddly, he pointed to Condi’s opening statements as a sign of good cheer about the downturn in the economy. “The U.S. economy is resilient, its structure is sound and its long-term economic fundamentals are healthy,” Rice said in her speech. Yeah. You’re going to believe Condi? Really?

Osborn also said that BBDO’s clients have yet to cut back their marketing budgets or plans. “I’m not seeing any clients pulling back. They are still launching new campaigns and rolling out new products. Clients who continue to invest during these times will succeed in the long haul.”

That’s one way to handle the recession. Get a megaphone and scream, “Keep giving us cash and it’s all going to be okay!” Seriously. We’re not kidding.

He also has some advice for other agencies to keep that money pump flowing: “We have to be careful about how we spend, be selective about where we spend and make sure that all marketing activity has a sense of purpose and impacts behavior change.”

Did you hear that? No more over billing the client on the production hours. Meanwhile, other folks like Michelle Bottomley, COO of Ogilvy New York, are saying that yes, the ship is still upright and that brands are focusing on more programs with serious ROI. Hell, they should be focused on that anyway.

The video above is from Osborn’s turn around Davos in 2007.

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Martin Scorese Interrupts Your Movie

BBDO (New York and Atlanta) is bringing you Martin Scorsese via a one of those “please turn your cell phones off” clips that run before a film. This is the first time Martin is pitching in for a public service announcement for AT&T’s Be Sensible wireless courtesy program. See the spot here. Previous spots featured Academy Award winners Forest Whitaker and Sydney Pollack.

Cliff Marks, president of Sales and chief marketing officer of National CineMedia, the cinema advertising and marketing company that brings AT&T’s wireless courtesy program to theaters nationwide, said: “To have someone of Scorsese’s stature lend his talents to our program is a testament to the power of this program and to the medium of cinema.”

Dude. You are so not saving the world here. A simple, “To have someone of Scorsese’s stature cost us a lot of money, but we think it will be worth it regardless” would of done.

A survey, conducted by The Nielsen Company, “revealed that more than 30 percent their respondents indicated that they either would not have silenced their phone or didn’t know if they would have if they hadn’t seen the AT&T spot. What’s more, 72 percent of those surveyed said they appreciate efforts that preserve the movie-going experience by minimizing wireless phone interruptions.”

Well, that’s some good PR for AT&T considering that the company is apparently screwing around with those in the Armed Forces.

BBDO And Prometheus Pick Up REI

BBDO and Prometheus Media Services (both Omnicom shops) have beaten Seattle-based independent Copacino + Fujikado for the outdoor retail brand Recreational Equipment Inc. Creative from the two shops will appear in REI’s spring campaign.

Rob Cherof, EVP and CMO at BBDO Atlanta, said that: “There are a lot of real outdoor en­thusiasts in our office who were already members of the REIco-op, so we knew the brand well and were able to think about how they might approach adver­tising.” 

The video above features some of those “outdoor enthusiasts” from BBDO Atlanta in a visual that plays (played?) as clients as exit the elevator and enter their office suite.

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BBDO Detroit Lays Off Some Folks

There’s been some staff reductions in BBDO’s Detroit office today. The bulk of the layoffs occured on the administrative side (financial services, IT, etc.). Roy Elvove, Director of Communications for BBDO North America, told us that the cuts were due to changing industry needs with the hopes of improving the shop’s balance sheet. Currently, there are six hundred and seventy-five people in the Detroit office. No other BBDO offices will be affected.

Let’s see how many other agencies based in Detroit follow suit this year.

Inside Minneapolis Advertising

Lee Lynch, the former CEO of Carmichael Lynch, recently asked, “Has our pilot light gone out? Is the Minneapolis brand on the skids?” Wait. We didn’t know that the city even had a brand. It’s got to be tough living in the Twin Cities. What do you really have – access to the Mall of America and a live-in rockstar who is totally fine with suing all his fans?

The Star Tribune recognizes that Minneapolis can be a tough place to survive. Just consider their recent article on the mixed bag of results for agencies within city limits. Some shops have seen revenues hold steady (Martin/Williams), while others (such as Fallon) are just barely hanging on and even more are just keeping their heads above water (i.e. Carmichael Lynch).

Our favorite quote from the paper: “Agency chiefs acknowledge that advertising is, if nothing else, highly cyclical, and clients tend to change their chief marketing officers more frequently than the Minnesota Timberwolves change coaches.”

However, Denny Haley, president of the Minneapolis office of BBDO points out the often overlooked truth when folks talk about the city’s ad business: “Minneapolis’ success had been so dramatic in the ’80s and ’90s that when it plateaued [in recent years] it seemed like it declined. It’s not as much in the doldrums as people convey.”

Ad folk are such drama queens. We just love the excitement and readily forget that advertising is totally cyclical.

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Omnicom Owns The Gunn Report

BBDO Worldwide takes the honor of being the Most Awarded Agency Network in the World for a record fifth time from The Gunn Report. BWA\Chiat\Day as Most Awarded Agency in the World and third Most Awarded Network. DDB Worldwide was named the World’s Most Awarded Network in Europe. Of the top 50 most awarded agencies, 12 were part of Omnicom. Among interactive agencies, four of the top 25 were from Omnicom.

On only one occasion has The Gunn Report, which has been publishing since 1999, seen a network take that top spot that was NOT part of Omnicom.

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That Agency? This Agency?

We received two emails about that Guinness/broadcast/ARG thing we posted about the other day. One from AMVBBDO and another (after we wrote the piece) from an agency called iChameleon. The company seems to be employed by BBDO, so… BBDO is wasting cash and man hours here. Why pay someone to do what you’re going to do anyway? And you know – the client is actually paying for all of this. It was annoying and confusing to us, but also not the first time we’ve been told about a campaign by multiple agencies.

Rachel, over at the blog Beyond The Buzz, apparently got caught in the same PR storm. She makes a good point when she says: “This is demonstrating one of the difficulties that I am seeing at the moment in the social media space – who is doing what in a campaign.”

Read her whole insightful statement here.

Greed, Sex, Drugs, and Money – GSD&M Idea City Loses AT&T

Mediaedge:cia is the big winner today taking the estimated $3.4B AT&T account from GSD&M’s Idea City. Christ. That’s such a mouthful.The shop also beat out Digitas and OMD. All four had done previous work for the telecom in some fashion. GSD&M’s Idea City also lost lead agency status to Omnicom sibling BBDO. Ah crap. The Texas based agency also lost Chili’s Grill & Bar and Wal-Mart this past year. Those were some big accounts whose shoes are being filled by some small feet via World Market and John Deere.

On a side note, we hear that… The founders noted that their initials, which form the company’s name, could also stand for “Greed, Sex, Drugs, and Money.” Yeah. We bet they’re wishing they were rolling in all that good stuff now. Betcha bottom dollar that lots of folks are going to lose their jobs. Sorry guys.

Meanwhile, Mediaedge:cia’s UK and global divisions are on a roll. They’ve picked up the BBC Global account. They’ve also won the Canary Islands Tourist Board business, as well as Lil-ets and the UK Car Group.

Read More: Droga5 Steals From Saatchi

BBDO Takes New Balance

BBDO has won New Balance’s estimated $20 million creative account according to AdAge. The agency beat out five contenders. One of which, was BBH. The incumbentwas independent Boathouse, Waltham, Mass. But since New Balance lost some more market share to the powerhouse that is Nike, the company was searching for a more progressive agency to get them back into the game. That’s going to be tough, but we wish ‘em luck.

BBH’s Pitch For New Balance?

Looks like BBH is going all out for the up-for-grabs New Balance business. We hear that… BBH will be pitching a concept in opposition to the hard core competitive campaigns that feature mega watt athletes from Nike. It’s not about the superstars of sport, but more about the consumer being their own star. So. We. Hear.

Reebok tried a different approach to this same oppositional idea with their “Run Easy” campaign. And despite the brand’s recent success making use of Facebook, Adidas’ CEO Herbert Hainer recently said that “Reebok will be profitable this year but in the US itself, Reebok will achieve revenue growth only by 2009.”

We predicted BBH was going to win this business over competitors Arnold Worldwide; BBDO, Cramer-Krasselt and Element 79. Not a bad start…