we hear…cpb snagged burger king’s interactive business

The old client-agency relationship just isn’t what it used to be, especially in this day and age of agencies expanding their capabilities beyond the traditional limits. Now, competitive isn’t just between agencies in traditional functions like advertising and media and PR, but rather with all agencies because you never know who has staffed up to try and take your piece of business.

With the word on the street is that Kansas City-based interactive agency VML has been shown the door by Burger King, a client for which they had responsibilities for online advertising and BK.com, and it going to be replaced in its interactive duties by advertising agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, it is clear that nothing is sacred.

Sure, CPB isn’t just any ad agency.

In fact, they probably get the whole digital thing better than most interactive agencies and they have shown the ability to do a range of work, from building campaigns around a viral hit like Subservient Chicken to building useful and engaging consumer applications like the Domino’s pizza builder. Plus, the agency gets good PR, and what client doesn’t want that?

It’s hard to say if there is cause, as it were, for Burger King to ditch VML (but I would love to know if any readers have thoughts on that), though if they had anything to do with the Dr Pepper-Pauly Shore-Valentine’s Day debacle I strongly encourage any and all clients on their roster to immediately reconsider their professional relationship with the agency.

I have reached out to all relevant parties to confirm the rumors, but nobody is talking this morning. Or at least they’re not talking to me.

If the rumors are true, congrats to Crispin and bummer to VML…hopefully nobody’s job is affected.

rumors are fallible, crispin isn’t

And unfortunately so is the little bird who gave me the scoop that Fallon was a leg up on Crispin in the race for the Microsoft account. Perhaps there was a little bit of wishful thinking wrapped up in those rumors.

While Crispin walking off with the Microsoft account is a crushing blow for Fallon – a big win on an account of the size and profile like Microsoft would have done wonders for morale, new business and the balance sheet – perhaps it isn’t as crushing as it seems at first.

With an inferior product offering, Vista, a cash cow in Office that is being threatened by free software peddled by companies like Google, and products like the Zune aren’t even in the same league as products like the iPod, Microsoft is likely a poisoned chalice. It is especially poisoned for Crispin, an agency that has done a great job with charger brands like Mini and Burger King but has struggled when faced with brands that are in more of a leadership position.

Crispin is a great agency with a track record of great creative so I am not counting them out, but it is going to be an uphill task…an uphill task that, unless Microsoft can improve their products, advertising may not fix.

juvenile gags work for crispin and burger king

Ripping on Crispin Porter + Bogusky has gained a certain traction lately as the little charger shop known for great work on off-beat brands like Mini has grown into a creative powerhouse doing work on blue chip brands. It’s much easier to find fault with a shop that could challenge your own.And people are doing their best to find fault with the Miami agency’s work.

Sure, some of their work has flopped. The Miller Lite “Man Laws” campaign is the most memorable of what didn’t work…but every agency has something like that happen from time to time, be it due to poor research, poor insight, poor strategy, clients unwilling to take a risk, or any number of reasons.

Crispin really hit the big time when they started doing work for Burger King, a perennial second-choice that was quickly losing share, revenue and relevance, and that work was fresh, irreverent and tightly targeted to a specific demo:

My guess is that Burger King targets an 18-30, with a sweet spot in the 20s, male who eats fast food a few times a week. Psychographically, they are unlikely to care about health and wellness, look to get more – flavor, serving size, etc – from their food choice and are open to look to the brand as a way to get more emotionally fulfilling experiences out of life.

The small hands gag from the spot above is not cerebral or deeply meaningful, but it is undeniable that it gets interest and a laugh out of the target while using the joke to say something about the product (as opposed to an unrelated joke that gets attention but says nothing about the brand). It seems easy because the gag is sort of juvenile. It’s not.

Both the spot in question and the evolving campaign have done well on sales and brand measures. And some of those ads are really funny.

The Man Laws may not have gone down all that well, but CP+B still has it.

rumors fly that fallon has won microsoft

Rumors are starting to fly that Microsoft has chosen Fallon Minneapolis to handle its creative advertising account, beating out Miami hot shop Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. If the rumors are true, this would be a huge win for the struggling Minneapolis shop in terms of both its accounting and its prestige.

Fallon has gone through significant downsizing since losing the Subway account in late 2005, capping the trend off with an awful 2007 that saw the BMW, Citibank, Bahamas Tourism and United Airlines accounts also leave the agency. The account and resulting personnel loss has been so bad that Fallon was forced to leave its swanky digs in the Dorsey building on 6th Street and head back to the office it moved from in the “asparagus building.” Sure, everyone liked the old offices better, but it is an admission of significant troubles at the iconic Minneapolis shop.

Recently, things have started to change for the better. Fallon won the Equinox account and launched their new campaign and has made some very good hires.

The Microsoft win would cap off the turnaround in style and set the agency up with momentum, a huge client win and a shootout victory over the hottest agency in the country, all boding well for the balance of 2008.

The Microsoft used to be handled by behemoth McCann Erickson.

microsoft is a poisoned chalice

While I am cheering for Fallon to win the creative duties for Microsoft because they are the hometown team and have been doing good project work for the brand for some years now, it may be a poisoned chalice.

All the sweet advertising goodness in the whole world is not going to overcome the fact that Vista is crap…and everyone knows it. Testers, benchmarks and performance indicators all show that Vista is slower and performs worse than XP, the system it is supposed to replace.

People know this and are complaining. AdPulp has it on the front page today:

Thankfully I, like all hipster creative urbanites, am on a Mac.

Say that Fallon does beat Crispin to the Microsoft account, what’s next? How can you advertise for, how can you try to convince people to buy something that is simply not as good as the previous version? It’s impossible.

It’s especially impossible in this day of, as Tangerine Toad coined, The Real Digital Revolution where consumers can immediately find out if the product is not as good as advertised. And then they won’t buy it. No matter how creative, convincing, or whatever the ad campaign might be.

Losing this pitch will be a blessing in disguise.

The product is inferior and consumers will not want to buy it. When Vista does not sell well, the agency will get the blame because A) agencies are supposed to sell and B) it’s easier for a company to blame the agency and replace them than to admit that what they are trying to sell is complete crap.

Should Fallon win and then quickly be axed when sales, predictably, do not improve it will be the expected death-blow for the agency. Or at least another severe body blow. And how many of those can one agency take?

Of course, should they lose this pitch can Fallon even be considered relevant anymore? Or are they just a mid-level player with a glorious history on big brands that they can’t hope to win these days?

I wish them success, but caution that success in this case is hard to define.

here’s hoping that wieden retains nike

Some clients deserve a kick in the head. BMW is one of those, for firing Fallon because the new guy wanted his own agency and replacing them with GSD&M and their turgid work.

Nike is going to be another just as soon as they dump Wieden & Kennedy for Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. Not only has Wieden done fantastic work on Nike for years, and not only was Crispin’s first effort for Nike about the worst that advertising gets for that brand, but your are (assuming all the rumors, including this one from adrants, are true) getting rid of an agency that has a history of great work for your brand. Why trade that for one that just might not be the right fit.

For all the Crispin is hot as the Miami sun right now, they haven’t exactly blown doors with VW or Miller, have they?

I do like both agencies as they both do exceptional work, but the proof is in the pudding with Wieden and Nike.

This billboard in New York is simple, clean and inspiring (and it hits deeply at a human truth…I said “tomorrow” yesterday too):

Classic Nike. Classic Wieden.

Why break up that partnership?

the future of advertising manifesto

I received an email from a reader asking me if I worked at an above-the-line or below-the-line shop. Apparently, he did not think that it was possible that the place I work at might think big enough to integrate the brand message across TV, outdoor and *gasp* in-store as well.

It’s time to wake up.

There is no more line. You don’t have to take my smallish challenger shop as an example. Look at Crispin and how they have affected Burger King in-store and packaging. Look at what they did with Mini, where they pulled the brand personality all the way through to the owner’s manual.

Though there will always be something about traditional television and print as a medium that lends a sort of insitutional credibility to the product and a sort of bigness that will excite a consumer (and an internal organization and sales team, like the classic Fallon cat herder spot for EDS), true big ideas are bigger than the medium.

If advertising agencies are going to continue to lead the brand development, they will have to think media neutral. Big money TV production just isn’t going to cut it anymore (David Lubars and BBDO, I’m talking to you).

The brand personality and messaging must be pulled through to the consumer touch points. Apple does this with advertising, product design and in-store design. Mini Cooper did it with advertising, product design and the little touches like the owner’s manual and the dealership experience.

Campbell’s soup did it with their shelf-management system. Not very sexy, but just as creative and even more groundbreaking than anything at Cannes.

It’s time to think bigger than the tactics we used to rely on.

It’s time to recognize that true creative advertising doesn’t always involve high production values or a great headline. It’s time to forget about the line that work might fall above or below and the categories of award shows and think independent of the baggage that comes from “being in advertising.”

If I never win the One Show but come up with an idea as revolutionary as the Campbell’s soup shelf management system, I’ll be happy. Not because I don’t need the glory or the silverware – I would really like some of both, actually – but because if I do come up with something that revolutionary I’ll be rich, bitch!

And that’ll do it for me. It really will.