Hasta La Creative!

With a flashy and well-researched pitch, Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Mullen won American Honda’s Acura account over incumbent RPA and others by promising to focus Acura’s message and inject more emotion into ads.

Mullen offered “wicked-awesome creative” and a sharp focus on what’s been missing from Acura’s marketing, American Honda Chief Marketing Officer Mike Accavitti told Automotive News.

Mullen produced a barrage of 26 videos — a mix of ad concepts, “brand essence” videos, campaign outlines and overviews. One was a manifesto called “It’s Time to Stop Wandering,” a reference to Acura’s marketing inconsistency since its 1986 launch.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

In November, AT&T launched “It’s Not Complicated,” a series of spots featuring a straight man and a kooky group of kids who together tout the advantages of the mobile provider’s network to hilarious, surprisingly human effect. The campaign has achieved that rare feat of becoming a pop-culture phenomenon, drawing praise not just from the industry but from that buddy sitting next to you at the bar.

The magic results from a formula of a simple concept, a flexible client and a stellar lineup of creative talent on both sides of the camera — not to mention that special sauce known as a first grader’s imagination. The spots were created by BBDO, Atlanta, and directed by Caviar’s Jorma Taccone, best known as one-third of The Lonely Island comedy trio.

Since the campaign’s launch, BBDO has produced multiple rounds of spots, including a basketball-themed series [see below] running during this week’s NCAA Tournament.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Even though it was many years ago, HTC Senior Director of Global Media Arlene Villanueva vividly remembers engaging in a data tug-of-war while working at a different company.

But agencies must ask themselves: Is wrangling over the rights to data generated on a client’s dime worth angering the client, especially at a time when marketers can build their own trading and data-management tools?

“There’s a bit of fear,” said one marketer who wished to remain anonymous, noting that because data analytics now drive most strategies, every agency is attempting to be the keeper of it. The marketer said that when a team asked its media agency to share the data it generated through a third party management vendor with another firm the client worked with, the media agency said no. The shop argued that because the agency was the one on the contract with the data-management vendor, the client’s data was sealed. It took the client a number of months to win back full access — and that happened only after it threatened to end its relationship with the agency.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Even though it was many years ago, HTC Senior Director of Global Media Arlene Villanueva vividly remembers engaging in a data tug-of-war while working at a different company.

But agencies must ask themselves: Is wrangling over the rights to data generated on a client’s dime worth angering the client, especially at a time when marketers can build their own trading and data-management tools?

“There’s a bit of fear,” said one marketer who wished to remain anonymous, noting that because data analytics now drive most strategies, every agency is attempting to be the keeper of it. The marketer said that when a team asked its media agency to share the data it generated through a third party management vendor with another firm the client worked with, the media agency said no. The shop argued that because the agency was the one on the contract with the data-management vendor, the client’s data was sealed. It took the client a number of months to win back full access — and that happened only after it threatened to end its relationship with the agency.

Continue reading at AdAge.com