Ad Agency

Some marketing and advertising insiders have recently implied that it’s becoming more common for agencies to be “ghosted” by clients. This would be yet another disturbing trend for agencies to contend with.  by Mark Duval / The Duval Agency

Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc. walked away with 21 American Advertising Federation–Houston Chapter awards, including “Best of Show” in the Broadcast category. This marks the 16th consecutive year the agency has earned a “Best of Show” award.

“Acquire and squeeze,” the principal strategy used by holding companies to grow and prosper during the past 30 years, has reached the end of the line.  Investors are worried about the future, and they’re downgrading holding company shares. New holding company strategies are required.  What are they?  What should holding companies’ CEOs do?

Price, not transparency or partnerships, remains the priority for clients when it comes to their agencies.

Casanova // McCann announced the hire of Marco Antonio Muñoz as Executive Creative Director. He will support the agency’s creative leadership under Chief Creative Officer Elias Weinstock.

Last year I wrote a lot about the erosion of the advertising bargain between advertisers and their audience. Without rehashing at length, let me summarize by simply stating that we no longer are as accepting of advertising because we now have a choice.

Agency Creative, a Dallas-based full-service advertising agency, announced the launch of AgenSIcreative, a new strategic business unit focused entirely on Hispanic marketing. Max Lefeld will lead AgenSIcreative with a focus on creating marketing that’s culturally relevant to the Hispanic market.

Changing consumer behaviors and the ever-shifting digital frontier are demanding new marketing capabilities and new ways of working with agencies.

February has started to creep onto my calendar, so it must be time to discuss agency new business resolutions. They may be your “New Year’s resolutions,” or they might be your annual new business goals, formal or informal. Either way, these annual new business “resolutions” are notorious for ending up on the back burner and fading away into good intentions, as we quickly fall back into familiar habits. Before that happens, I want to share a few tips that can help you set up positive, repeatable sales habits while the new year is still full of maximum possibilities.  by Mark Duval / The Duval Partnership

New England-based multidisciplinary brand culture and communications firm (add)ventures announced the exciting purchase of its new headquarters at 20 Risho Avenue in East Providence. This follows the relocation and expansion of its Miami Latin America gateway from Coconut Grove to the burgeoning Arts and Entertainment District in Greater Downtown Miami.

According to the latest study by ID Comms in partnership with the 4A’s released last week, U.S. advertisers are failing to get the most value from media pitches because of flawed processes and lack of communication. The study reminds me of a blog post that Toby Jenner (COO of Mediacom) released in September where he stated, “Want a better relationship? Run a better pitch process.” And as an agency search consultant for almost two decades at AAR Partners, I couldn’t agree more.  By Lisa Colantuono,  AAR Partners

Dieste Inc. has hired Marialejandra Urbina as Executive Director of Planning.  Marialejandra will report to Dieste Inc. CEO Greg Knipp and will work across all agency clients and new business projects.

In a survey of 412 US client-side marketers conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), 78% of respondents claimed to use an in-house agency, up from 58% in 2013. (An “in-house agency” is defined as a department, group, or person who has responsibilities that are typically performed by an external advertising or other communications agency.)

In a recent piece of thought leadership, Agency Mania Solutions examined some of the pitfalls that advertisers can encounter in the course of adopting and capitalizing on improved scope-of-work management systems.

Hogarth Worldwide, a WPP company and internationally-known marketing implementation agency, announced that it has established a new operation in Miami focused on the Latin American market.

The winds of change have once again impacted one of our key Hispanic & Multicultural ad agencies.  At the end of 2018, WPP parent corporation of Grey decided based on pressure from key clients like Proctor & Gamble, that multicultural talent needs to be integrated in all vertical and horizontal levels in the agency structure.  WING employees and talent will be integrated under the Grey New York agency and will not function as an separate division within the WPP and Grey Network.

2019 is here, and with it, a flood of advertising industry predictions. From an agency new business perspective, we can expect ongoing change (which has become the norm) and a continuation of trends from previous years. Unlike previous years, the potential for these trends to touch your agency’s new business outcomes and bottom line seems greater.  By Mark Duval – The Duval Partnership

Shoe Carnival has selected McCann as its agency of record for integrated marketing services. The McCann team will include specialty agencies Compass Point (Media AOR), Casanova (Hispanic strategy, media and creative), MRM//McCann (digital strategy and technology) and Momentum/Chase (Shopper Strategy).

In this video, Keith Reinhard, Chairman Emeritus, DDB, states, “We over-appreciate data and under-appreciate data”, and he is right. We tend to over-appreciate the data which tells us what people do, and under-appreciate the data that tells us why they do it.  by Nigel Hollis

Culture increasingly has the potential to negatively impact agency new business, as brands demand more gender and ethnic diversity. A positive, inclusive culture with opportunities for all is no longer just a “nice to have.” Today, agencies must make employer culture a priority to attract and retain the talent they need to remain competitive.  by Mark Duval / THE DUVAL PARTNERSHIP