Monday, December 18, 2023
Sunday, December 17, 2023
Thursday, December 14, 2023
Saturday, November 11, 2023
Thursday, October 19, 2023
Media shake-up continues: General Mills and Eurostar make their choices
General Mills, makers of Cheerios and Häagen-Dazs, has appointed IPG’s UM to handle its global strategy, planning, buying, analytics, performance and commerce efforts across 36 markets.
The $800m General Mills business (or almost all of it) was previously held by WPP’s Mindshare. But it’s not all bad new for WPP: Wavemaker won the £25m Eurostar account after a pitch against Havas, UM and Publicis. Eurostar was already a Wavemaker client, but the pitch was for the expanded business following the acquisition of European high speed rail service Thalys.
A General Mills statement said: “UM brings differential capabilities across the critical pillars of transformation to include omnichannel strategy and planning, specialized talent, advanced data strategy and tech stack and focus on measurable outcomes.”
There have been plenty of big media reviews this year and it seems that with every appointment, the client’s message is about their new agency’s superior transformation and innovation capabilities.
Yet no one group is emerging as the indisputable victor – they all seem to be winning as well as losing. Omnicom recently won BMW in the North and Latin America (from IPG) as well as Uber (from WPP). Publicis Groupe won Kimberley-Clark in the US (from WPP), while WPP won Nestlé’s European business in September.
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Cannes Lions makes a play for luxury brands and ditches mobile for 2024
Next year’s Cannes festival will include a new Luxury & Lifestyle awards track, which CEO Simon Cook says is here to reward “disruption” in the sector, with a focus on work that “drives business performance and brand loyalty”.
Gucci won a Bronze Lion in film craft this year for a campaign with Dentsu Tokyo (pictured).
Meanwhile, the Mobile Lions have sensibly been retired in recognition of the fact that “Over the past number of years, mobile-led creativity has been expanding into almost every Lion.”
Marian Brannelly, the global director of awards, points out that luxury the sector is negotiating “the changing values of new demographics, the evolving definition of luxury in non-Western markets and the need for a heightened focus on sustainability and conscious consumption.”
All of which is true, but it’s also tempting to conclude that Cannes Lions has seen the money in luxury and wants to bring some of it into the festival. And who can blame them, especially given the French dominance of the market? Paris-based LVMH owns (among others) Louis Vuitton, Dior, Tiffany, Givenchy, and three of the best known champagnes – Möet & Chandon, Dom Pérignon, and Veuve Clicquot.
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BBH smashes stigmas for Girl vs Cancer in subversive new campaign
Girl vs Cancer is a charity collective that wants to put two fingers up to cancer, and these three BBH films do just. They talk openly about sex for sufferers and survivors, issuing the defiant message, “Cancer won’t be the last thing that f***s me.”
Sexual dysfunction affects around 60% of women with cancer, but it’s one of those topics that gets pushed to the background: less than a third of women are given any information about how a diagnosis will affect their sex life.
Lauren Mahon, founder of Girl vs Cancer, said: “Sexual wellness should be a part of ongoing routine cancer care, but providing learning resources for healthcare professionals only helps if patients are empowered to have a conversation about this topic.”
Helen Rhodes, ECD of BBH, said: “Every single woman in cancer care deserves to get the help they need, but for myriad reasons, often aren’t able to ask for it. Our approach might make some people uncomfortable and that’s fine. As long as it gets people talking, we know that’s the most effective way to kickstart change.”
BBH’s campaign – which includes OOH and social media – will most definitely bring a taboo topic into the foreground.
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EE tackles device-crazy screenagers in new Saatchi campaign
Even broadband companies are waking up to some of the mayhem they cause it seems with a new campaign for EEC from Saatchi & Saatchi plugging its ability to disconnect pre-teen ‘screenagers’ from their ever raucous devices.
There are three ads – home, work, learn and game.
EE says it’s its biggest campaign since it launched in 2011 (taking over the late-lamented Orange.)
Can you put the genie back in the bottle? Worth a try maybe.
MAA creative scale: 6.5.
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Wednesday, October 18, 2023
Is bigger better for VML and WPP?
In the wake of the VML Wunderman merger one might ask: why don’t they just have WPP Creative? After all, more big clients are going for company-wide creative deals (creative being a rather wide category these days.) Two reasons maybe. One is that VML CEO Jon Cook appears to have been pretty insistent on VML’s …
The post Is bigger better for VML and WPP? first appeared on More About Advertising.
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Omnicom grows 3.3% in Q3 2023 – forecasts stronger 2024
While the ad world mulls over the merger of Wunderman Thompson into VML – now the world’s “biggest creative company” according to WPP – Omnicom is quietly getting on with business, posting 3.3% growth in Q3 2023 on a 3.9% increase in overall revenue to $3.6bn.
Omnicom now expects 4% growth for the year and better times next year when a number of big new business wins, especially in media, will kick in.
Publicis currently leads the 2023 growth field with 5.3% growth in Q3.
Omnicom CEO John Wren says the company’s “strong growth validate the benefits of our client strategy in this rapidly evolving marketplace. We are very well positioned for a recovery in business conditions, with a strong balance sheet and leading creativity in all of our service disciplines.”
By region organic growth in the US was 2.7%, 5.7% in Europe with the The UK up 4.4%. LATAM was up 19% but the Middle East, Africa and Canada were down.
By discipline advertising and media was up 6.1%, precision marketing up 4.3% and healthcare up 3.8%. Experiential marketing units posted a 9.2% increase. PR, execution and support, commerce and branding were down.
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Tuesday, October 17, 2023
The 45th Annual Telly Awards Announces Call for Entries Under New “Beyond The Frame” Theme Adland®
The Telly Awards, honoring excellence in video and television across all screens, kicks off its 45th annual call for entries by embracing the ever-growing world of new technologies and storytelling formats that push the boundaries of our industry. This year’s theme “Beyond the Frame” is an exploration of possibility beyond surface-level visuals and traditional techniques that aims to unlock deeper layers of meaning, creativity and innovation within video production.
“We live in a bold new era for video and television, one that has moved beyond finite frames of reference,” says newly appointed Telly Awards Managing Director Amanda Needham. “Excellent work is created on TikTok or in a commercial as often as it’s seen on the big screen – and the work we honor across television, branded content, immersive and social has consistently underscored this. The world is finally catching up.”
Committed to pushing the boundaries of creativity forward, this year’s new categories include topics within Generative AI, Brand Collaboration, and Accessibility. These categories will dive into cutting-edge technologies and storytelling formats, while continuing to center diverse points of view with expanded offerings in Family Parenting, Use of Data Visualization, E-Commerce, Advocacy & Causes, Thought Leadership, Explainers and more.
The Telly Awards has tapped prominent industry leaders to co-present a new “In Conversation” series around key topics including a panel on sustainability at NAB NYC, a fireside chat about the WGA strike at Stareable Fest with 2x Emmy Award winner for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, series writer Liz Hynes, an AI in Filmmaking conversation at The National Arts Club and a ”Video for Social Impact” screening with the National Geographic Impact Story Lab.
This year’s global screenings continue to be a hub for creative agencies, independent creators, and production companies to connect, showcasing exceptional short-form content from the year taking place in New York, Nashville, London, Atlanta and Los Angeles. The curated program will debut at NeueHouse Madison Square in New York City and includes shorts from Scout Productions (creators of Queer Eye), Rascal Post, FilmFatales, and more.
“Hot Takes,” the acclaimed video series that features candid and unscripted responses from industry leaders like Square, Verizon and The Mill is back for its 3rd season featuring insights from professionals at Droga5, MassFX, FORTUNE Brand Studio, and more. The Telly Award Podcast is also relaunching with a fresh new format offering listeners an exclusive backstage view of the industry, with the first episode delving into accessibility with Amanda Upson, Director of FWD-Doc, an organization founded by the Oscar-nominated producers of Crip Camp.
Joining the Beyond the Frame campaign are new partners ReelAbilities, a film industry leader setting the highest standards of accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities, and AIFF, the AI Film Festivalbacked by RunwayML, an applied AI research company shaping the next era of art, entertainment and human creativity. Their efforts are pushing the limits of what defines and should define the current creative industry, and The Tellys latest categories underscore this objective. Collectively, The Telly Awards and their collaborators will join forces on multiple initiatives, including the Telly Award Screening Series and episodes dedicated to accessibility and AI within both Hot Takes and the Telly Awards Podcast.
Among this year’s newest addition of judges are Nathalie van Sasse van Ysselt, VP of Design and Creative Services, MSG Sphere Studios, Gabo Arora, Lightshed, Becky Owen, Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer, Billion Dollar Boy, Bianca Consunji, Creative Strategist, Netflix, Aiden Darné, VP and Global Studio Lead, Shutterstock, Whitney Buxton, VP of Video, Bustle Digital Group, Barry Christie, Global Creative Lead, Meta Creative Shop, Claudia Fischer, Managing Director, Whaler, Jaqlyn Murphy, Managing Director of Brand Purpose, Edelman, Adrienne Katz, Executive Producer, Unit 9, Shawna Shutz, Founder & CEO, MassFX, Yasin Khan, Editor-in Chief, Thomas Reuters Foundation, Malinda Wink, Vice President, Minderoo Pictures, Farihah Zaman, Filmmaker, Brown Girl Doc Mafia, Jenn Rubin, Senior Editor, AirBnB and Tamra Simons, Executive Producer of “Surviving R. Kelly.”
To enter work in the 45th Annual Telly Awards, visit www.TellyAwards.com. The deadline for early entries is Friday, December 8, 2023 (Final Entry Deadline: Friday February 23rd, 2024), and the winners will be announced in May 2024.
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Tita Poe Joins the Creative Nomads at Los York Adland®
The pioneering creative hybrid LOS YORK has hired Tita Poe as Executive Producer of its STUDIO. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Poe previously held the Head of Production role at Brand New School where she oversaw an array of design-driven creative strategy, production & post projects. Prior to that Poe was Head of Production at Visual Creatures, a studio focused on character-driven 2D & 3D animation projects, VFX-intensive jobs and editorial/finishing.
She joins LOS YORK as it accelerates and expands its unique position in the industry as a hybrid creative studio staffed with “creative nomads;” a collective of designers and creatives, producers, editors, animators and film directors, creating global advertising campaigns as partners to the world’s best brands and agencies.
“We were immediately captivated by Tita’s enthusiasm and dedication to fostering world-class talent and creative,” said LOS YORK Managing Director Melina Osornio-Andrade. “Her addition to the team continues our growth at LOS YORK as we bolster our studio and continue delivering exceptional work”
“LOS YORK is in an exciting phase right now,” said Poe. “They’re building a 2.0 version of the studio, doing a big push to expand and push incredible work out there. It’s really inspiring. The culture is amazing. They’re my people. We’re creating an extraordinary future together.”
Poe brings to LOS YORK a dozen plus years of experience partnering with an array of brands including Apple, Netflix, Google, Toyota, Meta, AT&T and T-Mobile. Early in her career she worked with Radical Media as a Senior Post Producer supervising teams of editors and story producers and managing all aspects of finishing. Her production and post-production resume runs the entire gamut from commercials, branded content and music videos (which includes producing VFX for Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-winning “Humble” video), to premium television docu-series and animated shorts.
“I’ve worked both with agencies and direct to brand, which is what LOS YORK does so well and is one of the reasons why we clicked,” said Poe. “My approach is to forge partnerships where everyone from the artists to the agencies and brands are happy and working smoothly. That’s what I’ll be doing with LOS YORK, including helping foster an overall supportive and productive creative culture. I’m ready, and I’m psyched.”
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WPP merges VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson – VML now “biggest agency in the world”
We’ve suggested often enough here that more WPP mergers are inevitably on the way but this one’s still a surprise: VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson are the ones getting together, under the VML umbrella.
Which means goodbye to two of the most venerable names in advertising: Thompson as in J. Walter Thompson, founded back in the 19th century and direct marketing pioneer Wunderman, founded by Lester Wunderman.
The new entity, just VML, will be the world’s biggest creative company according to WPP, with 30,000 staff in 64 markets. It will be headed by VML founder Jon Cook as global CEO and the UK’s Mel Edwards from Wunderman Thompson as global president (both below.) A remarkable rise for a boy from Kansas City where VML (for now) still has its HQ.
Cook says: “The future of building strong brands and businesses requires the interconnectivity of brand experience, commerce and customer experiences. We recognised the immediate opportunity to create what every consultancy and advertising agency aspires to build with the formation of VML. We’re especially excited to present our new offering to the industry as we don’t believe there is another company as creatively awarded with our depth in customer experience and commerce.”
Edwards says: “This is the right suite of capabilities, offered at just the right moment, at unprecedented scale. It’s incredibly exciting because with this new agency we have the chance to shape the future of modern marketing in every key market around the world. The opportunities it affords our people and the growth we can deliver for our clients at a global scale make this a real game-changer for each business and the wider industry.”
WPP CEO Mark Read, a former boss of Wunderman, says: “Scale matters in today’s world as AI and technology transform marketing and global clients look to simplify their relationships. VML will combine world-class creativity with deep expertise in data, marketing technology and platforms to deliver competitive advantage for ambitious brands. It’s another important step forward for WPP as we continue to reshape our offer for the future, simplify our business and unlock further benefits of scale.”
We’ll see. 30,000 people is a lot to bring together (although they almost certainly all won’t be there when the new company becomes operational in January next year.) Read is betting the ranch on an agency driven by what WPP calls commerce (e-commerce as was.)
Does this bring WPP any closer to its ambition to be the “creative transformation” company? Losing what was left of two Madison Avenue stalwarts JWT and Y&R (which cost the old WPP nearly $5bn back in the day) means a radically different company to the one Read inherited from Sir Martin Sorrell.
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Whiskas works for noisy Bella
We’re told by the TikTok generation that cats are the secret to increasing readership (ours is already high, obs) so here we go: MAA’s first cat video (we think.)
It’s Bella from Cambridgeshire who’s been credited by Guinness World Records with the loudest purr so far recorded.
The (tenuous) connection with MAA? Bella is fuelled by Whiskas.
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British Gas launches savings offer with different kind of elite race
British Gas was nobody’s favourite when energy bills soared and owner Centrica’s profits rose dramatically (along with the bonus for its spectacularly moustachioed CEO – not a good look.)
Bills have fallen somewhat but it’s going to be a rugged winter for lots of us so BG and agency The&Partnership are getting their retaliation in first with an offer of half-price electricity between 11am and 4pm on Sundays; rewarding customers, it says, for “more sustainable” energy use. Not a bad idea.
So, as the supporter of Team GB, it’s roped in Tom Daley, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Paralympian Ellie Simmonds to take part in a different kind of 11-4 race.
Not a bad idea either. Nicely done.
MAA creative scale: 7.5.
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Monday, October 16, 2023
Mother wins crypto brand Kraken and launches global campaign
Crypto currency and its near cousin NFTs have lately fallen into disrepute thanks to the ongoing fraud trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of ultimate crypto exchange FTX.
But the crypto bros persevere, and there’s probably a use for digital currency somewhere along the line. Mother London must think so – the agency pitched successfully for the global Kraken account earlier in the year, and the result is a campaign that promotes the digital currency as a driver of financial freedom and inclusion, inviting us to “See what crypto can be.”
David Ripley, Kraken CEO, said: “This is our first global campaign for a reason – for 12 years we have grown organically through a great product built on world-class design and performance with a foundation of security and client service. Now is the perfect time for us to step forward and celebrate Kraken as a mission-driven brand centred around our clients, while helping the next billion people understand what crypto can offer them today and into the future.”
Mayur Gupta, Kraken CMO, said: “Kraken has always valued education and providing the right resources to clients. The benefits of crypto are available to all, and Kraken is committed to providing beginners with a safe and accessible bridge to this exciting world. We want people to know Kraken and understand that we have always stood for crypto’s mission and doing what is best for clients with a deep commitment to continually improving their experience.”
US-based Kraken has had its own share of dodgy press. It was fined $30m by the US Securities & Exchange Commission at the start of the year and in July, founder Jesse Powell had his homed searched by the FBI.
But Mother has always been smart about business and they will have done their homework. Kraken – described by the FT as one of the best known exchanges in crypto-currencies – took its time about launching an ad campaign, and recently signed a deal with the Williams Formula 1 team.
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CityFibre takes aim at broadband snails with NCA
New Commercial Arts is pretty busy at the moment, unleashing Dominic West on the nation’s arrogant bank execs for Nationwide, wondering what to do with Rick Astley at Christmas for Sainsbury’s (joke) and now entering the lists for challenger broadband supplier CityFibre.
Well someone has to make it work. My dentist told me this morning that Virgin Media (an old favourite of ours) has been saying her broadband is crap because she lives in a valley. North London’s hardly the Grand Canyon is it?
Anyway, CityFibre is telling us it’s not snail-like, like its competitors. With snails.
CityFibre CMO Dan Ramsay says: “After the success of our first multi-platform creative campaign, we’re back and promising the public ‘snail no more’ to slow and unreliable broadband. CityFibre’s full fibre network will help homes and businesses across the country solve the burden of poor connectivity impacting everyday life. Having full fibre at home is one of the best ways to keep us better connected with friends and remove one of life’s biggest bugbears.”
NCA likes to go for the jugular. Enough to put you off your escargots.
MAA creative scale: 7.
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EssenceMediacom mints “chief solutions officer”
There’s yet another new moniker in the wonderful world of media agencies: chief solutions officer (or CSO as we probably won’t be calling it.)
Tom Wigley has joined WPP’s Nexus (now “embedded” in EssenceMediacom we learn) from Publicis’ Spark Foundry where he was chief digital data and technology officer, which at least means something. Do you remember when plumbers all became water solutions experts overnight?
Wigley (left) says Wigley said EssenceMediacom is ideally placed to guide brands through the challenges of AI and privacy changes and will “provide unique solutions that help unlock new value” in campaigns. Nexus is WPP/GroupM’s performance marketing bit and now includes some other left-field GroupM initiatives that possibly failed to fly.
Doubtless Wigley will do a great job but isn’t it time media agencies looked at their own structures as well as advising clients on how to optimise theirs? Simplification clearly doesn’t figure on their ever-extending menu of options.
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Publicis progress can’t conceal an ad holding sector in severe need of a shake-up
Has Publicis Groupe discovered a secret sauce that’s eluding its holding company rivals? Its Q3 2023 numbers showing organic growth of 5.3% (after 7.3% in the previous quarter) look well ahead of any numbers its rivals are likely to post. Growth is slowing in the world economy, with tech clients in particular reining back.
CEO Arthur Sadoun credits this to his “go to market” strategy, which might mean anything. What seems to be the case is that its revenue is neatly divided three ways, as seen here in one of the slides from its recent investor presentation.
Clearly its big $8bn bet on Sapient and Epsilon is paying off, although it needs to after paying those prices. It seems to have been at incorporating them than Interpublic with its big data purchase of Acxiom. WPP has gone the other way, reducing is stake in Kantar to 40% to pay down debt.
If the sector as a whole doesn’t show growth investors are likely to ask what’s wrong. On the one hand the ad holding companies monopolise many areas of ad communications despite the efforts of smaller outfits like S4 Capital, Stagwell, Brand Tech Group and the still numerous array of independents. They’re so big they’re almost unavoidable for many clients.
At the same time they seem to give the ad industry a bad case of constipation: blocking anybody who tries to do things differently.
Accenture Song looks like the only outfit with the firepower to challenge ($14bn in revenue reportedly) although it lacks media, which is where most of the ad holding company growth is coming from.
It’s hardly healthy despite Publicis’ recent performance (it’s been tops for a few years now.) The industry clearly needs a big shake-up. But where’s it coming from?
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Burger King does scary with style for Halloween
Halloween is an acquired taste but it’s an onother opportunity for advertisers and Burger King with Dentsu Creative seems to have hit a winner with this spoof horror for its gruesome-sounding Ghost Pepper Whopper.
Dreamed up by Dentsu Creative’s social media unit it seems.
Nicely filmed and acted (no idea who she is but she’s good.)
MAA creative scale: 8.
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Friday, October 13, 2023
Why it’s a good time to support a free MAA
The ad business, like most people who aren’t fortunate enough to produce raw energy or weapons, is facing a more than testing 2023.
The media is no exception and, just like our bigger rivals, MAA has to chart its way through such difficulties and keep to our aim of being free – something of a rarity in today’s online world.
Over the past few years donations from our readers – individuals and companies – have played a vital role and this is an appeal to those and others: don’t forget to keep supporting us if you can.
You can donate one-offs, how much or how little is entirely up to you, or, most usefully, regular amounts.
The details are here.
Many thanks to all our supporters, you really are appreciated, and welcome, we hope, to more who will join the club.
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A tale of three British ads:Toyota, Royal British Legion and Boots No7
Three ads that show the best and the not so good of current British advertising.v Technically great, idea-wise not so great.
First up Toyota for The&Partnership with, yes you guessed it, a new “brand platform” – ‘Go Beyond.’
So we have lots of people feeling inspiring, some of whom work for Toyota, and others including disabled sports car driver Billy Monger (no, me neither.) Intercut with nice shots of a Toyota something-or-other.
And go beyond they certainly seem to – but what about the cars? Toyota, which still vies with VW as the world’s biggest carmaker, has rather been left behind. A pioneer in hybrids, not so hot with EVs.
Here it shows.
MAA creative scale: 5.
Next the Royal British Legion for Remembrance Sunday (Armistice Day elsewhere) which commemorates November 11 1918, the end of the First World War (although they were still shooting each other up to close of play at 11am.)
Everywhere wears poppies (those of a certain age anyway) including all broadcasters who’ll be sporting them any day soon. And Leagas Delaney, as ever, does a pretty good job, using stock footage of necessity to show our boys (and girls) in action.
(The ad’s down here somewhere, no idea what’s happened to Vimeo, maybe the techies have got at it.)
And the RBL doubtless does a very good job in supporting them as some return in bits from hapless engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq. But I’d like to know what exactly they do.
MAA creative scale 6.
Finally Boots No7 from WPP’s The Pharm, showing us its skin revival properties. A big market doubtless and it’s not unreasonable to show users being pretty happy about the efficacy of these potions. Whether they’re enough to make you jig around in your pyjamas is up to you to judge.
Technically, like Toyota, it’s AOK. But it’s really just quick-cutting, attention-grabbing stuff which has become a curse in UK advertising. How about a narrative, or don’t these play well in research? Idea – ignore the research.
MAA creative scale: 4.
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Thursday, October 12, 2023
Mother London rewards creative trio with top promotions
The agency is always creatively prolific, but Mother London tends to be less high profile with its people news. Somebody’s got to be doing all that work though, and this trio’s part in the process has earnt them all a promotion.
Production is becoming a central function for agencies as more and more of the work is done internally, and at Mother a team of 60 people are currently working to realise the creative department’s visions. Emma Davenport and Anna Murray have been at the agency for 12 years and have now earned a promotion from heads of production to chief production officers.
Murray and Davenport said: “Our own growth here reflects the value Mother puts on making and its people; production is a fundamental partner, bringing creative and resourceful thinking into making the best work we possibly can. Continuing our long-lasting partnership and having the opportunity to shape Mother’s future is something we’re proud to do.”
Martin Rose, meanwhile, has moved up from creative director to executive creative director. He worked at Poke when it was part of Mother, then joined Mother New York in 2012 and a year later moved to the London team, where he has spent the last ten years working on campaigns including MoneySupermarket Strut, and Uber Eats Do Less which won a Gold at Cannes this year.
Rose said: “Before joining the Mother family 14 years ago, I lost my own. Although it will never replace her, it’s nurtured, guided, and made me who I am today. I look forward to many more years with my adopted Mum, making my own children proud.”
All three report to Felix Richter, CCO and partner at Mother, who said: “Mother has always been about the collective. We’ve been blessed to have these three help build Mother for years and are excited for them to play an even bigger role in our next chapter.”
l-r Anna Murray, Martin Rose, Emma Davenport
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Just Eat goes upscale with new pop duo
If anyone doubts the necessity of traditional advertising to build brands they should maybe have a look at the various food delivery services who keep providing agencies with much-needed dollars even while they’re losing shedloads themselves. One such, Deliveroo, lost £245m last year but it’s back on the UK airwaves now. It wouldn’t do this if there was a better, cheaper, faster way, as digital converts espouse.
Just Eat is another and it’s gone the route of (highly expensive) musical types to get the message across: most notably Snoop Dog and also Katy Perry (who’s becoming a bit of an ad queen.) Its latest big campaign from McCann features a fairly unlikely duo of Christina Aguilera and hip-hopper Latto, togged out in opera mode with a cast of thousands.
The point being that just Eat does posh food too.
Just Eat global brand boss Susan O’Brien says: “Snoop Dogg helped us to emotionally connect with audiences and boosted our cultural currency, while working with Katy Perry famously supporting the brand platform ‘Did Somebody Say’ cemented Just Eat’s role as the answer to all food cravings.
“As our business evolves to offer more choice and convenience from your favourite local takeaway to dine-in dishes and everyday essentials, it’s only right that we evolve our successful creative formula. The electrifying mix of Christina Aguilera and Latto is not only unexpected, but it reinforces the message that you’ll be amazed at the selection and quality available on Just Eat.”
Fair enough, there’ll be scooters queueing outside the River Cafe any day soon.
MAA creative scale: 6.5.
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Publicis sets the pace for ad holding companies in Q3 – but growth is slowing
Publicis Groupe continues to set the pace for the ad holding companies, reporting 5.3% organic growth in Q3 2023, down from 7.3% in Q2 but still pretty respectable at a time when its rivals (who have yet to report Q3) are struggling for any growth at all.
Publicis’s media operations were the standout with data arm Epsilon also performing well. By region the US (French-owned Publicis’ biggest market) was up 3.2%, Europe 10.7% and Asia Pacific 3.8%. Publicis has slightly raised its forecast for the year to 5.5-6% growth with operating margins forecast to rise to 18%.
CEO Arthur Sadoun says: “Today we have a differentiated go-to-market proposition that allows us to gain market share; a uniquely balanced revenue mix that makes us more resilient to business cycles; and a platform organisation that enables us to post industry-high financial ratios.”
So the outlook for Publicis, already the biggest ad holding company by market valuation, looks pretty sunny although a maximum annual growth of 6% (well ahead of the sector at this stage) shows clearly their travails as they search for growth.
These results will add to pressure on WPP when it reports. WPP is still the biggest in terms of revenue and staff numbers although now less than half the market value of its French rival. WPP shares followed Publicis’ up today.
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Saatchi & Saatchi and Mr President win for EE and Stonewall Housing in Ocean Outdoor digital creative competition
Saatchi & Saatchi and Mr President have secured the top prizes in Ocean Outdoor’s annual digital creative competition which rewards bold, original ideas that push the boundaries of digital out of home (DOOH) advertising.
Replicating last year’s successful partnership, Saatchi & Saatchi and EE have once again taken first prize in the brand category, this time for the creation of the first ever interactive OOH schools’ field trip. The idea forms part of EE’s wellbeing work on behalf of the many UK children who miss out on outdoor activities they can’t afford.
First prize in the charity category goes to Mr President and Stonewall Housing for Behind Closed Doors which draws attention to the housing crisis affecting LGBTQ+ people who are often “kicked out for coming out”
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A panel of 18 independent judges drawn from the creative industries chose this year’s winners who were announced at an industry event hosted by Ocean at Frameless in London. The six winners share £500,000 worth of airtime for their concepts to be shown across Ocean’s multiple environments and iconic digital formats in cities across the UK.
Ocean Outdoor UK CEO Phil Hall said: “The nation’s narrative sits at the heart of this year’s competition winners who use the power and scale of out of home to tackle some extremely important issues. Their ideas harness the role and purpose of DOOH as a channel which truly supports and connects with the communities it serves.
“There’s not a single campaign here that won’t make people stop, think, listen or act if they are in a position to do so. An admirable reflection of how far the DOOH medium, and Ocean’s competition, has come in the past 14 years.”
Second prize in the brand category goes to Creature London and Moonpig for Moonpiggadilly, a joyous, interactive campaign using the brand’s familiar mascot to deliver personalised messages on the famous Piccadilly Lights in an effort to lift the nation’s spirits during tough times.
Third prize in the brand category is awarded to ACNE London and Diageo for Greetings From Tomorrow, which asks people to responsibly pace themselves on a night out by introducing some 0.0% into it, an opt in choice which makes them the star of the poster.
Second prize in the charity section goes to Open Creates and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity for Big Face which plays delightfully with the entire space and scale of Ocean’s large format screens, starring children to help fundraise for an urgently needed new cancer treatment facility.
And ACNE London picks up its second award for The Hygiene Bank which comes third in the charity category for Hiding in Plain Sight, a powerful grassroots campaign using Ocean’s Loop network to help the 3.2million people affected by hygiene poverty.
Helen Haines, head of brands and events, Ocean Group, said: “We asked for big, impactful creative ideas which build brand value at scale and concepts that work beyond the screens alone. Congratulations to this year’s winners who have once again excelled the brief. We look forward to bringing these ideas to life.”
Last year, Saatchi & Saatchi and EE also took first brand prize together for Home Safe, a campaign which addressed the safety of lone women at night, using live travel data, AR and lighting technology to help them plan and track their journeys home or get to safe spots.
Previous winners of Ocean’s digital creative competition have gone on to win six prestigious Cannes Lions.
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New Shell agency Havas at a loss for words as Extinction Rebellion invades
Say what you like about Extinction Rebellion – and many do, especially when they’re stuck on front of it in an M25 traffic jam – you have to admit it’s a pretty efficient protest organisation, one with a useful sense of theatre.
Havas in London found itself centre stage this week as ER protesters about its decision to take on the Shell account (to the relief of previous agency WPP one suspects) invaded its much-vaunted ‘village’ in King’s Cross complete with camera-ready body bags.
ER’s Katie Burrell says: “Without the skill and creativity of agencies like Havas (good that someone still rates them anyway), Shell and the other fossil fuel companies driving the accelerating climate crisis with their supplies of oil, gas and coal would be revealed for what they really are – criminals who are destroying our future.
“Shell spends more on advertising than on renewable energy like wind and solar. But now Havas will help them produce communications and media campaigns to convince the world that they are part of the solution to the climate emergency, not one of the main causes.
“We’ve heard from people inside Havas that many of them are really unhappy about doing Shell’s dirty business.
“They know companies like Shell are driving the climate crisis and have been funding climate denialism for years. We encourage the people of Havas to use their voice and join our new campaign to Rebel For Truth.
“Imagine how powerful it would be if their discontent got Shell off the Havas books – we believe the strength of dissatisfaction within Havas could achieve this.”
Phew… Havas, surprisingly perhaps for a professional communicator, has, so far, been at a loss for words. Strange as it must have seen this, or something like it, coming.
Are the staff really revolting? Havas is a self-professed B-Corp company so it’s even more embarrassing.
Will Havas resign Shell? That will certainly test their communication skills.
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Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Learn To Let It Go With Soka
Stress is natural but it can also be lethal. Thus, we need to develop skills to properly manage our daily stresses. In other words, we need to learn to “let it go.”
Learning to let go is a critical survival skill. It is also the new call to action from Colombian juice brand, Soka. While a juice break can’t solve all your problems, it might help you “chill” for a few moments, and that’s a small win.
This new campaign was developed by Fantástica, an independent agency in Bogatá led by Daniel Bermúdez and Daniel Osorio. Adpulp previously reported on the agency’s work for Manantial mineral water.
Related
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BHLA for World Vision takes charity ads up a level
Charity ads usually follow a well-trodden path, solemn voiceovers (often by a celeb or known actor) and disturbing images. So many people skip them, especially when dear old programmatic media buying means you get one every few minutes.
World Vision Canada and Broken Heart Love Affair are taking a different approach to the task of raising money for hungry kids worldwide, majoring on that sound of eating satisfaction, the burp.
World Vision’s Martin Campbell says: “The focus of the campaign is to show Canadians the tangible impact that World Vision’s efforts make in children’s lives and encourage them to help join in our meaningful efforts..a burp is music to our ears.”
Toronto’s BHLA is a class act (even down to its daft name which somehow works) and this is the proverbially hard-working 30 seconds.
MAA creative scale: 8.
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German Doner Kebab lines up top agencies as it takes on burger giants
German Doner Kebab is an interesting addition to the UK high street’s fast food fight; why German you think as you notice its (hard not to) garish orange and black livery. Is it because Germany has lots of Middle East immigrants? The business was founded in Berlin although it’s now owned by a Glasgow company in the UK.
Anyway it’s looking for an agency and has lined up Atomic (which gets on some good lists these days), Lucky Generals and Uncommon Creative Studio. GDK seems to be competing with Burger King with whopper packages including a rather unlikely Krunch version including a layer of Doritos. And they’re cheaper.
Another one to please your GP.
GDK’s UK boss is Simon Wallis, formerly at Domino’s which has somehow or other won the pizza wars so he clearly knows the market.
Memo to the pitching agencies: ignore the German in GDK, just don’t go there.
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Tuesday, October 10, 2023
New-look Eurostar bounces back with adam&eveDDB – shame there’s yet another customer loyalty wheeze
It’s off to what used to be called ‘Gay Paree’ with a vengeance in adam&eveDDB’s first campaign for Eurostar, now incorporating Euro train operator Thalys.
Two women meet on the train and proceed to do the town in a mixture of live action and animation.
Eurostar CEO Gwendoline Cazenave says: “Today, with our teams and for our customers, we are writing a new page in the history of high-speed rail travel in Europe. With Eurostar, our customers will have Europe at their fingertips. Our ambition is clear: more Europe for a unique and sustainable travel experience.”
All well and good but there’s yet another customer loyalty scheme – Club Eurostar – that, as usual, means dual pricing via a bloody app. Can’t they just give this annoying wheeze a rest and charge fairly? It’s marketing’s most enduring contribution to customer annoyance.
Nice enough ad, A&E likes trains, the setting for one of its valedictory National Lottery efforts last Christmas. A&E seems the better for losing some big cumbersome accounts (John Lewis/Waitrose, National Lottery, Virgin Media which confounds everybody.)
MAA creative scale: 7.
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New MediaSense/WFA survey predicts even more agency consolidation
MediaSense and the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) have put the cat among the pigeons with a new client survey – The Future of Media Agency Models – with one in four of the more than 70 multinational marketing organizations surveyed for the report saying they plan to consolidate media, creative, data and technology agencies in the next three years, and 37% saying they are looking for simplification through working with fewer partners.
All of which should mean that ad holding companies will be able to tighten their stranglehold on advertising services (they already dominate media), or would be if they performed better. One WFA respondent said: “We consolidated media, creative and PR with one holding company but in effect it is still like working with three separate agencies, and I feel that their internal politics are more difficult to work with than when we had three separate agencies.”
MediaSense managing partner Ryan Kangisser says: “There feels like there’s a clear direction of travel, which has really been accelerated by the last three years of growth in e-commerce, influencer and social coming together. Now with all that wonderful data and technology driving that, there’s much more momentum to make integration happen.
“Specialists remain important around those emerging channels like e-commerce, retail and influencer, but when are we going to see a major multinational appoint an S4 Capital or Stagwell to a major full service scope of work?” Kangisser said that the role of specialists is “precarious” unless they can seamlessly integrate with the wider agency model.
Somewhat predictably this didn’t go down well with digital convert Sir Martin Sorrell whose S4 Capital (so far) is a digital-only holding company (he might not agree with that either.)
Sorrell told Ad Age the survey was “mixing apples and oranges and “a purely digital, data-driven (powering AI), faster, better, more efficient, unitary model resonates with clients, Just look at the last five years relative like-for-like revenue growth for the industry and S4. We’re focused on the faster growth two-thirds of the $900 billion media market.”
On paper holding companies have always been able to out-match specialists for really big clients despite the latter’s regular complaints about their performance and opaque means of charging. That’s certainly the case in media although creative has seen a comeback for so-called specialists with the likes of Uncommon and New Creative Arts winning big accounts in the UK and Wieden+Kennedy wresting Ford away from Omnicom’s BBDO and WPP. The more successful newbie creative agencies also have a wider offering these days, majoring on CX as much as advertising.
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Your ultimate advertising playbook for Holiday 2023
October 10, 2023
2-minute read
Create holiday ad campaigns that convert with Microsoft Advertising’s insights and tips
At this very moment, your consumer is scrolling for holiday gifts, searching for something special. The gift Mom will love. The gratitude a partner will feel. And, as brands across the globe prepare campaigns to reach festive season shoppers, ad teams face many questions, including:
What are the highest converting months? Online or in-store—where to dedicate our ad dollars? Are consumers splurging or saving this season? Do we target mobile, desktop, or both?
We have answers.
To empower your team to achieve more this holiday season, Microsoft Advertising created a holiday advertising guide packed with key insights and actionable tips—Your Festive Season Marketing Playbook.
Because building smart ad strategy has everything to do with knowing the latest trends and unique expectations shoppers have in 2023.
These are just some of the insights we’ll share with you:
- Starting early is key. In fact, brands report a spike in website visits and purchases in September and October across the US and EMEA—44% of clicks and 40% of conversions at 5% lower CPC, respectively.
Australian shoppers plan to start their shopping around the beginning of November. Gear up to budget and flight for the full holiday season. - Holiday conversions will come from October clicks. On average 67% of November purchases and 50% of December purchases were directly attributed to consumer clicks in October.
To capture your deal seekers’ journey made up of multiple searches, use remarketing, in-market audiences, and Microsoft Advertising’s automated bidding strategies. - Deal seeking is the new “shopping fever.” Over 2/3 of US shoppers are spending the most time looking for coupons and deals.
EMEA deal-seekers spend +33% more time searching, compared to the average shopper. - Diversifying your ad strategy pays off. On the Microsoft Advertising Network, 28% of holiday clicks were mobile, and mobile conversions make up 22% of total retail conversions.
Download Your Festive Season Marketing Playbook to discover what you can do right now to amplify your ad reach and create holiday campaigns that convert.
Happy festive season from all of us at Microsoft Advertising.
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TwentyFirstCenturyBrand: the importance of measuring the effectiveness of brand strategy
Anna Chapman, senior strategist at TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, lifts the lid on their recent IPA accreditation, discussing the approach to effectively evidence the transformative value delivered by brand building.
The economically challenging times we’re living in continue to persist.
Marketing spend has not recovered post-Covid and client budgets are increasingly under scrutiny. The plus side of the downturn is that it pushes us to find solutions and refine our offering. In this climate, it’s more important than ever to be able to prove the value and impact of your work. But measuring effectiveness isn’t always straightforward, particularly when your work is upstream and focused on building iconic brands with cultural impact. Given the messy reality of how brand strategy creates cross-company value over time, campaign results alone won’t cut it and the maxim ‘not everything that can be measured matters and not everything that matters can be measured’ is very apt.
Since its inception five years ago, building an effectiveness culture has remained a high priority at TwentyFirstCenturyBrand. Our CEO Neil Barrie sits on the IPA Effectiveness Leadership Group and, in 2019, we published ‘The Business Case for Creating an Iconic, Influential Brand’ a white paper based on a twenty-year academic and literature review of the ways brand investment creates business value. Last September, we set out to achieve accreditation from the IPA, a biennial endorsement for member agencies who demonstrate their dedication to effectiveness culture and set the benchmark for the industry. We were the first brand consultancy to embark on the journey among a cohort of 30 leading media and creative agencies including BBH and Essence Mediacom.
Shifting Brand From A Marketing Thing To A Company Thing
At TwentyFirstCenturyBrand we believe brand is the foundation on which the company stands and harnessed correctly it can create transformational financial, consumer, cultural and employee value. Critical to this thesis is our belief – based on our founders’ experiences building brands for the likes of Coca Cola and Airbnb – that in many ways the most effective ‘media’ for brand impact are the leaders themselves. The level of clarity, conviction and consistent noise they emanate about the brand is hugely influential on the impact the strategy will have. Working this way helps CMOs evolve the perception of brand from a ‘marketing thing’ owned by marketers and agencies, to a ‘company thing’ that all leaders can own from HR to Product to Policy. When the company becomes the creative canvas for brand activation then the potential for impact becomes bigger and multi-dimensional.
As our client Andréa Mallard, Global CMO, Pinterest states “The idea of Pinterest bringing everyone the inspiration to create a life they love allowed us to say we now have a set of principles that serves as a filter and a springboard for ideation so we can know what’s in and what should be out as a result.”
“A big reason why we’ve had the impact we have is that we’re operating brand as connective tissue versus brand as the purview of the marketing team. That felt really transformative to us as an organisation.”
Building An Effectiveness Culture
Our effectiveness culture is the outcome of the way our people, products and processes all contribute to impactful results, along with the way we measure them. From our very first year, we’ve made efforts to measure our impact on leadership clarity, conviction and decision-making through after-action surveys. This year, we built a simple framework tailored to our business offering in collaboration with some of our CMO clients; one that sets out to credibly evidence at board level, the reality of the way that brand drives transformative value across the company on different time horizons.
We laid out our four dimensions in the order they tend to take effect, starting with Employee impact which leads to initiatives that create Customer value which translates to Financial value and ultimately wider Cultural value and we identified different measures in each pillar. However not all our client challenges are the same, so we developed a bank of potential metrics that can be tailored to a project.
Defining A New Type of Effectiveness Model
In partnership with some of our clients we set out to define a blend of lagging and leading indicators to authentically reflect the messy reality of how brand strategy creates value over time. We fully acknowledge that attributing any single one of these measures to our work may not be possible but are confident that tracking the collective set over time is credible and meaningful.
TwentyFirstCenturyBrand’s Measurement Framework
Many of the measures can be drawn from internal client data including brand and employee health tracking, revenue and customer growth reporting. However, quantifying the volume and quality of cultural impact is more challenging. We have explored social listening platforms including Pulsar and Awario, but are intending to create a bespoke tracker for clients using the proprietary measurement technology of cultural data experts and future partner companies in Common Interest, our new holding group.
We’re excited about how the effectiveness culture at TwentyFirstCenturyBrand will evolve and sharpen in the future, and we’re confident from our discussions with clients that we now have the right fundamentals in place. We know that today’s brand leaders are data-rich but feel overwhelmed and often challenged to make a convincing case for the company-wide value of brand investment. Ultimately, we hope this process contributes to a better industry understanding of the true cross-company impact of brand strategy and ultimately results in the creation of more commercial and cultural value.
Key Takeaways
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