Agency Spy

In case you missed it, Brian Collins has swung back into action setting up his shop inconjunction with The Martin Agency. His first HUGE piece of business has been working with the agency on the Al Gore branding and advertising campaign.

Collins’, one time leader of the Brand Integration Group over at Ogilvy, has named his new agency Collins. The New York Times did a spread on Brian’s logic for the Gore’ logo design. Regarding Collins, The Martin Agency is on the record as saying:

“In his new company, Mr. Collins will take a more radical approach to finding solutions for brands looking for innovative ways to connect in a new landscape. “It’s an open frontier, ready for revolutionary thinking,” said Mr. Collins. “Unfortunately, old-school advertising relegates designers to the tail end of the creative process–if we’re there at all. We will flip that equation on its head, placing design–and the customer’s real experience–at the beginning, the center and the end of everything we do.”

Love him or hate him, the man is a survivor and that logo is damn good.

Addendum 11:43 AM, April 8, 2008:
Oh christ! I knew this idea of the “me” and “we” reminded me of something! It’s the recent Converse spot from Anomaly! Wow. Is that the collective unconscious working or a total bite? We shall never know.

Al Gore has unveiled his new $300m advertising blitz in an attempt to force a stronger debate on climate change during the U.S. presidential elections. If you recall, Gore selected The Martin Agency who beat out Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Young & Rubicam and Crispin Porter + Bogusky for the account.

The Nobel laureate appeared on 60 Minutes to roll out the effort also announced that he will be donating a share of his personal fortune to the campaign and his Nobel prize money.

“We all share the exact same interest in doing the right thing on this,” he told CBS. “Are we destined to destroy this place that we call home, planet earth? I can’t believe that that’s our destiny. It is not our destiny. But we have to awaken to the moral duty that we have to do the right thing and get out of this silly political game-playing about it. This is about survival.”

For more on his 60 minutes appearance, go here or just watch the video. The first television advertisements, which are to begin airing on broadcast networks as well as cable starting on Wednesday, will pair up the most unlikely partners in the movement to address global warming. One spot features the Reverend Al Sharpton sharing a sofa with Pat Robertson in a bid to make global warming a non-partisan issue.

Gawd. We love agencies and their wacky inter-office activities. Today’s fun comes by way of The Martin Agency dance off. The Richmond, VA shop decided to let their staffers loose to some blocking rocking beats. Hell, some of them can really move.

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Here’s one of the new Geico spots we mentioned featuring Ben Winkler and created by The Martin Agency. Love it or hate it?

Now that the cavemen are onto bigger and better things, Geico is debuting three new commercials this Thursday featuring The Flintstones, The Beverly Hillbillies and Cabbage Patch Kids. Virginia’s The Martin Agency created the new spots. Here’s the plotlines:

They’ve created a child star named Ben Winkler from the Cabbage Patch Kids who had it all, but like all child stars, he lost his way. Then he switched to Geico and landed a role on a reality TV dance show.

The Beverly Hillbillies‘ Jed Clampett use of Geico was how his family was able to move to Beverly Hills.

In The Flintstones version, Fred is investigated for being able to afford Wilma’s jewelry though he makes a modest paycheck. His secret? Geico.

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What’s with this trend of selling underwear by talking about how uncomfortable it can be? There’s the recent Jockey’s interactive campaign “Stop Squirming” and now Playtex is focusing on the torture of an ill-fitting bra through their new “Girl Talk” campaign. “We uncovered that women of all shapes and sizes talk about their bras and breasts in funny, witty and candid ways,” said Vicki Seawright, marketing director for Playtex intimate apparel. “We found that women are proud of their bodies and really confident about themselves.” She also said that one of the goal is to show “the diversity of our Playtex bras to fit the many needs of real women.”

Okay, so we can also slide this campaign into the trend of “empowering real women.” Dove, P&G’s Black Is Beautiful and Shiseido’s Japanese Beauty campaigns all fit under this bill. Expect to see television, print and online advertisements beginning Monday. The ads feature women engaging in frank conversations about their breasts. Copylines include: “Gravity is no longer my enemy, but brownies are,” “Wearing a bra shouldn’t be punishment” and “Eyes up here.” That last one is our favorite.

Playtex is handled by Kraftworks, ltd. Above check out the inspiration video for the Barely There Invisible Look campaign from the Martin Agency for the 2007 Kelly Awards.

Alliance for Climate Protection, the organization formed last year by Al Gore, is basically in account review. The Alliance is looking to make sustainability a high level priority for Americans. Four agencies — Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, the Martin Agency and Y&R — are getting ready to present their plans to the former vice president himself early next month. It’s a three-to-five-year, multimedia global campaign with a media spend somewhere around $100 million a year.

AdAge has some editorial about how advertising agencies are no longer afraid to get involved in “hot button” issues. Is the environment a hot button issue? Think not. Chris Becker, chairman-chief creative officer of DraftFCB’s New York office, said “blowback from less-than-eco-friendly marketers is unlikely. ‘It’s such a loud issue and so accepted that no one can get away with that,” he said. “There’s already such a broad platform for agencies.’” We agree.

Domino’s Pizza has selected three finalists in the review for its $170 million ad account. Adweek reports that GSD&M in Austin, Texas, Interpublic Group’s The Martin Agency and Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami will be making their final presentations in September. The incumbent has been JWT for the last five years. However, that silly tagline they have “Get the door. It’s Domino’s,” has been around since the pizza maker was repped by Deutsch,

From an internal memo that Adweek got its hands on written by JWT New York co-presidents Rosemarie Ryan and Ty Montague: “-it has become clear to them and us that their needs moving forward are quite different than what we will be able to provide. We thank them for the opportunity to help build their business twofold and wish them the very best in the future.”

Doesn’t it seem scummy when Adage or Adweek excerpts from an internal memo? Don’t get us wrong. We’d do the same thing if someone had sent it to us, but they’re the big boys, the journalists, the establishment… Maybe it’s just us.

A tipster sent us a link to this video featuring the staff of the Martin Agency. We have a little crush on the shop considering that they have the Wal-Mart account, spun their very funny Geico spots into a TV series and theirCEO, Stephen Hawley Martin, recently released an audio CD containing a self-hypnosis meditation he wrote and first recorded 20 years ago. Oops! wrong CEO. Anyway… In the video above, check out The Martin Agency’s bowling league. Don’t they look like they’re having so much fun? One thing - out tipster didn’t know the names of anyone featured in the vid? Do you? If so, please let us know at agencyspy at mediabistro dot com.

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Porsche North America has selected four agencies to pitch on its $40 million ad account. Drum roll please… The finalists are Interpublic Group’s Carmichael Lynch (the incumbent), The Martin Agency, Cramer-Krasselt in Chicago and SS&K. Considering their ads (see above) for the Porsche Club Race, Nord Stern Loonacy by Carmicheal Lynch, we say they gotta go. How this imagery goes with Porsche as a brand, we’ll never know. We’re hoping that SS+K doesn’t win it considering their crappy Delta campaign. Our money is on The Martin Agency.