BlockBuster to file for Bankruptcy
August 27, 2010
Report: Blockbuster bankruptcy is imminent
Blockbuster Inc. plans to file for a pre-packaged bankruptcy in September. The Bankruptcy will most likely include a massive restructuring of the company including firing of the thousands of employees there and some say the company will completely convert to a “redbox / netflix ” hybrid with kiosks, mail order and streaming being their only channels.
The bankruptcy will allow them to get out of virtually all leases for their locations and allow them a “painless way” to fire all the employees.
The company has been on it’s deathbed for roughly half a decade or longer. So this doesn’t come as a surprise to many individuals. The company wiped out the advertising agency budget back in 2007
By 2009 the headlines on Tribble were stating “this company needs to fold”
By early 2010 we were stating that “blockbuster” was too big to fail. (yes we were making fun of both the company and the bailouts.)
We think it’s game over.
WPP Group posts $377 million profit on 7,000 layoffs
August 24, 2010
WPP group plc profits hit $377 million on the heels of a 7,000 employee firing. This is classic stuff. “Sir” Martin Sorrell is still expected to receive his $100 million bonus for a job well done.
This is perhaps the worst of the worst.
This individual ruined thousands of lives and families, yet he will be taking his $100 million bonus. For the record a $100 million dollar bonus roughly equals 2,500 jobs at $40,000 a year.
He will take nearly half of the total number of people he has fired in salary.
This is in reward for having the most technologically primitive advertising agency holding company in the industry. With very little investment in organic search optimization and a very weak holding for social media.
Enjoy the new reality…. also he might as well say “F-U” to the 2,500 people and their families walking the streets as he passes them in his limo.
40,800,000 Americans on Food Stamps
August 5, 2010
40,800,000 Americans on Food Stamps. The number roughly corresponds with the entire population of the following states and the nations capital:
Wyoming
Washington DC
Vermont
North Dakota
Alaska
South Dakota
Delaware
Montana
Rhode Island
Hawaii
Maine
New Hampshire
Idaho
Nebraska
West Virginia
New Mexico
Nevada
Utah
Kansas
Arkansas
Mississippi
Iowa
Connecticut
Oklahoma
Everyone in those states theoretically is on food stamps. That’s the new reality people. We have literally 1/2 the nation on food stamps in terms of number of states.
Let that settle in. 1/2 the number of states in the entire country, if you add their population up roughly equals the number of people on food stamps. I don’t see how an ad agency can advertise to people with no money.
This is a massive problem, it’s something that has been unheard of in recent times, only mirrored by the great depression in terms of severity. So go ahead and continue to feel that things are getting better, when in reality things are getting worse, much worse.
I fully expect a severe double dip recession unless someone comes up with a big bubble. Until that time there continues to be less need for work as less and less people are making ends meet and have any disposable income to use to purchase services and goods.
Truly, enjoy the new reality.
Advertising Recession – More Ad Agencies reporting slowdown
July 19, 2010
IN the past 3 months some advertising agencies have been reporting a decrease in spends, and client wins are becoming smaller (on average).
It appears that based on these reports alone many are bracing for a double dip recession.
“Billables though the same client are down at least 25%” one agency executive stated.
Another agency in a differing part of the country stated “I don’t understand why many of our clients are opting for the smaller spends rather than the bigger campaigns, they all have a sense of fear that things are going to get worse, not better”
Generally speaking when business sediment is that things are going to get worse, the businesses spend less on advertising. It appears that the reports we are seeing, ad agencies are seeing smaller client spends in the first and second quarter of 2010.
This is going to get ugly people.
33 year old Advertising Agency shuts doors – out of money
July 6, 2010
One of the oldest advertising agencies in Indianapolis, Pearson Partners Inc., is closing after 33 years in business. The business journal is reporting.
This is hard economic times for most companies, but the chances are we are going into a double dip recession, where advertising agencies are a dime a dozen, and most clients don’t even have a dime to spend.
Remember Advertising isn’t a core business as most management views it, it’s discretionary spending. If it comes to payroll or advertising, most C-level individuals would choose payroll. Hence the problem.
The chances are very high that this isn’t going to be the last established advertising agency to shut their doors, in fact if you were to bet I would say that business failures will only increase over the next 3 years as compared to decrease.
Pearson said in his e-mail that a “skeleton crew” of three will stay on for another week or two to finalize details and to pay creditors what it can.
“We do not anticipate, unfortunately, that enough accounts receivable will come in to pay everything,” he said.
Add to the list of people that will be shafted those people that this agency owed money to.
This is terrible, welcome to the new reality.
Resumes to Google News
June 18, 2010
I have been thinking about this for a while. Would you guys / girls be interested in a resume to google news service? Literally a way to post your resume and it will appear in Google News?
I wasn’t going to charge anything for it, it was more of a public service. My assumption is that if your resume appears in Google News (like how the New York Times publishes “people and movers”) it would be highly helpful for your job search.
Of course they will be screened as to comply with standards, but this will allow you to get maximum light for your resume.
What is your opinion on the matter? Would you post your resume knowing it will go directly to Twitter, Google News, Facebook, mailed to a few thousand subscribers that work Advertising , etc.
Tribble advertising agency is literally a machine, so it’s fairly automated to get out into all those areas. The idea is that it would hit up as many targeted people as possible. Makes CareerBuilder or Monster look backwater if we move forward.
But I do need feedback from you to see if it’s worthwhile to build the modifications for the site to make that happen.
— The Founder
Miami Advertising Agency makes “Gringo Masks” to beat Arizona police
May 25, 2010
This is perhaps the best idea ever. Miami advertising agency Zubi Advertising, guarantees the cops won’t be stopping you or your loved ones after you put your best white face forward.
The masks can cover your face and allows you to travel as a white person rather than someone of color so you won’t be stopped by the Arizona police for being anything other than European decent.
Clearly driving with faces like that will allow you to go along your normal day without harassment of being pulled over every 10 minutes to show your Soviet Russia papers.
Enjoy the new reality.
This is a sad day in America when one is forced to wear a mask in order to make it without being pulled over.
What the European Crisis does to US Advertisers
May 11, 2010
The disaster occurring in Europe right now does and will affect the US advertising market. Let’s look at it from a very simplistic view, Publicis and WPP are both based in Europe, Publicis in particular is very close to the problem. This doesn’t matter generally speaking, but in reality it will matter (yes we already know that Omnicom will be doing the same, as they are generally in the same areas that the other holding companies are).
Europe is roughly 2 years behind the US in this economic crisis, we as Americans have already started a new asset bubble, started pumping resources into this and slowly within the next 4 years or so we might achieve normal employment levels. Europe however is still on a triple black diamond ski slope.
The Euro eventually will tank compared to the dollar, so they are going to be viewing the US market as something to “suck money out of” to help pay for ongoing deficits in Europe, That means that Publicis is going to be taking “more than normal” out of US operating profits to continue operations in Europe.
That means that US advertisers will be paying a higher rate than what would necessary be the case due to the higher rate of money transfer from the US to Europe. IE: if you are using Publicis or WPP, the chances are you are going to get highly screwed in the next few years.
In laymen’s terms let’s assume that the Publicis advertising agency wants to continue to fund an office somewhere in France, the office is no where near break even but of course they must really pay for those gold plated door handles, so what they will do is take money from New York to continue to fund the office in France until the office is finally self sufficient.
For this they will tax their US clients a few percentage points higher than what would normally be charged.
Enjoy the new reality.
Detroit Recruiter : Picking on Detroit is a cheap shot
May 6, 2010
As promised, if someone sends in a well thought out rebuttal, we will post it. Below is a complete cut and paste of the e-mail.
Usually I just take your rants in stride but today; not so much. Picking on Detroit is at best, a cheap shot and at worst, unconscionable to those of us still here trying to go about our lives. We can’t do it if we have to constantly explain what is and isn’t true about metro-Detroit.
You’re a smart man. You have to be smart enough to realize that Detroit is not the whole region and Detroit is not some bomb-filled hell. We got hit hard and we got hit first. You are starting to see the same things happening throughout the U.S. You will continue to see it until the agencies start hiring again. Oh, snap, they are hiring here in Detroit!
McCann Erickson just hired 50 people in the past couple of months. Team Detroit is about to hire about the same. GlobalHue is about to do the same. What do these agencies have in common? THEY ARE ALL IN METRO-DETROIT! It should also be noted that none of these agencies are actually located in the city of Detroit.
I recruit for agencies throughout the U.S. so I know that there are plenty of other places that are struggling. Oddly enough, we’re picking up like crazy around here this year. Before the rest of the country.
Why don’t you actually come here and see for yourself? If you have the guts to come near the bombed out city, I will actually show you the sights. If I had a nickel for every candidate who said “I had no idea how nice it was”, I could retire tomorrow.
Something went terribly wrong all right: the U.S. stopped making things. I think we all saw what happened when the financial sector imploded last year. Would you call New York an area in decline?
Rant complete.
A Detroit Recruiter
Something terribly went wrong – Detroit
May 4, 2010
Generally when an area is in decline, companies move out buildings go vacant. About 2 years ago Media Bistro published an article stating “is Detroit ever going to have an advertising agency come back”. In a perfect world the answer is yes. Because as the cost of labor goes down, property goes down, companies move in to take advantage of it and then within a decade or two you see a reversal. Akin to outsourcing within the United States as compared to picking a location in India.
That ISN’T what happened in Detroit, what happened there was something akin to a nuclear bomb going off in the city leaving nothing but a Chernobyl wasteland that is toxic to anything that enters the city limits, and Detroit isn’t the only city to face this.
Las Vegas is suffering from a similar disaster, just in the earlier stages of it.
The problem is multifold, but primarily the problem is these cities don’t know how to advertise themselves and CEO’s are concerned about raising their children in a city that has a staggering crime rate.
A pitch for a city to attract a company has to include a 2 prong approach. The first being the technical reasons one why a company needs to relocate there. Cost of labor is low, property prices are low, taxes are low, city officials are willing to “do what needs to be done”, the labor pool is ideal for that business.
But that’s not the real reason they re-locate there, it might be a huge reason, it’s the legitimate reason, but it’s not the real reason.
You have to convince at most 2 dozen people in any big company to relocate their company. Board of Directors and upper management… That’s it… if you wanted a monster sized firm with 10,000 employees to move into your city you are not going to actually sell them via advertising on the technical merits.
Remember most of these CEO’s are established, many of them will have school aged children at home.. or even recent grads.. meaning that the lingering feeling of them still at home is still ever present.
You must sell them on it’s a good place to live.
Virtually every single ad agency created spot regarding “relocate here” or “move your company here” is filled with the same spec sheet. Low Taxes, skilled labor, etc..
Not one in recent memory says “your kids will thank you” or “most kids that graduate from school here go on to college” or the primary concern, it’s a safe place to grow up.
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
