Ad Agency BBDO Finds out from Trade Journals about Chrysler Review
August 30, 2009
“As we launch a new company with a brand-focused organization, we are looking for fresh ways to communicate in the marketplace,” Chrysler said in a statement. “As a result, we are currently soliciting creative input on a limited number of specific projects from a select group of ad agencies.” BBDO told us to contact Chrysler for any questions as they are not to comment on the situation as they are finding the details in real time.
So in essence BBDO found out they were getting canned though the trade journals. For a nearly 1 billion dollar advertising account, that’s a hell of a way to find out.
The company is looking for new direction in their marketing, stronger online presence and a smaller advertising budget going forward. If the rumors are correct the final decision will be made in Italy, not in the United States.
This is perhaps one of the single biggest fallouts since the great recession has started, and this one will forever change the face of BBDO, expect massive layoffs. You don’t lose a billion dollar account and don’t expect to lose employees.
Obama given “power to shut down internet”
August 28, 2009
C|Net is reporting that a new bill sitting in the senate will give President Obama the power to “shut down the Internet” in case of national emergency. The problem we have with this isn’t the fact that Obama will have this power, it’s that the chances are this law will be sitting on the books for the next 20 years, so if we at one point decide to elect a president that WILL use it we will have a serious problem on our hands. We will have a president in power that can just turn off our ability to communicate with other Americans. We’d love to see how one can advertise online in that enviroment.
At that point you just need to get the heads of the top 5 media companies on board with whatever the policy is that moment and bingo… complete oversight over an individuals power to communicate with other Americans in any large fashion..
The most controversial language begins in Section 201, which permits the president to “direct the national response to the cyber threat” if necessary for “the national defense and security.” The White House is supposed to engage in “periodic mapping” of private networks deemed to be critical, and those companies “shall share” requested information with the federal government. (“Cyber” is defined as anything having to do with the Internet, telecommunications, computers, or computer networks.)
This isn’t funny people, not by any stretch of imagination. The entire concept of “shutting down parts of the internet” is more than UN-American.. it’s downright evil and sites like this that call Obama the Anti-Christ will continue to pop-up more and more if this actually becomes law (site looks like a complete joke until you see it has 5,000 comments on that thread).
This law cannot pass, anything that impedes our ability on our first amendment right is just downright wrong, it’s nothing less than censorship.
Detroit Unemployment reaches 30%
August 27, 2009
The Detroit Unemployment rate has now exceeded the Great Depression. It is currently at 30%… and that is measuring it by the U-3 (which undercounts unemployment dramatically).
People were wondering if the Advertising Agencies of Detroit will ever recover? Well this settles it, that city is never coming back in any reasonable time frame.
With an unemployment rate exceeding that of the great depression of 25%, this tells you that the city is in deep trouble barring any miracle.
Federal Reserve Head : Unemployment is 16%
August 27, 2009
Recently we had a discussion where two individuals disagreed with us stating that the real unemployment is whatever the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics pushes out is the official rate.
To be fair, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics uses several measures, from U-1 to the U-6 with the official rate being the U-3 of just under 10% unemployment currently.
This is where it got interesting, yesterday the Atlanta head of the Federal Reserve stated the same thing we did. That the unemployment rate is 16.x percent.
In other words, what our thoughts were is identical to what some ranking economists in the Federal Reserve feel as well.
So Jon and Daniel Reeves, how do you defend yourself now? Or you cant?
New website targets graduate students
August 27, 2009
New website targets graduate students and alumni for networking, job searches
Tallahassee, Fla. – (August 27, 2009) – A new website, inDegree.com, connects four separate yet interdependent groups to improve professional networking and job searches: graduate students and graduate alumni seeking jobs with employers searching for top recruits and with universities who need to stay connected with high-value alumni. Each group faces unique yet related challenges:
- For graduate students, placement services have been cut back, on-campus recruiting is down, and increased enrollment means higher competition for fewer jobs.
- Graduate alumni have watched their competitive advantage shrink, as the number of people with graduate degrees increases.
- Universities’ costs to maintain alumni services have climbed as donations have dropped.
- Employers’ costs for hiring graduate degree holders continues to rise, along with the resources it takes to find the right candidates.
On the positive side, some recruiters—anticipating a thaw in hiring in the first half of 2010—are reaching out to candidates, planning to scoop first-string talent as soon as they have openings. At the same time, social and professional networks enable students to increase their exposure online.
The disconnect, however, is that graduate students have difficulty differentiating themselves on generic social networking sites. ―inDegree.com is a niche site that employers can use to efficiently target candidates with advanced degrees only, says Alex Miningham, cofounder and chief executive officer of inDegree. ”It’s the only service that connects graduate students and alumni with universities and employers, offering a full array of networking features, career management, recruitment, and alumni management services.” Miningham began developing the website when he experienced firsthand how students graduating from advanced degree programs were saddled with debt and had little hope of getting what they came for—a better job.
In addition to the benefit of improved placement, inDegree combines career and alumni services that are separate at most universities, eliminating the duplication of resources—that can free up budget for other priorities. Graduate programs can also track student placement with inDegree.
inDegree’s partnership with the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students will bring on a number of the top public and private universities across the country. Beginning in 2010, universities can access additional premium services such as exit surveys, benchmarking studies, and other analyses.
For students and alumni, the benefits are manyfold:
- Access to over 500,000 jobs that target graduate degree holders only,
- Interactive platform to publish a professional profile, apply for jobs, manage applications, and see who’s viewed their resume,
- Automatic links to classmates and alumni, with real-time updates on connections, and
- Ability to search networks across many dimensions, such as employment information.
These services are free for each group: students, alumni, universities, and employers. Unlike other websites, employers can create corporate profiles, post jobs, and target an unlimited number of candidates at no cost on inDegree.
Miningham founded inDegree with Molly Wasko, professor of management information systems at Florida State University and researcher of digital social networks. ”The value for users arises when all four groups are connected, ” says Wasko. ―Aggregating the groups creates a viral expansion loop: more universities lead to more graduate students, which leads to more employers, which leads to more graduate alumni.
Contact: Marcia Roitberg at 727-403-1277 or mroitberg@indegree.com.
Please visit indegree.com for more information about Graduate Student Networking.
WPP Group plc takes serious earning dump
August 26, 2009
Advertising Agency WPP Group plc published their earning results, and it’s ugly.. really ugly. Revenue is down 8.3% earnings are down a mind boggling 47% and to make matters worse “Digital” Takes Bigger Slice Of super shrinking WPP Pie, Accounting For a full 25% of total revenue. We say worse because WPP group plc doesn’t actually do Digital, The companies they hold GroupM, Outrider, 24/7 Real Media, and media shops such as Mindshare, Mediaedge:cia and MediaCom are not “digital” firms as per say. Most of the revenue is just online media buys. For example WPP group plc has very limited access to SEO talent and very limited access to Social Media Talent.
Leaving their “digital” assets mostly addicted to flash based websites and Google Pay Per Click.
That’s not digital, not by a long shot. On January 1st 2009, we published an article defining digital here we are nearly 1/2 a year later and WPP group plc epic fails on that definition.
Having a bunch of guys and girls sitting there running clients credit cards though Google’s Adwords isn’t actually digital.. but that is pretty much what they define digital as hence why their total revenues are down and Google Adwords related work now accounts for such a huge percentage of their ever declining revenue.
Sir Martin, Digital isn’t Pay Per Click, Digital is when you are reading this blog post. If you don’t understand the difference think about the trail on how you found this article.
Ad Agency Executive Nicholas Francisco — What happened?
August 25, 2009
Well we promised to follow up with anything regarding Nicholas Francisco, and we are fulfilling our promise. For those not following the story, here is the short version. Nicholas Francisco was a Art Director at Advertising Agency Publicis West (Seattle) and on or about February 18th the man vanished without a trace coming home from work. Here is our initial story. We then ran a follow up story on what happened in April and Another one in May
Well Evidently Nicholas’ wife remarried a little over a year after Nicholas went missing. And, fled the state, with new husband and children. We gathered this from this comment here from Emma (we cannot verify this).
As far as we know, Nicholas Francisco is still missing, and has never been found. There are rumors that has been found at a cleaning company in California but again this is not verified and we have no way to verify. No calls have been returned.
If anyone has any information regarding the location of Nicholas Francisco please let us know. As far as we know, Publicis has dropped their search a few days after he went missing.
No laptop going to NYC ad agency
August 22, 2009
Well this is going to be a fun trip. Heading to New York city to meet an ad agency client. While preparing I opted to use my smartphone rather than my laptop. Currently it is working like a charm as this exact post is being made on a samsung blackjack II. Clearly its not a problem, as just 10 minutes ago I was watching ‘TV’ on Youtube and snapping photos with the camera phone and uploading it to facebook.
Yea using a small but full QWERTY keyboard is awkward but functional.
If only the iPhone had a plugin keyboard.
PETA : “fat women are beached whales”
August 21, 2009
You guys tell me if you think PETA crossed a line with this advertising billboard? Is this even remotely on target? Is it “edgy” or is it horrible? Even Montel Williams is a supporter of PETA, but he’s not happy about the ad. In some people’s mind, PETA should treat people as good as animals. Others say that PETA lost all credibility when they made a stink about Obama swatting a fly at the White House. Others are saying that whats wrong with eating meat? Their are carnivorous plants…what do you think about them? What substance do tigers eat? What does a blue whale eat? Should PETA protest Mother Nature? Because every nature show I’ve ever watched has some lion or cheetah or something killing the ***** out of another animal and eating it. Then some have said It’s funny vegetarians need to take protean supplements to replace what they are missing from not eating meat, but then will tell you humans did not evolve to eat meat.
And last but not least, some people are concerned over the ads, but not because of what first comes to mind, but rather one Advocacy Group complained about PETA’s Inhumane Treatment Of Women
Active Data Exchange Achieves 100% Customer Satisfaction, Beats Average for Microsoft Gold Certified Partners
August 20, 2009
Clients surveyed gain competitive advantage with Active Data Calendar
Active Data Exchange, a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner, announced today that they have received a 100% customer satisfaction rating in a survey conducted on behalf of Microsoft by TNS Prognostics, a leading market research firm. The survey was completed by clients using the Active Data Calendar suite of products, which is used in many ways by organizations around North America to streamline the communication process between an organization and its stakeholders.
Perhaps even more notable is that 97% of survey respondents said that Active Data Calendar provides their organization some level of competitive advantage. In today’s volatile economy, sustainable competitive advantage is the foundation to success and increasingly, organizations are realizing the value that an accessible, centralized repository of event related information can provide. This advantage comes in many forms spanning the entire breadth of the organization from the entry-level employee to the board of directors.
“We are grateful for having such a responsive client base that is willing to provide us actionable feedback, which we can use to continually improve our product and service offerings” said CEO Susan Yee. “We know the value that Active Data Calendar can deliver to an organization, and we look forward to providing this resource to all types of institutions across the country and around the world. 100% customer satisfaction is certainly an outstanding statistic, and I thank the entire Active Data Exchange team for making it possible, but we still feel there is much more exciting potential for Active Data Exchange and Active Data Calendar into the future.”
The Active Data Calendar product suite consists of a full-featured, interactive web calendar at its core, with additional modules to accommodate event registration with online payment, facilities and resource scheduling, community calendaring, and internal calendaring. The programs extensible design allows for seamless integration into an existing enterprise technology landscape including content management systems, student information systems, portals, intranets, extranets, Microsoft SharePoint Services, and many other mission critical technology platforms and applications. To request a consultative evaluation, product demo, or just more information, contact Active Data Exchange at 610-997-8100 or visit their web site at www.activedatax.com.
About Active Data Exchange
Active Data Exchange has been providing web-based event marketing solutions, facilities scheduling, online event registration, and e-mail and text message broadcasting software to education, healthcare, government and corporate enterprises since 1999. Product offerings include Active Data Calendar, Active Data Communicator, and Active Data Syndicator. Other web-related services available include custom software development, SharePoint consulting and development, hosting, web site and graphic design, and other various other professional and technical services. Clients include Anheuser-Busch, Electronic Arts, Excela Health, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Minnesota Department of Veteran’s Affairs, Baylor College of Medicine, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, National Government Services, North Carolina State University, and Temple University.
For more information, please visit www.activedatax.com
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