Hasta La Creative!

Another McCann-related p0st, you say? What the hell. Well, it looks like Houston-based Ignite Restaurant Group has gone all in with McCann Erickson, handing its full brand advertising duties to the New York office, which picked up AOR duties for its Joe’s Crab Shack chain last November. Apparently, the spot you see above for Joe’s helped spur the move. In a statement, Ignite CMO Robin Ahearn says, “The positive feedback from ‘100% Shore’ and the great working relationship we’ve developed with McCann led to this consolidation. Our goal is to drive frequency with our current guests and introduce our restaurants to new guests across the country.  McCann is helping us do just that.”

As far as Ignite’s new move, McCann NY is now serving as AOR for  Romano’s Macaroni Grill  brand and will handle strategy responsibilities for Brick House Tavern + Tap. From what we’ve been told, there was no review. Instead, McCann NY asked for an opportunity to present ideas for the Romano’s Macaroni Grill business and Ignite gave a thumbs up, awarding Brick House strategy in the process.

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Fact: When it comes to marketing spending, analog still outstrips digital by a factor of three to one.

Jake Sorofman, an analyst with Gartner, supplied the cold hard fact above in a Harvard Business Review article.

It’s the kind of fact that my friend Bob Hoffman likes, and likes to use to convince CMOs and other innocents, that digital is a good place to experiment but to move metal or sell cheeseburgers, stick to broadcast.

Oddly, TV isn’t all that easy to measure, whereas digital initiatives are all about measurement. From Sorofman’s article:

…with digital techniques, everything is measurable. Feedback loops tighten, segmentation becomes microtargeting, and optimizations can happen on the fly or even in real time. The relationship between investment and impact becomes correlated and causal — and the CMO becomes accountable down to the dime and moment by moment. Light dawns on the marketing spend! This transparency is powerful when quarters are turning into dollars for the business — but potentially perilous when the opposite is the case.

Knowledge is power. Let’s not deny a core principle. But can we entertain that not everything in advertising or the universe is knowable? Can we allow for magic to happen? Is there a line item for magic? There needs to be, because a brand is so much more than a series of A-B tests, performed ad infinitum. A brand is the grand sum of experiences people have with a company. A brand is customer service, product and look and feel.

Sorofman reflects on imagined days gone by. “Like Mad Men’s Don Draper, the CMO became the master of the soft-shoe performance.”

I don’t argue that there are charlatans in every line of work, but I do contest that knowing what works is an act of some kind. Knowing where to put a word, where to place a support beam in a house, or where to make an incision during surgery, are all practical skills that also require intuition and a deft touch.

I have no issue with Quants storming the CMO’s office, or my own office for that matter, but let’s keep some perspective and our eyes on the prize. Brand building is a human enterprise, and humans are observed from every angle, yet continue to surprise.

The post Marketers Are Brand Architects And Building Brands Takes More Than Math appeared first on AdPulp.

We truly had no idea the creative account was in review for retail chain Burlington Coat Factory, where we’ve bought our share of oversized jackets and what not back in the day for half the price. But apparently, it is so, and from what we’re hearing from sources in the know, Silver+Partners–aka, the Eric Silver-run, New York-based shop formerly known as Amalgamated–is in the mix. S+P would not comment on the matter and we’ve yet to hear back from BCF, which has worked most recently with Cramer-Krasselt.

Building on what we initially reported a month ago, C-K hasn’t worked with the brand for the past three months and only did project work involving concepting creative but did not produce actual creative, which was handled in-house by the client. This, like before, leaves us a bit confused considering that in 2008, it was reported that Burlington Coat Factory awarded the agency its creative duties following a review. Whatever the case, C-K was invited to participated in BCF’s current review, but declined. While spies are saying Silver+Partners is taking on the biz, we’re hearing that it’s yet to be awarded. We’ll keep you posted.

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In case you missed the lengthy AdAge piece about this since it was seemingly harder to find than Jimmy Hoffa, we’ve received word from sources familiar with the matter that McCann has indeed won the $50 million account for the American Frozen Food Institute.

The AdAge piece did note that McCann was the odds-on favorite to win the account for the AFFI, a trade/lobbying group of supermarket standards in aisle eight, nine, whatever including Nestle and…wait, where’s the Totino’s Party Pizza? As a result of the win, our sources in the know tell us that McCann, which would not officially comment on the matter (try getting a hold of the AFFI), will handle a national consumer campaign on behalf of the newly formed Frozen Food Roundtable that operates under the auspices of the AFFI.

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According to the parties involved, specifically Arnold Worldwide and Jack Daniel’s, the spot above marks the first one in a quarter-century for the latter spirits brand’s Gentleman Jack rare premium whiskey line. The focal point of the campaign is what agency and brand are dubbing “The Order of the Gentleman,” which sounds like a more refined version of the Stonecutters or the secret society/motley crew assembled by Jagermeister and Mistress. The spot itself called “Secret Meetings,” which debuted during last night’s premiere of Anthony Bourdain‘s new CNN show, Parts Unknown, stars apparent “Order of the Gentleman” member Titus Welliver, who among other things has appeared in all three Ben Affleck-directed movies in recent years.

As we’ve been told, the somewhat mysterious clip above is just the beginning of a campaign that will roll out over the next few months and includes online components among other things. Indulge your urbane self further if you care to here. Credits after the jump.

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A friend sent us this and yes, we’re checking to see which agency was behind this clip (maybe Draftfcb’s doing?), but it is on the official Kmart YouTube page and the entrendres are abound in this new clip that promotes the shipping services of the retail chain. From what we’ve seen, Kmart will ship the bed, your pants and more. The retail chain, as you may know, is currently reviewing its creative business (down to a few now) and if this doesn’t sell it for DFCB (which may or not be involved in the spot), we don’t know what will. Stay tuned if we find out more.

Update: Yep, it’s Draftfcb Chicago.

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Well, we went straight to the source on this one and we’ve heard from the Verizon camp itself that the telecom giant is indeed putting its multicultural account up for review. Here’s a statement from a Verizon spokesperson: “We are in an industry that’s changes rapidly and it is important that we stay competitive in every aspect of our business including our advertising.   We have chosen to review our agency relationship and GlobalHue has been invited to participate in the RFP.”

GlobalHue has been working with Verizon for nine years and according to sources in the know, the agency currently serves as the multicultural AOR for the Verizon Wireless Hispanic and African-American target segments. The remit as of now according to our sources includes strategy, creative, broadcast/print production and leadership of all Verizon Wireless Hispanic/African-American efforts. From what we’ve heard from the client, the aim is to get this multicultural business review done rather quickly, so expect an update sooner than later.

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It took more than 170 hours for Seoul-based shop Mr. Romance to animate a 100-second stop-motion short film for the Pantech Vega No 6 smartphone. That’s a week without sleeping. That’s a few weeks with a handful of naps sprinkled in between the production work. Before the animation took place, 1600 paper figures had to be cut carefully: that took three weeks. So, when you watch the clip, know that a tremendous amount of detail and effort went into the creative process.

That being said, the payoff for all of the work lasts less than two minutes. There’s actually a “making-of” section in the above video, which runs longer than the stop-motion part (that’s never a good ratio in filmmaking). Numbers seem to be vital to this whole campaign–500 Vega No 6 phones were also used to build the sets–but too much so, to the point where they overshadow the product. The video may have even been more effective if it stood alone without the making-of portion. I could tell you less is more, but I don’t think the workers who cut out the paper characters would be happy.

Credits after the jump.

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After handling advertising and digital work in-house in recent years, TiVo is thinking outside the box, so to speak, and has named Minneapolis-based Olson as its new agency of record for advertising, web, consumer PR (previously handled by Allison + Partners) and social projects. There was a review for the TiVo biz, though no word yet on who else participated.

In a statement, Doug Bieter, TiVo’s VP of consumer sales and marketing says, “We were impressed by the depth and breadth of Olson’s ideas and their ability to seamlessly integrate the multiple aspects of our market differentiation and bold plans for the future. By retaining an agency of Olson’s stature, we are consolidating best-in-class advertising, digital and PR strategies that will be a tremendous asset as we build our brand and spread the word about the distinct value of the TiVo experience.”

According to those in the know, after a bit of a rough patch, TiVo has been on an upswing since last year (check out the brand’s Q4 report for context). Wit the win, Olson, which also picked up AOR duties for Saucony in recent months, is now in the process of developing “a multi-channel brand enhancement effort” for its newest client.

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The beauty of industry-related Tumblrs once again reveals itself as we’ve now been made aware of a fairly new one called “Fuck Yeah Advertising Puns,” which was created by Alex King and Mike Phillips, copywriter and planner, respectively, at London-based shop, Tullo Marshall Warren. While the lads appear to have been updating their Tumblr fairly consistently since late February, it was only today that we discovered Phillips doing a little self-promoting on Twitter.

Anyhow, nothing like captured images of terrible ad puns–whether outdoor, in print, etc–, complete with punny/corny captions to alleviate any case of the Mondays one might have. Though, considering how gorgeous it is in NYC today, it’s hard to feel any sort of malaise, but we digress. Above, we have just a couple of examples from King and Phillips’ Tumblr, which is basically still in nascent form but will hopefully be more frequently updated in the days to come. And yes, you can submit your own.

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