Mullen lands SunTrust advertising agency account
October 6, 2008
Atlanta-based bank SunTrust Inc. has selected Mullen as the new advertising agency of record, the bank said on Monday. SunTrust (NYSE: STI) chose Mullen after a competitive review. Already people are speculating that this will last longer than 8 hours (as in the case of the WPP / Wachovia account)
Why in the world would Mullen view a banking account as a good one during this crisis.. we’ll never know.
Banking Soap Opera
October 5, 2008
Wells Fargo blocked by Citi on Wachovia purchase… no kidding … never saw so many people want a piece of a sinking ship….
Wachovia sells to Wells Fargo - Not Citigroup
October 3, 2008
NEW YORK (AP) — In an abrupt change, Wachovia said Friday it agreed to be acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. in a $15.1 billion all-stock deal that trumps Citigroup’s plan to acquire Wachovia’s banking operations and avoids government assistance. full story
This story actually might mean much to WPP .. we are unable to locate the agency of record for Wells Fargo.. if it is a WPP company, then perhaps the deal they recently struck and held for 8 hours before they got fired.. might make it.
Edit : DDB is Wells Fargo agency of record, Omnicom owns DDB hence it looks like WPP is out.
Now even the Herald Tribune is discussing the Wachovia / WPP Group plc / Ogilvy & Mather disaster
September 30, 2008
NEW YORK: It may go down in the annals of Madison Avenue as the shortest tenure on a big account…
Is how the story leads.. This was earlier reported on Tribble Ad Agency, Media Bistro, Parker and others.
The Article also points out the following:
The acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America may also result in agency changes if Bank of America decides to reassign campaigns for Merrill Lynch to the agencies that work for Bank of America.
Wachovia to Ogilvy : you were our agency of record for 8 hours total
September 29, 2008
In a truely “game over” statement, Wachovia has announced the suspension of the Ogilvy account. Meaning that Ogilvy had it for 8 business hours total before losing the account.
A total disaster, and hat-tip to Agency spy for getting Wachovia to state the fact publicly.
Mary Beth Navarro, SVP, Corporate Communications for Wachovia to Ogilvy : “In light of today’s announcement, Wachovia has paused the finalization of our agreement with Ogilvy. We will work closely with our Ogilvy partners and our future colleagues at Citigroup to determine the best way to support our brands and our businesses going forward.
Wonder what the dwarf thinks now?
Prior we noted that WPP group plc had Wachovia for 7 hours.. it was actually 8
September 29, 2008
In one of the most comical issues to hit the advertising agency space in a long time, WPP group plc and Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) issued a press release stating that they landed Wachovia on Friday… but Monday.. the company was sold to Citibank .. we informed the public that they were under threat to be fired within 7 hours.. we were mistaken.. it appears that they will be losing the account in 8 business hours… (48 hours if you count the weekend)
Then hot off the presses Monday morning we read this release stating that Citibank has now purchased the distressed bank.
Wachovia claimed to have a 150 million dollar spend.. we don’t think that WPP got one penny of the that spend… we don’t even know for sure if WPP or Wachovia paid for that press release.
However Parker did note that the chances are WPP spent money trying to land the now non existent account (it’s it’s a Citibank division now).
The Citibank agency of record is Euro RSCG and their holding company is Havas… not WPP.. … like Havas is going to allow feeding of a competitor WPP in the mix..… They’ll sell a line that “it’s better to have it under one Havas theme and one brand for business” or something along those lines.. and WPP will lose the account.
ugly… really ugly…
Edit: as with all developing stories… there is more…
WPP / Ogilvy & Mather lands Wachovia for 7 hours
September 26, 2008
A few hours ago we reported that WPP / Ogilvy & Mather landed Wachovia as their advertising agency of record. Well we live in interesting time. It appears that they lost the account already… literally about 7 hours or so after the announcement Citibank is now discussing the purchase of Wachovia…
The Citibank agency of record is Euro RSCG their holding company is Havas… not WPP.. … like they are going to allow feeding of a competitor…
“We should brand all these new assets Citibank.. it’s good for business”
Of course that means that WPP / Ogilvy & Mather … has the account for … about 7 hours… before the company entered buyout talks.
There is an Update to this post.. as it’s official… Wachovia is officially sold… so the new O&M deal might of been a single press release ……
WPP lands Wachovia - Wachovia now under alert for failure
September 26, 2008
The seizure of Washington Mutual Inc. (WM) is quickly becoming a problem for Wachovia Corp. (WB). After federal regulators on Thursday night seized the West Coast thrift and its bloated book of failing home loans, investors have trained their focus on Wachovia, which itself holds piles of risky mortgages. Full Story but in the same breath they are going to hand over a 150 million dollar campaign to WPP as Wachovia said it has awarded its nearly $150 million creative and media advertising account to a WPP Group team led by Ogilvy & Mather after a review. Full Story
So they are in risk of being seized by the feds, but handing 150 million to WPP and Ogilvy & Mather?
What type of idiots work there? Last time WPP touched a bank … Lehman Brothers closed shop… WPP lost a client.. It’s like their toxic debt…
Plus we don’t know where Wachovia is getting this money from…. their Credit Insurance costs just hit the roof… The cost of insuring the credit instruments at Wachovia (WB) got just a little pricier in the wake of the collapse of rival Washington Mutual and the government’s failure to reach an agreement on a bailout of the financial services business. How much pricier? Put it this way - what Wachovia paid $670,000 for yesterday costs nearly $3 million today. Or about three and a half times more.
WPP feels this is a valid client as well as Wachovia feeling this is a valid way to spend money at a time like this?
no wonder these two industries are screwed… it’s the blind leading the blind.
You would think that wachovia would choose a smaller agency and reduce it’s advertising budget to brace for impact… instead they are spending every.. single penny left.. and handing it to perhaps one of the most expensive agencies out there…
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