Hasta La Creative!

For the past couple of years, there’s been a lot of discussion around the education of marketing procurement — and how many are focused on much more than just lowering cost. But that’s still a top factor in evaluating agencies and other companies, according to a survey by the Association of National Advertisers.

The survey of 113 procurement executives — taken in December and January and released at the ANA Financial Management Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. — found cost reduction and avoidance are the top two metrics by which their work is judged in companies now.

Meanwhile, the survey showed those procurement exes believe, at least by a narrow margin, that the two most important things to measure should really agency/supplier performance improvements and process improvements.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Recent embarrassments involving rappers and their product endorsements highlight the conflicting values and public images of hip-hop artists and mainstream corporations.

CBS may be network of the sitcom “2 Broke Girls,” but it isn’t cheap.

The point is, TV is very good at reaching a wide swath of heavy viewers. Where it gets expensive is the frequency required to reach light viewers. Advertisers end up hitting the same heavy viewers over and over as they try to reach those infrequent viewers, a growing problem as audiences disperse to niche networks. This is a going to be a familiar pitch to TV advertisers over the coming months. YouTube is sending out its salesforce with software meant to demonstrate that light TV viewers can be reached more efficiently through web video.

Unlike the web guys trying to smash-and-grab for TV dollars, Mr. Morgan thinks TV is actually undervalued and that data will help the medium capture value as viewers watch more TV in different places. “We think that the closed nature of information is one of the real impediments to TV advertising getting better and growing,” he said.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Nicola Mendelsohn, the executive chairman of Karmarama, has been appointed vice-president of Facebook across Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Russia, replacing Joanna Shields.

“Topsy not only helps me understand what the most influential people are saying, but also allows me to determine who my clients should engage with and when, and which words they should choose to assure they knock their messages out of the park. No joke, choosing the right 140 characters keeps my clients in movies, at the top of the charts, on Wheaties boxes and off of TMZ.”

No offense to Topsy (which humorously sounds like a nickname for a top heavy girl) but it’s quotes like this that make us want to pack it in, rob a bank, head to a remote island in the South Pacific and live a life free of social media bullshit.

This quote comes from a release in which Topsy is touting its new Topsy Pro engagement features which allow brands to spot trends, track sentiment and identify key influencers and react…IN REAL TIME…to PR crisis and customer service issues as well as “amplify ad and marketing campaigns.”

We’re sure the product is great so don’t let the fact we have a bee in our bonnet over the state of social media get you down.

CBS will continue to carry the championship game in 2014 and 2015, and the two networks will also start splitting Round of 8 games in 2014, rather than in 2016.

The Federal Trade Commission continues its crackdown on the consumer data industry. The agency today announced it sent warning letters to ten data brokers suggesting they may be in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The effort appears to be the result of an undercover data shopping operation.

The FTC “test-shopped” for data from the companies and determined that they may be in violation of the FCRA, according to the missives, dated last week.

The firms in the crosshairs are ConsumerBase, Brokers Data, US Data Corporation, Crimcheck.com, 4Nannies, U.S. Information Search, People Search Now, Case Breakers and USA People Search. The tenth company was not named by the FTC.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett, Chicago, USA
Global Chief Creative Officer: Mark Tutssel
Chief Creative Officer: Susan Credle
Executive Creative Director: Jeanie Caggiano
Creative Directors: Phil Jungmann, Matt Miller
Design Director: Alisa Wolfson
Copywriter: Adam Ferguson
Art Director: Kate Harding-Jackson
Senior Designers: Kelly Dorsey, Kyle Poff, Peter Ty
Designer: Casey Martin
Executive Producer: Rob Tripas
Senior Producer: Laurie Gustafson
Production Designer: Chris Apap
Account Director: Karla Flannery Josh Raper
Assistant Account Executives: Riley Bernardin, Dane Gunderson
Creative Resource Manager: Joe Maggiore
PR: Tina Stanton, Lynsey Roumell, Megan Maupin

It would be nice if we didn't live in a world where this is considered news, but for better or worse, it is. H&M has selected a swimwear model who actually has a normal human body. Jennie Runk, a size 12 from America, will appear in this season's beach-related advertising for the brand. "She is absolutely gorgeous and has a normal body. How refreshing," writes one commenter on the Ford Models gallery of photos from Runk's H&M shoot. Like many fashion brands, H&M has been criticized in recent years for featuring "unhealthily thin" models in ads. H&M even used CGI to create waifish bodies that models' heads could be dropped on to as needed. However, brand reps seem to be downplaying Runk's body type by saying she was simply the best pick for the ads. "Our aim is not to convey a certain message or show an ideal," H&M spokeswoman Jennifer Ward tells Quartz.com, "but to find a model who can illustrate this collection in an inspiring and clear way." More photos below.