BBDO New York fires 20 people
December 11, 2009
Agency Spy is reporting that BBDO New York has handed pink slips to 20 people, across the board.
These people will be entering into the worst job market the planet has seen in 3/4 of a century.
This is going to be rough for these people, it’s the wrong time to be fired… and honestly they are really in the wrong industry… Advertising is always a lagging indicator … first to be fired… last to be hired.
Pretty bad stuff.. These people could always start their own advertising agency, if they are digitally inclined.
Ad Agency BBDO Executives have cash to buy McMansion
November 19, 2009
Timothy Smith and Brigette Whisnant bought a four-bedroom, 3.5-bath home at 621 Park Ave. in River Forest for $677,500 from John and Katrina Vainisi on Oct. 28. — according to this article.. The McMansion is in a NICE neighbourhood. Meanwhile nearly 500 of their fellow employees at BBDO Detroit received walking papers last week and last month their clients were mailing out RFP’s like no tomorrow.
The article has a picture of the house and a google maps satellite view of the house.
Whisnant is a senior vice president and director of film and digital production at Energy BBDO, a full-service advertising agency. She previously served as a senior producer at Fallon and worked with Cliff Freeman & Partners.
Looks like someone isn’t worried about losing her job like the rest of us.
RIP ad agency BBDO Detroit
November 9, 2009
Agency Spy has a breaking news report that ad agency BBDO Detroit is closing it’s doors on January 29th. Meaning that the game is over for the advertising agency.
The agency historically obtained most of it’s business from Chrysler, and when that business dried up, so did everything from payroll to rent. Meaning, like any other company it’s forced to close its doors. 485 people are currently working in that office, and the vast majority of them will be given walking papers.
This is a major blow to what’s left of the Detroit advertising business. The City has been in the great depression in earnest for quite some time now. A 4 bedroom home could be bought in Detroit for $3,000 dollars… the same home went for $100,000 several years ago.
Anyone want BBDO’s current office? Out guess that you can get into a holding company office for pennies on the dollar. Just like the rest of the business model.
This is going to be rough for those nearly 500 people being fired, there are not many viable alternatives to employment within a large radius of the city. The city recently reported a 35% unemployment rate (nearly 50% when you account for underemployment IE: Mechanical engineers working at McDonalds)
This is bad.
Why Pizza Hut is having a review
October 1, 2009
If you want the honest reason why Pizza Hut is running an advertising agency review with the apparent intent on firing Ad Agency BBDO, you have to look no further than this photo. We actually ate at Pizza Hut yesterday, but the circumstances behind the below Photo needs to be understood.
Yesterday, myself, my wife and my 4 year old son were looking for a quick bite to eat, we stopped at the local pizza shop, there was a 45 minute wait. So we decided to go across the street. We drove past Burger King, the parking lot appeared to be full… so we just continued about 300 feet to the Pizza Hut.
There was 1 car in the parking lot, it appeared to be employee that works there. She was playing both waitress and cashier. She was very polite. I have to admit that she actually looked surprised that someone came into the location.
At the exact moment this photo was taken, out of the 3 restaurants within 1 block, 2 of them had full parking lots and one of them (a normal local pizza shop) had a standing room only 45 minute wait.
So evidently people are eating out, just not there.
“The Hut” / “Pasta Hut” / “Pizza Hut” — looking to fire BBDO
September 30, 2009
Advertising Age is reporting that “The Hut / Pasta Hut / Pizza Hut” whatever the current name is looking to fire advertising agency BBDO.
The report has stated that BBDO is looking to defend the account. We are not sure who to assign blame for the number of name changes to the company , but if it’s BBDO then they need to be fired.
These failed campaigns at attracting attention to the chain has done little to boost it’s name, as people don’t know what the actual name is anymore. The review has started, and Pizza Hut is looking for greener pastures. Evidently we were told (but cannot confirm) that BBDO found out about the review via the trade journals, if this is true, this is the second time that BBDO has found out their client is looking to leave from the magazines and blogs rather than from the client, this however has not been verified.
“Same-store sales fell 8% in the most recent quarter, making Pizza Hut the biggest laggard of Yum Brands’ portfolio — and well behind competitor Domino’s, which posted a same-store sales decline of less than 1%. Upstart Papa John’s, meanwhile, posted same-store sales that were slightly positive. ”
Basically their advertising is doing a horrific job and causing Pizza Hut to “get destroyed” by the current competition. Though the Agency has faced 4 reviews in the past several decades, this one is deeply rooted in hard figures, which means that the agency is most likely going to have to fight with a spreadsheet rather than fluff.
Good luck with that.
Omnicom BBDO launches ANOTHER 9/11 Ad Campaign
September 8, 2009
These idiots don’t get it. Advertising Agency Omnicom (this time their BBDO arm) has launched another 9/11 themed campaign. Last time Omnicom launched a 9/11 campaign (yea that was last week) it ended in disaster.
Evidently this one is running from the Moscow Times , it’s an English paper based in Russia.
This is complete madness, this is the second 9/11 themed in a week from Ad Agency Omnicom. Hat tip to the Gothamist for catching this one.
It’s completely amazing that the same holding company can push out two horrific ads like this in the same number of weeks. There needs to be something done about this, please forward this post along.. retweet it… do something… because exploiting the 3000 Americans that died that day for a Advertising Agency campaign isn’t even remotely right.
We guess that Omnicom is in business to profit from terror attacks.
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.
NBC Entertainment CEO starts ‘Warner Brothers meets BBDO’
July 27, 2009
But his new company, which does not yet have a name, will be designed to take advantage of the other role Ben Silverman played at NBC, in bringing creative talent together with advertisers. Silverman, citing a production company and an advertising agency, likened the new venture to “Warner Brothers meets BBDO.” The New York Times is reporting.
Heh, He’s leaving NBC to start a new venture that he feels will be a “Warner Brothers meets BBDO.” He sure that’s the best way to phrase it? It’s not like Warner Bros sent out a cattle call RFP request to Tribble Ad Agency (a blog not an ad agency) to handle it’s media buys (not kidding, it happened)… or BBDO forcing their employees to take 2 weeks unpaid
Is he really sure he wants to make his new firm stack up to those models?
Enjoy…
GM notifies ad agencies they’re out of business
May 15, 2009
GM has notified GM notifies 1,100 dealers they’re out of business. This will run havoc throughout the advertising agency world as many smaller and mid sized agencies depend on the dealerships for direct mailings, billboards, flyers… etc etc.. … just overall advertising for each local market.
These dealers are now facing a complete shut down, and because of this many will most likely fail if they cannot substitute it with a Honda, Toyota, Kia or whatever. In other words, the chances are not just the dealers will go under, but a whole bunch of advertising agencies as well.
The auto industry spends massive amounts of money on Advertising, for example, in the Chrysler bankruptcy document they listed BBDO / Omnicom Group as their second largest creditor. This is high and above any other firms that helped with R&D, car parts, etc etc..
Spectacular fireworks people, this is going to get ugly.
Obama cuts Chrysler advertising budget in half
May 12, 2009
Chrysler wanted to spend $134 million in advertising over the nine weeks it’s in bankruptcy, however the Obama auto-industry task force gave it only half that. This is to be expected, as we have reported earlier that Chrysler owes Ad Agency BBDO $58,000,000. Omnicom Group is listed as it’s second largest creditor…. See this is our problem now, as it was last month when we published this story.
It’s worth noting, when your second largest creditor is your ad agency, exactly what was Chrysler spending their money on… seriously… like this company spent everything they had on advertising… and nothing on R&D …. no wonder they are where they are… in bankruptcy.
The Federal Government viewed at least half of Chrysler’s advertising budget as a waste of money, hence why it denied it… and honestly despite being in the advertising industry.. it’s hard to validate the entire sum in light of the cash crunch and the fact it is in bankruptcy.
The problem is people, when you are on government dollars, you are going to have to expect government results…. and the fact is that government feels that advertising isn’t a priority, payroll is.
You think this is bad, wait until the banks that have taken TARP money want to review their advertising budgets… because you are smoking crack if you think this is the last time this will happen.
Enjoy the new reality.
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