Ad Agency

I spent an amazing morning today at Media Kitchen’s annual Venture Capital Conference in New York City listening to leaders in media,
investing and banking talk about “new TV”:  the merging of broadcast TV, social video and everything in between.  by Dave Morgan

FCB announced that Oneighty° Agency has joined the FCB Network as an alliance. As part of the new alliance with FCB, Oneighty° will be handling all of FCB’s clients in Puerto Rico.

Dentsu Aegis Network announces the acquisition of M8.

Captura Group announced that Jennifer L. Woods has joined its team as Managing Director. 

When you first start out in your career, you might fall back on a mental habit from your early educational experience: distinguishing between days to work hard and learn, and days to relax and have fun. But if you want to get ahead in the advertising world, you’ll quickly discover that the only way to hone your skills and stand out is to approach every day—and every stage of your career—as a school day.

Renée Lavecchia and Federico Hauri have been named Chief Client Officer and VP/ Executive Creative Director respectively for Y&R Miami and the Bravo Group.

The bad news for agencies and other external marketing services providers is that two-thirds of marketers are moving more toward in-house capabilities. The bad news is only 3% of them feel they have perfected the skill sets necessary to adequately handle them internally.

We don’t get to pick the era we live in.  We’re human, though, and we dream about other times and other places.  Given a choice, today’s agency CEOs might dream about turning back the clock sixty years or so, when the world — and the ad agency within it — was much simpler and a lot more fun.  By Michael Farmer

Holding company shares are falling.  Their ad agencies are shrinking, with low morale, low salaries and hiring freezes.  Accenture and Deloitte are the new, growing competitors.  Advertisers are cutting spend but investing in-house.  Chief Creative Officers are disappearing, not entirely due to sexual harassment charges.  Confused by some or all of this?  Read on!

If we were on a guided tour of the advertising industry, here are the points of interest that ought to be on every sightseer’s list. 

Republica took home top honors at the American Advertising Federation’s American Advertising Awards Miami. The Miami-headquartered agency was recognized for its work for clients Toyota Motor North America, Sedano’s Supermarkets, The Tank Brewing Co., Plasencia Cigars, and pro bono client, Amigos For Kids. The event was held at Light Box at Goldman Warehouse in the Wynwood Arts District.

March 8th was International Women’s Day and all of March is Women’s History Month, celebrating the achievements of women globally from cultural, political, social and economic perspectives. Yet where do women of color (as they’ve come to be called by, I guess, some inspired Caucasian) stand in my industry ―advertising― today?  By Daisy Expósito-Ulla, Chairman & CEO, d expósito & Partners

Sir Martin Sorrell, the industry’s most prominent agency spokesman, now has the difficult job of explaining, on behalf of WPP and of the industry in general, why revenue growth has been so difficult to achieve and what can be done about it.  Since its peak in 2015, WPP shares have fallen 28% in value.  In the main, Sorrell points his finger at “major customers, who are holding back ad spending to cut costs, and the long-term impact of technological disruption and the short-term focus of zero-based budgeters, activist investors and private equity.” By Michael Farmer
 

Transparency is a big word for an important idea, but I’m curious if it will actually have an impact on the advertising business. If you casually peruse articles about advertising published in the last few years, you’ll see a steady increase in the volume of people talking about transparency, but if you dive one layer deeper, you’ll find it’s still just talk — not a business practice for most companies.

PACO Collective (PACO) is joining forces with Pork & Mindy’s to create memorable moments surrounding food, music, and art across Chicagoland and nationwide.

Recent industry surveys suggest that more than half of marketers are considering switching advertising agencies. In the perfect world, a marketing team and its agency (or agencies) provide mutual value in a long, healthy, fruitful relationship. By Marcos M. Sanchez – Managing Partner – Princeton10, LLP

The 4A’s unveiled a unique, far-ranging program aimed at creating safe and productive work environments that create cultures of inclusion, equity, creative dialogue and social transformation. The intent is to support agencies in eliminating discrimination, harassment, bullying, intimidation and retaliation.

To address leaner advertising budgets and make smaller healthcare brands more competitive, Marcos M. Sanchez – a veteran healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing and advertising executive – announced the launch of Princeton10, a marketing and advertising agency expressly focused on Rx brands seeking to drive HCP-patient demand.

The modern CMO knows that data should be at the center of every marketing strategy, and is eager to leverage any consumer information they can get. But despite the Big Data trend, an unfortunate paradox for multicultural segments has emerged. While there is increased access to consumer information, there’s actually less quality analysis around multicultural business opportunities due to reduced in-house capabilities at the client level. Starting today, ALMA offers a solution for its roster with the launch of a Marketing Science and Analytics Department – a discipline dedicated to providing smart market analysis for stronger decision making.

The 4A’s issued a Fair Play Charter to its members, asking media agencies, and media departments within agencies, to recommit to fair and equitable treatment of minority media owners.