Jul
12
Jul
12
Dick’s Sporting Goods Names Former Dunkin’ Donuts Digital Chief Scott Hudler as Its New CMO
Posted in: UncategorizedRetailer Dick’s Sporting Goods, which is currently the largest such chain in the U.S. and trails only Walmart in overall market share, has named a new chief marketing officer.
Scott Hudler joins the Pittsburgh-based company exactly two months after its former CMO Lauren Hobart became president.
Before making the jump, he spent more than a decade in marketing at Dunkin’ Brands, the Dunkin’ Donuts chain’s parent company. Hudler began in brand marketing and eventually moved into the SVP, chief digital officer role last year. He previously held several positions at Mars including brand manager for Snickers.
Hudler now reports to Hobart, herself a veteran of PepsiCo’s North American carbonated drinks division.
You won’t be surprised to learn that the announcement focuses on Hudler’s digital experience as Dick’s—and every other retail company—moves to adjust to the new reality of online sales. During his tenure, Dunkin’ emphasized mobile and digital assets like a loyalty program and order-ahead platform.
Dick’s currently operates more than 800 physical stores and an ecommerce platform. In terms of sales, it is well ahead of nearest competitor Academy Sports + Outdoors, which picked FCB Chicago as its first creative AOR after a review last January.
The big question for this blog, of course, is what will happen to Dick’s current agency roster. Anomaly has been creative AOR on the brand since 2012, with Huge handling social and MKTG INC on events and experiential work.
According to the latest numbers from Kantar Media, Dick’s spent around $90 million on marketing in the U.S. last year.
Jul
12
Partners in Crime Pokes Fun at Ted Talks in GolfBook’s Debut Campaign
Posted in: UncategorizedPartners in Crime, the flex business model agency launched in San Francisco last year by DDB, Mullen and West creative vet Stephen Goldblatt, has been busy.
Its latest work is the debut campaign for GolfBook, the only digital platform you need to manage your time on the course. In order to explain what this sort-of-new product does, PIC lampoons some deliciously low-hanging fruit: Ted Talks. In this case, the title character is Fred, a guy who might remind you a lot of someone’s dad or boss.
“Fred is a guy who loves golf over everything else,” said Goldblatt. “He has a knack for explaining anything golf-related in a simple and humorous way.”
So he does!
The campaign is all about Fred, his passion for golf, and his tendency to reduce everything to a comparison between straight talk and however The Kids are communicating these days.
“As long as golf continues to grow with innovative technology, there will be Fred,” Goldblatt added, noting that Partners In Crime will further develop the character through social media and IRL appearances.
We don’t personally know much about mortgages or kids, but gluten is indeed hard.
Fred keeps going in a way that is not too different from some of the lower quality Ted Talks. And he does succeed in explaining how to use a product that’s completely new to us.
Regarding the agency/client relationship, GolfBook president and CEO Gene Pizzolato (who has worked with Goldblatt in the past) said, “With Partners in Crime, we were able to get real bang for our buck in addition to great creative. The platform they created is unique for the market and will allow us to show up in endless ways, from app communication to marketing activities and events.”
Goldblatt explains the model as such: “By keeping overhead low and aligning with strategic and production partners, Partners in Crime is able to deliver world class creative without requiring traditional staffing models, production budgets or extensive timelines.”
So they probably won’t be pitching for Miller Lite anytime soon, but they get the work done.
CREDITS
Client: GolfBook
President, CEO: Gene Pizzolato
Director of Marketing: Joe DiFiore
Agency: Partners in Crime
Creative Director / Founder: Stephen Goldblatt
Art Director: Stephen Goldblatt
Writer: Brian Perkins
Agency Producer: Greg Speck
Production Company: Where The Buffalo Roam
Executive Producer: PJ Koll
Line Producer / Executive Producer: Chris Whitney
Production Coordinator: Phil Tang
Post Producer: Taraneh Golozar
Director: Brian Perkins
Director of Photography: Brett Simms
2nd Camera DP: Will Nail
Animator: Ryan Luse
Animator: Jess Gibson
Editor: Marco Svizzero
Post Production: MFDsf
Colorist: Ayumi Ashley
Producer: Nick Castillo
Sound Engineer: Joel Rabe
Jul
12
Publicis Groupe Hires Grey’s Alex Lea as Executive Creative Director on Walmart
Posted in: UncategorizedPublicis Groupe hired Alex Lea as executive creative director for its Walmart account.
In the role, Lea will be based out of Saatchi & Saatchi’s New York office and work closely with other agencies servicing Walmart as part of Publcis’ dedicated unit DeptW, while reporting to Saatchi & Saatchi New York chief creative officer Javier Campopiano and Publicis New York chief creative officer Andy Bird.
“Andy and I are very excited to welcome Alex to the team. His relentless search for creative excellence and ability to tackle big business challenges make him a perfect fit,” Campopiano said in a statement.
“I’m thrilled to work with the talented diverse team assembled across DeptW. I hope to harness the diverse skills across the team to make amazing things together,” Lea added.
Lea arrives from Grey New York, where he has led creative on the Ally Bank as group creative director since March of 2016. Before that he spent nine months as executive creative director for Erwin Penland’s New York office, where he worked with L.L. Bean.
The appointment marks a return for Publicis for Lea, who previously spent around three and a half years as a senior vice president, creative director for Saatchi & Saatchi, working with brands including Miller High Life, Keystone Light, Kraft’s Capri Sun, General Mills’ Fruitsnacks and Kool Aid. He left Saatchi in April of 2013 to join CP+B, where he served as a creative director and led creative on Kraft’s JELL-O brand and Microsoft Xbox, followed by a short stint as freelance creative director/art director with agencies including David&Goliath and Droga5.
Jul
12
We Hear: Allstate Adds 72andSunny to Its Creative Agency Roster
Posted in: UncategorizedInsurance giant Allstate has quietly begun working with 72andSunny on unspecified creative projects, according to a party with knowledge of the matter.
The precise nature of the purported relationship and the projects in question is unclear at this time, as is the effect they might have on longtime agency of record Leo Burnett Chicago.
Allstate, which is the largest publicly held insurance company in the U.S. and trails only State Farm in annual revenues, has been working with Leo Burnett for 60 years. The agency first turned a manager’s impromptu slogan “You’re in good hands” into a TV spot back in 1957—and the rest, as they say, is advertising history.
Today a spokesperson for Allstate said that Leo Burnett remains the company’s creative agency of record while noting that it regularly works with other shops. When asked to elaborate, the spox declined to name any additional agencies or confirm whether 72andSunny is currently on its roster.
Leo Burnett deferred to the client, and a 72andSunny representative declined to comment.
Allstate has recently made some significant changes to both its marketing team and its ad campaigns. Approximately one year ago, Gannon Jones, who was formerly head of marketing at MillerCoors, became SVP of product marketing. Jones had left the beer giant in late 2015 immediately after 72andSunny won a creative review for AOR duties on its Coors Light brand—and according to reports (and tweets) released at the time, he played a key role in choosing the MDC Partners agency.
With the gang @72andSunny today. Let’s climb some mountains! @CoorsLight @MillerCoors pic.twitter.com/3EKITALbRa
— Gannon Jones (@gannon_jones) September 30, 2015
Weeks before Jones joined Allstate last June, the company pivoted away from its “Mayhem” campaign, which started running in 2004, in favor of an effort centered on cameos from celebrities like Leslie Jones and Adam DeVine. That work also tweaked the classic tagline to “It’s good to be in good hands.”
Mayhem quickly returned, however, and has appeared in many ads over the past year including the latest, uploaded immediately before we posted this story.
Allstate is a huge account. Kantar Media’s latest numbers have the company spending $343 million on marketing in 2016 and more than $87 million during the first quarter of this year.
Jul
12
Tuesday Odds and Ends
Posted in: Uncategorized-This new ad for Diamonds by Raymond Lee from producer Karen Neicy has a twist that you can definitely see coming, but it still works.
-Hornet Inc.’s global campaign promoting Amazon Prime Day includes animated Corgis and a making of video celebrating the machines that will destroy us.
-Grey and FCB veteran Andy Ball debates how agencies got to where they are today in a detailed LinkedIn post. Short answer: consolidation and no commissions.
–Ian Heartfield and Anthony Austin have assumed the joint ECD role at BBH London as Nick Gill assumes the title of “creative.” He will lead the Tesco and Barclay’s accounts.
-Stonyfield picked Boston’s GYK Antler as its first creative AOR in an effort to expand its share of the hyper-competitive yogurt market.
-INNOCEAN reorganized its media division by promoting Ben Gogley and Eddie Austin to SVP, media director for its two largest clients, Kia and Hyundai.
-Insulation company K-FLEX picked Howard/Merrell of Raleigh, NC as its ad agency of record after a review.
-New York’s CreativeDrive, described as a “technology-enabled content creation model” rather than an agency, hired former Ketchum SVP of marketing Amy Romero as its new CMO.
Jul
12
Volvo Curated a Whole Photography Exhibit of Images Shot by the Camera in Its XC60
Posted in: UncategorizedBuilding on the gorgeous “Moments” film it created for Volvo in June, Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors organized the world’s first-ever exhibit of photos taken with a car’s camera, with help from Pulitzer Prize- and Emmy-winning photographer Barbara Davidson. The images on display were shot with the XC60’s safety camera, programmed to detect cyclists, pedestrians,…
Jul
12
'Meet Graham' Team Joins Droga5, McGarryBowen Shifts Creative Leaders
Posted in: Uncategorized
Tom and George McQueen, the identical twin creative team behind Clemenger BBDO Melbourne’s award-winning “Meet Graham” campaign, for Transport Accident Commission in Australia, have joined Droga5 New York as senior copywriter and senior art director, respectively. The TAC campaign recently won two Grand Prix in the Cyber and Health categories as well as multiple Gold Lions at the Cannes Lions festival in June. The pair, who were recently featured in Ad Age’s “Creatives You Need to Know” report, have also created platform-spanning campaigns for Airbnb, Myer and solar provider Origin.
Jul
12
NYT and Other Papers to Congress: Save Us From the Facebook-Google Duopoly!
Posted in: Uncategorized
Ad Age “Media Guy” columnist Simon Dumenco’s media roundup for the morning of Monday, July 10:
It’s only Monday morning and already I’m feeling vaguely exhausted (the weekend news cycle was rough), so let’s just get started, shall we?
1. The nation breathed a sigh of relief on Sunday morning as the president of the United States, in the wake of the G20 Summit, finally brought closure to the Russian hacking scandal via Twitter:
Jul
12
Stripe Partners With WeChat, Alipay to Access Customers in China
Posted in: Uncategorized
Stripe unveiled a partnership deal with two of China’s biggest digital payment services, giving the San Francisco-based startup access to hundreds of millions of Chinese customers.
Businesses that use Stripe can now accept Alipay and WeChat as payment methods on their websites, according to a statement from Stripe. Stripe provides software that lets businesses accept payments online, and offers tools to help with data security, fraud prevention, accounting, and billing.
“By deepening our existing partnership with Alipay, we’re enabling businesses around the world to instantly access the once-impenetrable Chinese consumer market,” said John Collison, president and co-founder of Stripe.
Jul
12
Snap Slips Below IPO Price Amid Doubts Over Future Growth
Posted in: Uncategorized
Snap Inc. shares fell below their initial public offering price for the first time amid questions about the company’s ability to grow as fast as initially expected and after recent declines in technology stocks worldwide.
The stock closed down 1.1% at $16.99 in New York Monday, below the $17 IPO price set on March 1 and having earlier slipped as low as $16.95. To regain value, the company will need to prove that its advertisements are a must-buy, not just an experiment, and will need to keep innovating on its product as Facebook Inc. copies its most popular features, analysts have said.
“The pace of growth in monetization may not be as fast as we originally modeled,” Mark May, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., said in a note downgrading the stock last month. “We expect user growth will remain modest near-term.”
Jul
12
Defining TV Audience Targeting
Posted in: Uncategorized
TV has long been a powerful force in advertising with significant reach and scale, but it’s no secret that TV’s share of ad spend has been on the decline; in fact, 2017 is the first year in which digital ad spend is expected to surpass TV spending. The reason for this is simple: Targeting. Digital advertising has offered targeting of audiences where TV traditionally has not.
The TV advertising ecosystem needs to evolve to compete with these digital alternatives. The beginning of this evolution is the birth of data-driven audience targeting and addressable advertising. These targeted TV advertising methods are rising in popularity yet there still remains a great deal of confusion around what they actually mean and how they work.
To address that confusion, here are some straightforward definitions:
Jul
12
NYT to Trump Jr.: We're Digging This Hole for You. Trump Jr.: Wow, Thanks! Can I Help Dig?
Posted in: Uncategorized
Ad Age “Media Guy” columnist Simon Dumenco’s media roundup for the morning of Tuesday, July 11:
So let’s review what’s been happening between The New York Times and Donald Trump Jr.: On Saturday, the Times published a story saying that Trump Jr. and top Trump campaign aides met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer at Trump Tower in June. Trump Jr. said yeah, that meeting happened, but so what, we talked about a Russian adoption program. Then on Sunday the Times ran a story saying that Trump Jr. was promised dirt about Hillary Clinton at that meeting. So then Trump Jr. said, well, yeah, duh, I wanted to hear anti-Hillary stuff, but the information offered was useless, but I didn’t really know who I was meeting with, and we still mostly just talked about an adoption program.
And then on Monday night — well, see No. 1, below. [UPDATE: See the addition at the end of this post.] Anyway, see a pattern here? It’s tempting to conclude that the Times is holding back what it knows about Trump Jr. and releasing it piecemeal in the hopes that Trump Jr. will lie and/or obfuscate, and then force him to backtrack as it releases more information. The Times, it seems, keeps setting traps for Trump Jr., and he keeps falling for them. Is it a cat-and-mouse game if the mouse keeps on climbing into the cat’s mouth?
Jul
12
Facebook Unleashes Ads on Messenger as Main App Starts Running Out of Space
Posted in: Uncategorized
Ads will appear on the Messenger homescreen. Credit: Facebook.
Facebook is about to open the ad gates on Messenger.
The messaging app, with 1.2 billion monthly active users, is going to start showing ads in its home tab. Facebook had been testing these homepage messages on Messenger overseas, and will now unleash them on U.S. audiences, the company announced on Tuesday.
Jul
12
Google, Amazon Join Online Protest of Net Neutrality Change
Posted in: Uncategorized
How many online activists does it take to save Silicon Valley’s favorite Obama-era regulation?
Organizers of an online protest aimed at derailing a Republican plan to roll back net neutrality rules are hoping the magic number is 70,000. That’s the number of sites and organizations — including Amazon.com, Google, Facebook and even President Donald Trump’s favored medium, Twitter — that have pledged to participate.
On Wednesday, the big commercial sites will join scores of online activists and businesses in telling users about the change planned in Washington — and ask the visitors to contact Congress and the Federal Communications Commission, where Republican Chairman Ajit Pai, a Trump appointee, commands a majority and is moving toward gutting the rule against interfering with web traffic.
Jul
12
Microsoft Wants to Take Unused TV Spectrum for Fast Rural Internet. TV Industry Says 'Nonsense'
Posted in: Uncategorized
For years, Microsoft focused its efforts to expand high-speed internet access on developing markets around the world. Now, the company is waking up to the problem in its own backyard, after the 2016 presidential election shed light on how far rural parts of America had fallen behind cities in reliable, fast connectivity — and the challenges that gap poses for residents.
The software giant on Tuesday is calling for a national strategy that eliminates the rural broadband gap over the next five years. It’s starting by funding projects to bring access to less-populated areas in 12 U.S. states in the next year, and will share the new technology with other companies that want to do the same.
By 2022, the Redmond, Washington-based company plans to provide fast internet to 2 million people, using so-called white-spaces spectrum — the unused frequencies between TV channels. It will face some hurdles, including opposition from broadcasters reluctant to surrender airwaves.
Jul
12
Baby Dove Pulls U.K. Breastfeeding Ad After Complaints
Posted in: Uncategorized
Dove has made a name for itself as a marketer by pushing boundaries and depicting women of all ages, shapes and sizes in its “Campaign for Real Beauty.”
But in the U.K., the Unilever-owned brand seems to have misjudged the appetite for “real,” with an ad for the recently-launched Dove Baby skincare showing a woman breastfeeding her baby.
After a barrage of complaints from the British public, Unilever has pulled the ad, which reads, “75% say breastfeeding in public is fine. 25% say put them away. What’s your way?”
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