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Ads On Auto Pilot

It’s nearly impossible to do something creative with stock footage. But it looks like Zimmerman found a way.
From the NYT:

Zimmerman Zimmerman Advertising, an advertising agency that is part of the Omnicom Group, is selling stock advertising and online buying for TV, the Internet, print publications, radio, direct mail and in-store ads.
The automated system it is offering to advertisers, called Pick-n-Click, is currently available only for automotive advertisers and has 150,000 components —like voice-overs, video footage and text options.
AutoNation, a franchise group of 331 car dealers, has signed on as a customer. Zimmerman plans to expand the site’s ad offerings to other retail areas like home furnishings within the next few months.
“You find out at 10 p.m., your competitor is running an intense sale on something,” said Michael Goldberg, chief marketing officer for Zimmerman. “You can go into your arsenal of work and select something to combat that and program it to run the next day. All in five minutes.”

One of the truly interesting things here is that a big, creative ad agency is behind this development. I can see it coming from a tech startup or what have you, but this agency is consciously cutting into its own services to be a first mover in this new area. Talk about living the Who Moved My Cheese? ideal…

About David Burn

David Burn is the co-founder, editor, and publisher of Adpulp.com. David joined the ad agency business in 1997 as a copywriter and then worked for seven agencies in five states prior to launching Bonehook in 2010. Today, David is a writer, brand strategist, and leader of creative teams in Austin, TX.

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  1. Bob says

    Not that they’re a good agency, but FKQ in Clearwater, FL, did this for supermarkets several years ago.

  7. Carl LaFong says

    Yes, Virginia — uh, David, there really are two Zimmermans. What makes it even more confusing is that both are located in Florida: The “creative” one is in Talahassee, while the one cited in the article is in Ft. Lauderdale.

  8. tasha says

    This has already been done and they have been doing it for about three years now. Ever heard of Ad Giants?