“… a McKinsey study of the 1990-91 recession found that companies that remained market leaders or became serious challengers during the downturn had increased their acquisition, R. & D., and ad budgets, while companies at the bottom of the pile had reduced them.”
From a New Yorker article about companies that go for it during hard economic times and hit it out of the park.
Magazine advertising pages are down 26% in first quarter of 2009 according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Sporting magazines were among the hardest hit publications. Boating, Sporting News, Boating Life, and Sport Fishing all posted declines of around 50 percent.
The 118 year-old ad agency JWT Chicago is closing its doors for good according to Adage. What is most remarkable about this news is how dominant the agency was a very short time ago. As recently as 2007 JWT was the primary global ad agency for Kraft Foods. What a difference two years can make.
BBH is attempting to avoid the layoffs many of its competitors have been forced to make by offering their employees 9 days unpaid vacation. The ad agency has asked about 400 employees to vote on the forced vacation and in the current climate, it seems pretty likely they’ll go for it.
The worst days for display advertising are behind us according to a report filed by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.
The “Display advertising market stabilized in the first quarter and won’t be as bad for the rest of the year as many other people think.”
Wishful thinking or insightful analysis? We’re certainly hoping it’s the latter.
Microsoft has launched a new series of ads in their “I’m a PC” campaign targeting value-concious consumers by taking shots at the higher price points found on Apple computers. Obviously the Crispin Porter + Bogusky produced ads are intended to play to the fear a lot of consumers feel now about the economy.
The first TV spot in the “Laptop Hunters” commercials aired during March Madness features Lauren, a young woman shopping for a 17″ laptop who hits a sweet spot for Microsoft, not too hip, not too square and eminently likable.
Lauren’s charisma it turns out, if we are to believe The Man, isn’t born of great acting chops. The story is that CP+B recruited people from Craigslist to participate in a focus group. The agency followed the marks inside electronics stores and taped them shopping. The resulting unscripted video was edited into commercials.
This is the first bit of good work to come out of this campaign after two major fails with Seinfeld and the impotent “I’m a PC and I’m 8″ series of hack jobs.
Eric Clemons, Professor of Operations and Information Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has a guest post over at TechCrunch titled Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet.
The gist of the article is that current web advertising is based on the more traditional push-style of information publishing which clashes with the more participatory nature of the web. It’s a great thought-provoking, if not 100% accurate article, worth the read and it currently has 572 comments.
Two pics, a guy looking for ad agency work in the 1930’s and his contemporary counterpart.
via Tribble
InBev is shaking things up with Anheuser-Busch’s agencies by moving from retainer based compensation to paying agencies for work rendered. This is a move being played out across many industries as just about all marketer’s attempt to cut cost.
full story at Ad Age
Coca-Cola told investors yesterday that it has delivered on its promise to reduce marketing costs by reducing its agency roster worldwide. CEO Muhtar Kent said Coke has slashed its agency roster by more than half.
“We have consolidated our agencies,” he said. “Agency numbers have gone down by more than half, and I think we have driven a lot of efficiencies in our marketing, our market research costs, in our marketing over the past 12 months.”
Agency Layoffs