Wieden + Kennedy lost a $1.74 billion dollar account last year over lack of SEO and Digital
July 10, 2008
We have no idea how we missed this one… pretty amazing to see the then $1.74 billion Nike account go because W+K didn’t know how Google worked… and didn’t spend a few million buying a strong SEO / Digital firm to save the staggering $1.74 billion dollar account. A Few Million to save 2 Billion.. a monkey could of made the proper decision… hopefully they will learn… but we have yet to see any news regarding them purchasing an SEO firm to save accounts like this or obtain new business.
Crispin picked up Nike’s running and Nike+ business last April, after sources said the client grew frustrated with the digital capabilities of its longtime agency partner, Wieden + Kennedy
Full Story
They’ll learn one day… or a new breed of firms will teach them.
Note: There is a part 2 to this story
Comments
View Comments to “Wieden + Kennedy lost a $1.74 billion dollar account last year over lack of SEO and Digital”
Got something to say?
Recognized by Advertising Age Magazine as top Power 150 news outlet for Advertising and Marketing.
Recognized and listed in Google News. Don't stress, we're Satire
Ad Agency Advertising
No idea how you also missed the news that Nike returned the running and Nike+ business to Wieden last month.
That’ll teach them.
Or that we begun building search team. http://tinyurl.com/5a8ehs. Tribble – you could call us, or even try Google next time. It’s a neat internet tool that helps you find things. Some facts, even.
Wow… it only took you guys a billion dollar account leaving you… costing you in lost revenue for a year to discover SEO?
I guess the ONLY reason they returned it.. and I still stress that you LOST the account last year because you had (and still lack strongly) SEO and Interactive skills….
But because you made a minor effort to attempt buy hiring a guy for SEO and SEM so you got your billion dollar account back… so you lost revenue for a year… for something that you should of done 10 years ago…
The funny thing is that I threw this up there:
They’ll learn one day… or a new breed of firms will teach them.
So you learned and actually got an account back abit a billion plus in lost revenue over the past year….
[...] denied revenue from a a billion dollar account for a year (Nike) due to lack of SEO / Digital got people up in arms… mostly because it appears to be factual.. as our readers have so protested.. to the point [...]
Heh, you could hire me for a couple of million.
The Founder,
Be an adult and admit you were wrong (or at least didn’t have the facts) on this one.
Happens to the best of us.
The idiots are the ones who try to keep pretending like they were right all along.
Which you weren’t.
I fully promise to apologize if I was wrong.. but the problem is I wasn’t… There are a list of facts that make it hard for me to say I was wrong.. when it appears that I was 100% right.
Fact : W+K lost the account and the revenue generated from that account for a year due to lack of Digital/SEO
Fact : It took W+K a year to get the account back after they hired a search guy and CP+B pushed out a less than stellar campaign
Fact : Nike Spends $1.74 billion a year on marketing, a good part of that went to W+K
Fact : W+K lost a massive account for a year due to lack SEO and Digital
I am 100% right…. I’ll apologize when someone tells me that those facts didn’t happen .. and the Wall Street Journal / George Parker / Adage and virtually every media outlet were all wrong when they documented this last year… and I will apologize happily… I don’t like pissing matches… but there is no reason to apologize as I see it… as the facts speak for themselves.. and the facts are on my side.
no, founder … you did a sloppy job here. they didn’t lose $1.74 billion, the running and plus part of the account are a couple of million. it’s a tiny part of a very large account, albeit a prolific one. it had already been lost before, that time to goodby, which you completely missed. you also missed that the account had already returned a pretty solid while ago. those are mistakes you should own up to.
lastly the whole “SEO” thing. seriously? I know you looove your keywording-talk but that’s so not the issue. digital in general was, you did get that part right, but SEO-stuff is like color correction in photography, it’s a rather small part of the larger game. it’s not what senior management makes a decision to take away such a part of an account on. they wanted a kicking running website, which incidentally they didn’t get out of crispin but RGA, which still does that part.
I find this entry of yours to be terribly researched. you just wanted to make your good old SEO point which is kind of weak anyway.
[...] the brands they are building…specifically that they should probably get their act together (Wieden, I’m looking at you) and stop ignoring it because it will only result in an EFFIE and the ECD thinks that EFFIES are [...]
Everyone can see your mistake. You’re making it worse by continuing to pretend like nothing happened.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MKZgM60YOX0
You’re 100% something. But right, you’re not.
You lost an account because of lack of Digital and SEO skill set within W+K for a year. Yet you claim it didn’t happen… I’ll have to default to the only argument I can think of in this case.
“Don’t argue with a fool. The spectators can’t tell the difference”
A) I don’t work at WK.
B) I didn’t claim it didn’t happen. It did happen. AND you were wrong. If you can’t see how they coexist, you need help with your ego.
A) I don’t work at WK.
B) I didn’t claim it didn’t happen. Yes, they lost part of an account. AND you were wrong. If you can’t see how they coexist, you need help with your ego.
You can go back and read the first couple comments to see how you were wrong.
“I didn’t claim it didn’t happen. It did happen. AND you were wrong”
Ok… you admitted it did happen… and I reported it happened.. but I was supposedly wrong to report it happened… I give up.
W+K lost Nike for a year due to lack of Digital and SEO skills.
Period.
[...] Motors just allocated 1.5 billion to Digital and SEO, and as recently as last year Nike left W+K due to lack of Digital and [...]
[...] has been happening (in large numbers) for the past 3 years… For example W+K lost Nike for a year due to lack of SEO and Digital .. a staggering total market spend of 1.7 Billion… though to be fair W+K’s share of [...]
[...] I have to say, it’s not just Enfatico, it is Madison Avenue altogether. W+K lost a nearly $2 billion dollar account for lack of SEO.. and yet still has not developed the internal skillset to do [...]
[...] clockwork it happened over and over [...]
[...] out whether you need to step on the gas in your efforts to increase your digital capabilities, the story of Wieden + Kennedy and Nike is a good cautionary tale. Although this is in the general market, these trends will trickle down [...]