Bravo’s Enigma … Los Tambores Repican … Ru! Cu! Tun! Tun!

According to Gary Bassell, Chairman and CEO of The Bravo Group, the complex world of advertising and marketing is to be divided between “thinkers” and “doers.” As far as media is concerned, he said in front of a crowd at the agency headquarters, Bravo will only consist of “doers.”

A year has gone by and as industry observers, we are still wondering what the future has in store for The Bravo Group. After having been given “carte blanche” for his plans to implement change and create growth, Bassell, the man who stepped into the shoes of icon Daisy Exposito-Ulla, needs to start adding points on to the scorecard. The game is in the last quarter.

In an interview with HispanicAd.com, Gary Bassell, President of The Bravo Group stated: “this has been a year of re-building the management, new business development was not our priority this year and 2006 will need to be our year to become accountable.”

He added that the placement of the Chief Insights Officer and the experiential marketing new business and promotions units are the major contributions to the team expansion this year. This will allow The Bravo Group to differentiate itself from the competitors. The one remaining significant management post that remains to be filled is the Chief Creative Officer. He expects to have someone in place sometime between February and March.

By now, more than 70 people are already gone, after a dramatic series of resignations of high-caliber leadership, and numerous job reductions. Back in January, the new leader seemed intent on “retooling” the once strongest and largest agency in the Hispanic Market.

Why fix what isn’t broken?

Why tinker with a success machine?

Keep in mind that The Bravo Group was the biggest, the baddest, the one to beat in the US Hispanic ad agency game.

A YEAR OF BAD LUCK?

To most observers, some of the much-announced changes have been more cosmetic than substantive, while business pitches throughout the year have proven unsuccessful.

In a statement, basically a “damage-control” piece, to soften the impact of seeing the McDonald’s Tri-State business walking away from the shop back in May, Mr. Bassell chose to chalk up the loss of the client as not being big enough and a real opportunity to “win a national fast food account.”

The account landed at newly created CMS Partners lead by ex-Bravo Group employees Gloria Constanza and Fernando Fernandez.

In early November of this year, when Bassell’s “big wish” for a fast food account remained unfulfilled, the Domino’s Pizza account was snatched by two other competing agencies (Lopez-Negrete, for the media portion, and Latin Works, for the creative part).

A leader of a large Hispanic agency was philosophical on the situation: “Is he creating a new model for Bravo or simply dismantling it by folding all its tiny parts into the larger general market (Y&R) entity? At any rate, even if that were the case, why constantly hurl rocks at other successful Latino shops, why this need to pontificate and try to put ‘all’ agencies down and call them flawed?” Bassell’s first industry statement had referred to his competition as having “a circle the wagon mentality.”

When asked about this, Mr. Bassell denied his role to dismantle and piece-meal the agency.

SEARS: FROM MUCHO TO NADA

A drastic decrease in the Sears business at Bravo – originally at roughly 60 million dollars – came to signal less prosperous days back in the summer. The buying assignment for the agency has been farmed out to a sister mainstream buying unit in Chicago.

Wide-eyed colossus, The Vidal Partnership, snatched the Macaroni & Cheese and the DiGiorno accounts away from the former giant back in October.

Mr. Bassell stated, “The two pieces of business that The Vidal Partnership began to work on are on a project basis, nothing was officially assigned to Vidal and the budgets have been cut and are no longer active brands.”

A key Vidal Partnership executive adamantly denies this to be the case and expects expenditures to be up substantially on the new assignments.

West Coast Bravo component Mendoza was practically made to disappear as it was strangely folded into Bravo’s Mosaica in a Houdini-like act that many perceived as an attempt to conceal shrinkage of business. Former Mendoza head, the strong and well-liked Ingrid Otero-Smart, chose to leave Bravo to join Anita Santiago Advertising, Inc. as its new President in Los Angeles.

What, in the end, has caused Bravo’s dramatic change of fortune?

HispanicAd.com asked Ex-Chairwoman & CEO of The Bravo Group Daisy Exposito-Ulla about the current evolution of the agency and she stated, “I prefer not to comment. I have the utmost respect for Y&R and for WPP. I had a great career in Bravo. It was a great ride … Now ,I’m building my own rollercoaster!”

WHEN YOU ASK SOMEONE TO SRETCH ……

As some experts see it, Bassell’s management style and becoming too many things to too many people isn’t adding much to their roster, either. As one Bravo executive puts it, “We’re no longer the winning machine we used to be, when clients came and never left. We still have good people around here, but we feel aimless and share in the uncertainty. Around here lately, it’s all talk, talk, talk. Even some who are his own recent hires are in less than a happy mood…”

Town hall-type meetings led by Bassell have become frequent.

At the last one held in New York a week ago, Mr. Bassell chastised employees for their negativity and low morale while explaining that salary increases he had promised back in March would not be happening. He blamed the fact that revenue goals had not been met.

Mr. Bassell stated that there is a disgruntled few and they are not the majority. He also stated that when you ask someone to stretch they see it as an offense and they are going misunderstand and react the wrong way. Mr. Bassell stated that in 2006 there will more training, more hires and potential lay-offs.

Opining on the situation, one competitor commented, “Those who try to reinvent the wheel usually end up being run over by it. Integration is one thing and simply not getting the culture is something else. If indeed we need to convert our shops into Anglo agencies, why would clients really need us for? And why are they going to pay for two agencies?”

“We are redefining personality and behavior at Bravo; we have always been passionate and had perseverance. But, we are seeing ourselves becoming a lot more agile and nimble,” stated Manuel Wernicky, Managing Director of Promotions and the Retail Marketing Department.

To turn the situation around, Bassell would need to boost internal morale and raise external confidence.

Not that it hasn’t been done before, but…