Lewis Lazare: With loud praise for the success of its Super Bowl commercials for Anheuser-Busch still ringing, DDB/Chicago took a huge hit Wednesday: Computer behemoth Dell is moving its domestic consumer advertising account to BBDO/Atlanta. The lost business is believed to be worth a whopping $250 million.
The Dell move also is an ugly mark on the report card of DDB/Chicago President and CEO Dana Anderson, who jumped from Foote Cone & Belding/Chicago nearly two years ago to take the helm at the city’s second-largest shop. Lauded at the time for her management and pitch skills, Anderson, who has been largely out of sight since then, seems to have failed in large measure to significantly boost DDB’s fortunes after assuming the top job there.
By all accounts, Dell can be a difficult client. And it didn’t help that the computer company has had some earnings issues of late. But DDB’s relationship with the client certainly wasn’t helped either by the fact the agency’s consumer-focused creative has been mostly a big bust since the popular Dell Dude was retired several years ago.
But even the Dell Dude wasn’t DDB’s invention. He was inherited from Dell’s previous agency, Lowe/New York. Last year there were rumors the Dude might return to give Dell’s ad profile a lift, but it didn’t happen.
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Sweet! Dell needs a better image than the one they were getting.
I work on the Dell account and it is a shit client. Period.
Their marketing employees are a case study for why marketers should be forced to get an MBA or at least finish college. It’s safe to say that they don’t look at their agencies as partners, but more as housekeepers and their personal nannies.