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Mono Now Agency of Record For MSNBC

victor — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:02:57 +0000

MSNBC has selected Minneapolis ad agency Mono as its agency of record in marketing and advertising efforts, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Mono, which was recently named the small agency of the year by Advertising Age, has previous experience working with television organizations. The agency previously created the “Characters Welcome” brand five years ago that is still in use today.

MSNBC Chief Marketing Officer Sharon Otterman hailed Mono’s creative work.

“The MSNBC audience is passionate, and we’re poised for tremendous growth with further investment in our brand,” Otterman said.

H&R Block Hires The Fallon Group

victor — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:54:04 +0000

The Fallon Group has been brought on as the agency of record for H&R Block Inc.’s $155 million advertising account, the Kansas City Business Journal reports.

The Fallon Group is being hired after H&R Block reported a disappointing 2010 fiscal year. The tax preparer previously had a contract with Omnicom Group’s DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc.

“The ever-evolving tax industry and consumer environment often demands different marketing approaches at different times,” H&R Block Chief Marketing Officer Robert Turtledove said in a statement. “In that spirit, and based on our previous experiences working together, we believe that Fallon is the right partner to help us grow our business moving forward.”

H&R Block CEO Alan Bennet said the company’s marketing campaign needs a new direction. He wants the its advertising more aimed at specific client types, specific products and price points that portray value to customers.

Aggregate Knowledge Names V.P of Engineering

victor — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:54:05 +0000

Aggregate Knowledge, the sole pure-play data management and ad optimization platform (DMP) company, announced Steve Linde as its new vice president of engineering.

Linde was most notably the director of engineering at NexTag, where he led technical teams through several years of dramatic growth in site traffic, technical complexity, and team size, as that team scaled to meet the needs of millions of consumers. He will be responsible for managing all engineering and core development teams at Aggregate Knowledge.

“Steve has lived the pain of working with the existing tools available in the market. At companies like CNET and NexTag, he recognized the shortfalls and built his own solutions that powered some of the smartest online pioneers in the industry,” said David Jakubowski, CEO of Aggregate Knowledge. “Adding his expertise to our team cannot be understated. It’s not enough to have good technology; Steve’s practical experience with large-scale systems in this space with these tools is invaluable and he is already accelerating the delivery of our product roadmap.”

Aggregate Knowledge provides its customers with industry-defining granularity and transparency that provide actionable insights into exactly what (creative), where (inventory/placement), and who (audience) is driving performance.

Word To The Wise … Lay Off The Porn

eric — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:13:15 +0000

With an ad campaign gone amok, UK based Lean Mean Fighting Machine stands to lose its Coca-Cola account over a risqué Facebook posting that turned up in a fourteen year old girl’s status page on the networking site.

As Blackweb 2.0 posted, the ad company came up with a seemingly brilliant idea (although, in retrospect, not so) that allowed a certain Dr. Pepper app access to users’ status pages. The app, which had, until recently, attracted some 160,000 users, posted embarrassing comments on the update pages of users in an effort to generate buzz for the cola. In exchange, users got the opportunity to randomly win fabulous cash and prizes. Sounds great, right?

All was well, until a prying (or informed, technologically savvy and/or concerned) parent found a reference to a pornographic movie (you know, that one with the cup) placed by the app on their daughter’s Facebook page. Oops! Talk about egg- or something - on your face. Coke has since, apologized to the family, deep sixed the program and is currently mulling over its future relationship with Lean Mean.

Acronym Media Names Executive V.P. of Global Sales

victor — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:56:27 +0000

Acronym Media, a leader in keywork-driven marketing, announced the appointment of Larry K.H. Jenkins as executive vice president of global sales.

Jenkins was formerly executive vice president of client services and strategic accounts and managing director of Europe for iCrossing. In his new role, Jenkins will be responsible for driving Acronym’s worldwide business development efforts, including the creation and implementation of new strategic initiatives and Client-focused solutions.

“Larry is a proven leader, and his extensive international expertise and experience in the search and online marketing space make him the ideal choice for growing and better serving our global Client base,” said Anton E. Konikoff, Founder and CEO of Acronym Media.

Jenkins is a 25-year industry veteran with a track record of sales, marketing and advertising success. He joins Acronym with a considerable search pedigree, having served approximately five years at iCrossing.

Acronym Media is an independent, global search and Keyword-Driven Marketing™ agency, headquartered in New York with operations in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Singapore.

Pearson Partners Closing Doors After 33 Years

victor — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 23:59:01 +0000

Longtime Indianapolis, Ind. ad agency Pearson Partners Inc. is closing after 33 years, according to a report in the Indianapolis Business Journal. About a dozen workers will be left without a job.

The agency apparently is another victim of the tough economic times. President and CEO Ron Pearson told the paper “we’ve struggled through the recession” and that the decision to close shop was made after cutting and eliminating budgets.

Pearson, who announced the decision in an e-mail Friday, said the agency has more than 30 clients and many of them are being referred to nearby Hetrick advertising and public relations agency.

Pearson will keep a crew of three intact for another week or two to tie up loose ends.

MDC Loses Top Creative Talent, World Gains Philosopher

eric — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:57:58 +0000

WSJ: Alex Bogusky, an industry superstar, is leaving ad holding company MDC Partners. He is a founding partner of Crispin Porter & Bogusky and self styled chief creative insurgent of MDC. Bogusky’s future plans, though at this time undisclosed, do not directly involve the advertising business.

In a blog post, yesterday, entitled “My First Flower,” Bogusky waxed poetic on the necessity of stopping to smell the flowers. Life is too short, after all. Apparently, until now he had never done so (smelled the flowers AND waxed about it):

So I stopped and I smelled them. At first, it felt a bit silly. Then I went to another bunch and smelled them. I wondered if I looked like a crazy person. But I pushed on and pretty soon I felt like I had stumbled on gold. The willingness to stop what I was doing because I found myself in front of some flowers was a test I had been failing for 46 years. The silent question to me all this time has been, “Are you really here, Alex? Are you truly paying attention?” “Well thank you for asking, oh, asker-of-silent-questions,” I say, “I’m doing better. And I’ve finally started smelling your flowers.”

The Tao of Bogusky.

GM To Go With New Firm On Chrysler Brand

eric — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:00:30 +0000

The Detroit Free Press: GM has decided to move its Chrysler account to a new ad agency. It’s moving from Bartle Bogle Hegarty to Minneapolis based firm Fallon Worldwide. The account is estimated to be worth almost $300 million.

GM, trending alongside other auto makers, has recently made moves for some of its other well known brand accounts, most recently with Cadillac, which, coincidentally, it awarded to Bartle Bogle. Bartle Bogle is a UK firm that has offices in the Big Apple.

Much of the adman shakeup is due to GM’s recent hire of Joel Ewanick as VP of marketing. The company has significantly paired down its overall operations and consolidated its brands and branding efforts in the wake of the government bailout of last Spring.

Doner Loses Mazda Account

eric — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:55:35 +0000

Crain’s Detroit Business: W.B. Doner & Co., which does business as Doner, has announced that it has lost the Mazda account. The account, which Doner has had since 1997, is valued at an estimated $150 million and comprises 20 percent of the ad firm’s business. The firm came up with the both popular and successful “Zoom Zoom” advertising campaign for the Japanese automaker.

There have been other recent shake-ups in the auto ads business. Ford recently cut ties with Cambell-Ewald after a 91 year relationship and BBDO North America lost its account with Chrysler.

Based in Southfield, Mich., Doner has offices throughout North America, as well as in London, and does business in more than 30 countries for clients including Amazon.com, The Coca-Cola Company, ADT, DuPont, The Coleman Company, Shell Oil and Sherwin-Williams.

Adisn Purchased By CrowdGather

eric — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:57:05 +0000

Digital Media Wire: CrowdGather, one of the leading networks of community forums, announce today that it has purchased its own digital advertising agency, Adisn. The deal is rumored to be worth $5.5 million.

Adisn, a next generation Digital Ad Agency, uses relationship data from the social web to enhance targeting and should be a good fit for CrowdGather, which according to the company’s CEO, Sanjay Sabnani, “has been building up a network of forum based properties with a focus towards growing revenues through advertising.” This strategy can now be pursued in-house. Adisn’s founder, Andy Moeck, will also join the CrowdGather team.