Hasta La Creative!

Three weeks ago, I received a call that agency folks know all too well. A regime change had resulted in the loss of a big account. MillerCoors was severing our relationship.

My first thought went to the newest clients we’ve added: PepsiCo, Tyson Foods and the American Freedom Foundation, a group helping military veterans and their families. The success of these clients will define our agency.

While Cavalry has existed since 2012, our relationship with MillerCoors and, before that, the Coors Brewing Co., goes back decades, spanning five CEOs and seven CMOs. The best agencies have always internalized the ups and downs of their clients’ brands and made a personal investment of sweat equity to ensure their clients’ success. Creating content is part of what an agency does, but an agency’s job is helping to grow a client’s business.

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Industry execs hoping for a clear theme to rise from the Year of the Media Review may be doing so in vain. The only clear thing is that marketers want something different. But none of them seems to agree on what that something different isother than “different from what we previously had”which doesn’t exactly provide much guidance for those trying to make sense of the chaos. Do they want rebundling? Unbundling? A completely new model?

The last is one impetus behind Hyundai’s deal with Horizon boss Bill Koenigsberg that creates an entirely new media agency with the automaker’s agency Innocean. The new standalone shop is called Canvas Worldwide because it gives Hyundai a literal blank agency canvas, essentially allowing the shop and automaker to make the rules up as they go along.

Hyundai Motor Group’s U.S. brands, including both Kia Motors America and Hyundai Motor America, which collectively spend nearly $700 million on U.S. measured media, will be Canvas’ first clients. Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Initiative currently handles the media business.

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A big part of the ex-PepsiCo executive’s turnaround plan is to move Target away from being all things to all people while it builds up its omnichannel offerings, and instead focus on four core areas where the brand can stand out: style, including home, apparel and other products; baby, encompassing clothes and gear; kids’ clothes and toys; and wellness, a category that the chain is still defining, but covers things like organic food, health products and green cleaning supplies. During the second quarter of 2015, same-store sales for those four signature categories grew more than 7%, or three times its overall same-store sales growth of 2.4%, Mr. Cornell said on a conference call.

“For a long time Target was, as a general retailer, pushing a lot of things forward,” said Joshua Thomas, spokesman for Target. “Now we’ve taken a look and said, ‘That’s not sustainable and that’s not really helping us move the needle, so let’s think about what are those categories, those products that are most important to our guest and that, frankly, we can do better than anyone else.'”

To do so, Target is freeing itself up to focus on lucrative areas with deals like its recent pact to turn over operations of its pharmacy counters and clinics to CVS Health. Mr. Cornell is also mixing up the leadership team that selects every item Target sells. The brand’s longtime chief merchandising and supply chain officer stepped down last month and was recently followed by a merchandising executive who led a number of categories including grocery and health care. And the retailer is relying on a combination of national brands, exclusives like athletic brand C9 by Champion and Target’s own brand portfolio to differentiate itself, while it invests more in e-commerce.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Continue reading at AdAge.com