Ad Age not only reports the obvious, they pay for a survey to prove it.
Lightspeed Research was commissioned to ask consumers if they had cutback upmarket coffee consumption. The answer, unsurprisingly, is yes.
Leo Burnett has launched a campaign using Walker Evans’ photography of the Great Depression in ads for Allstate Insurance.
What exactly they are trying to accomplish using these powerfully depressing photographs evades this simple-minded blogger. Perhaps they should steal a move from Grace & Rothschild’s playbook during the recession in the early 90′s. Check the copy from an ad they did for Range Rover in 1991 that is a rare example of effective recession-aware advertising.
Buy Something
Our preference, of course, would be that you buy a Range Rover. But if that’s not in the cards, buy a microwave. A basset hound. Theater tickets. Because if we all wait for the recession to be officially declared over to start spending again, the problem will simply keep feeding on itself.
The New York Times is reporting that the January 2009 issue of Allure has only 41 pages of ads, a decline of 41% from the January 2008 issue with 70 pages of ads.
Allure isn’t the only Conde Nast magazine being hit hard by declining ad sales. Wired magazine is down 47% from last year, Architectural Digest down 46 percent, and Vogue is down about 44 percent.
Conde Nast is holding a hard line on their ad rates, resisting setting a precedent of discounting prices and preserving their premium price position.
“Buy any new Hyundai and if in the next year, you lose your income, we’ll let you return it,” says the Goodby Silverstein & Partners produced ad above. The ad supposedly illustrates Hyundai’s confidence in the consumer, and you know what, I kind of buy into it. Provided this isn’t some sort of runaround, I say Bravo!
Engadget says that 15,000 Microsoft employees, primarly MSN, are scheduled to be laid off on January 15. This would represent about 17% of its worldwide staff.
Dell has announced that they will be starting 2008 with a new president. Jeff Clarke will be replacing Mike Cannon who was handpicked by Michael Dell in 2007. Canon will stay on as a consultant. Chief Marketing Officer Mark Jarvis, another a Michael Dell pick, is also getting the boot.
Sources told the Wall Street Journal that further cuts are coming soon.
This news means that WPP’s Enfatico, created to bring Dell’s global ad spending under one roof, is losing key supporters within the company. Dell’s $4.5 billion contract with Enfatico is set to expire in about 700 days. Many are speculating that Enfatico won’t make it that long. Either way the advertising agency has little time to improve their widely-criticized performance for the computer manufacturer or risk being forced into another round of heavy layoffs.
An LA based ad agency, Cesario Migliozzi, has agreed to pay the $3 million asking price to NBC for a 30 second spot which they plan to use to push 8 different companies simultaneously.
Apparently the ad involves tap-dancing ladies and an accordian. The creative obviously isn’t as important as the stunt itself, assuming they can pull it off.
NBC still has six 30 seconds spots to sell, they have no lowered their asking price yet.
Ogilvy launched a website to help clients decide where cut spending (not marketing!) during the recession. It is still mostly ‘Coming soon…’ at the moment.
Contrary to what passed for common wisdom a few months ago, the digital side of the advertising industry is being impacted heavily by the economic downturn. Digital agencies are seeing clients cut their online spend drastically, forcing them into the position of cutting staff. ClickZ has offered up their analysis of the situation, specifically addressing why digital is being cut: it’s the fastest way to rein in the budget. The flexibility of online to adapt to a changing marketplace and constantly optimize is both its greatest asset and its greatest liability.
BNET has graced us with their BNET Ad Agency which works exactly the way you would expect. At the time of writing 6,140 agency staff have lost their jobs. Hopefully they don’t have to update it too much more but it’s hard to feel optimistic at this point.
Agency Layoffs