Sun Times ad columnist, Lewis Lazare, takes the temperature of the Chicago ad scene. He says the "business stabilized last year, after a couple of truly traumatic years." He also says Draft/FCB isn't asserting itself and he wonders if it ever will. Here's his take on JWT: JWT/Chicago is perhaps the biggest mystery. It nearly was wiped out last spring when Kraft pulled more than $170 million worth of business from the …
Higher Prices Make Wine Lovers Swoon
We've seen how many premium brands fool customers into thinking a product is of a higher quality when in reality, it may not be the case. So check out this study as reported on Bloomberg.com: Volunteers in California who were given sips of wines with fake prices said they preferred the cabernets they thought were more expensive to the ones they thought were cheaper about 80 percent of the time, according to the …
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J-J-Jive Talkin’
To help mask its layoffs and reorg, Ogilvy has adopted the language of tech startups. The agency is now in "perpetual beta," according to Ad Age. Starting immediately, the WPP Group-owned agency is trying to get small, requiring that client meetings center around four key people at the table -- marketing, creative, strategy and program management -- and it will gradually streamline its structure, doing away with many …
Shady Goodness
When you win an account, you want it to be an account you can believe in and profit from. That can mean any number of things, depending on the account and the people who win it. While a sunglasses account isn't a car account, I've got to believe McGarrah/Jessee is pleased to beat out Fallon and Carmichael Lynch to win the Costa Del Mar business. I used to work on Bolle at Integer/Denver and they'd invite us over to …
Wieden Ain’t Small (A 10-Person Design Firm Is Small)
The Wall Street Journal has a strange way of seeing things sometimes. The biggest independent on the scene, with billions in annual billings, is still small change to the WSJ. …
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Go West, Young Ad People
Here's the scoop on the new building Ogilvy NY will occupy beginning next year, on the West Side. The building at 636 Eleventh Avenue was built in 1913 and originally housed the Auerbach Chocolate factory. Ogilvy is calling its new space the "Candy Factory." It has high ceilings on the first floor, a courtyard and a roof-top terrace that Ogilvy plans to design as a garden space. Thanks to Google Maps, here's a sneak …
Finding Inspiration In a 70s TV Icon
According to Creativity, Fred G. Sanford's old pal Grady is a comedic and creative inspiration of sorts at the New York office of TBWA/Chiat/Day, thanks to Gerry Graf's appreciation of the sitcom. …
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All Work and Hopefully Some Play
I'm in Boulder today, so I thought I'd take a drive out Diagonal Highway toward Longmont to see where Crispin Porter & Bogusky has set up shop in a nondescript office park. And look, there are a bunch of cars in the parking lot. On New Year's Day. Which leads me to believe it takes extraordinary drive (and an obsessive nature) to reach the top and stay there. …
