From Ad Age:
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the U.S., with the Census Bureau pegging its population at slightly over 2 million. But it’s the 18th largest ad market, much to the dismay of local marketing executives.
“We’ve taken a major hit,” Lou Congelio, president of Stan & Lou Advertising, told his local brethren at a Houston Advertising Federation luncheon last week. “McCann is gone. Ogilvy is gone. BBDO is gone. Bates is gone. NW Ayer. And when they left, so did their clients, one way or another. Exxon. Texas Instruments. Texaco. Six Flags. Compaq. The list goes on.”
Yes, Houston has a problem — and it also thinks it has a solution. The town’s newly feisty marketing and production communities hope to exterminate the perception of the city as an also-ran with “Only in Houston,” a campaign designed to call attention to what its boosters believe is a vibrant creative community. The push is thought to be the first of its kind from a major U.S. city’s marketing community and is being conducted entirely pro bono.
