15745: On Coinbase, Caucasians & Crumbs.

 

Advertising Age and Inc. reported on the wailing and gnashing of teeth prompted by tweets from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and The Martin Agency CEO Kristen Cavallo—as well as other industry dimwits with nothing better to do than pathetically pontificate on the World Wide Web. Read either story for the dumb-ass details. A key net comment: White advertising agencies are feeling undervalued by clients.

 

Boo-fucking-hoo.

 

Suze Orman is credited with saying, “When you undervalue who you are, the world will undervalue what you do and vice versa.” The statement is completely applicable to White advertising agencies and the White holding companies that own them.

 

As White holding companies continue to engage in Corporate Cultural Collusion—serving up a buffet of White shops for clients to choose from—the end result is a commoditization of services.

 

Furthermore, when White advertising executives routinely shuttle between Caucasian companies, the end result is a commoditization of talent.

 

And finally, when the collective industry ultimately turns every engagement into a bidding war—where the lowest estimate wins the assignment—the end result is an erosion of value.

 

Cavallo even acknowledged that it is common for multiple White advertising agencies to present similar campaign concepts, confirming the commoditization of services and talent. Coinbase handing the Super Bowl project to consultancy-turned-White-advertising-agency Accenture confirms the erosion of value.

 

But what makes the Adland-wide whining from Cavallo and assorted White executives so offensive is that the crybaby theatrics were staged during Black History Month. After all, the slights experienced by White advertising agencies are nothing compared to the disregard, disrespect and discrimination—as well as crumbs—deliberately directed at minority-owned firms.

 

In short, any BHM patronizing parties and promotions performed on Madison Avenue were trumped by the blatant display of White privilege and systemic racism.

 

Coinbase’s Super Bowl Ad Controversy Sparks Call For Change On How Agencies Are Treated

 

Response by Martin Agency’s Kristen Cavallo ignites firestorm over ‘lack of respect’ for shops

 

By Brian Bonilla and Parker Herren

 

A 12-part tweet from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong over the cryptocurrency's Super Bowl ad—and a response from The Martin Agency’s CEO Kristen Cavallo—seemingly began over credit for advertising ideas, but ended up generating an industry-wide groundswell over agency-client relationships. As agency exec after agency exec weighed in on the debate that played out over Twitter and LinkedIn, it was clear that the exchange touched a nerve within the industry: Agencies are feeling undervalued by clients.

 

It began with Armstrong taking a victory lap Monday on Twitter over the company’s QR code Super Bowl ad. Armstrong praised the ad in a series of tweets, even going as far as to claim that “no ad agency would have done this ad.” That prompted a response from Cavallo of Martin, which won agency of record duties for Coinbase in May: “Except an ad agency did do that ad.”

 

Cavallo’s contention was that Martin had actually come up with the idea for the bouncing QR code, and in her tweet she cited pages in a deck the agency had submitted to Coinbase in August to prove it.

 

Accenture Interactive had been credited with creating the Super Bowl ad. Coinbase and Accenture Interactive did not respond to requests for comment.

 

Cavallo later said her intent was not to seek credit for Martin, but to call out Armstrong’s disrespect for the agency world in general. “It’s not an IP issue or credit issue,” said Cavallo, who later acknowledged in a LinkedIn post that “I understand that multiple agencies can arrive at a similar idea.”

 

Rather, Cavallo said in an interview, “I think that ad agencies are tired of feeling the lack of respect that shows up in so many ways. It shows up in timelines, it shows up in fees, it shows up in jump balls. It shows up in extraordinarily long pitches, it shows up in not having a seat at the table, it shows up in being actively dismissed or erased for our contribution. I feel like agencies are feeling dismissed and that the value of what we provide is being called into question every day.”

 

Cavallo’s sentiment resonated with the agency world, which roared approval. “I hope [Cavallo’s action] inspires the agency world to stand up for itself," said Mike Duda, partner, Bullish. “There is a lot of bad behavior and it won’t stop if you don’t call it out—and she did it with absolute class.”

 

Coinbase CMO Kate Rouch said in a tweet Monday that, "Multiple agencies—including The Martin Agency—pitched us ideas that included QR codes for several different campaigns. However none of the ideas from any of our partners were conceptually what we were looking for and remained on the cutting room floor."

 

Rouch said she made the decision for Coinbase to drop Martin after becoming CMO: “Breaking up is hard to do,” she tweeted. “I wish the team at The Martin Agency all the best.” As for Armstrong’s initial tweets crediting Coinbase’s in-house team for the ad, Rouch said: “The fit with our creative partner Accenture Interactive (AI) was seamless—so much to that extent our CEO actually thought we were a single team when presenting work.”

 

Glenn Cole, founder and creative chair at 72andSunny, says this is all part of an “overdue” conversation on the true value of creativity. “Agencies have an opportunity to better understand how value is truly measured and perceived by their clients,” Cole said. “Clients have an opportunity to re-evaluate how, and maybe even why, they need a creative partner and how to foster an environment and relationship that makes the most of it, otherwise, why bother? Clearly, expectations are not aligned in a lot of these relationships. You can’t build trust in that environment.”

 

The Big Game ad

 

Coinbase’s minimalist Super Bowl ad made a splash among flashy Big Game work with its bouncing, color-changing QR code. The spot racked up big numbers for the crypto platform and even crashed its site briefly, although it ultimately placed last in USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter. Overall, the ad seemed an incontrovertible success. In the tweet thread, Armstrong said an unnamed agency pitched Coinbase “a bunch of standard Super Bowl ad ideas,” which he defined as “gimmicky, celebrity cameo driven, going for a laugh,” but that ultimately the brand’s internal team thought up their own ideas. In her tweets, Cavallo claimed Martin pitched the floating QR code concept on Aug. 18 and Oct. 7, 2021, and referenced the page numbers of the pitch that she says contained the idea.

 

Armstrong’s tweet credited his company’s team with “breaking the rules on marketing” and charged that agencies are too concerned with impressing their peers. In his tweets, Armstrong also said that the work was partially inspired by Reddit’s 5-second 2021 Super Bowl ad. That spot was produced by R/GA, which shared its own thoughts on the situation over Twitter.

 

R/GA had in fact participated in the review for Coinbase’s business last year but had not pitched any work that was similar to the Super Bowl spot this year, according to Tiffany Rolfe, R/GA’s global chief creative officer.

 

The industry weighs in

 

In a follow-up post on LinkedIn, Cavallo wrote that “I objected to the dismissive tone of [Armstrong’s] thread and the denigration of ad agencies. I felt compelled to respond to the bravado of, ‘No agency would have done this ad,’ because in fact, an agency did. The purpose of my response was to stand up for agencies and creatives, and the value we provide.”

 

At this writing, the post had more than 8,000 reactions and 515 comments. Prominent agency executives flooded social media with supportive comments, including Alex Lopez, global chief creative officer at McCann Worldgroup; Sandy Greenberg, co-founder and CEO of Terri & Sandy; Amani Duncan, president of BBH USA; Keith Cartwright, president and chief creative officer at Cartwright and Javier Campopiano, global chief creative officer of Grey.

 

“I was so happy to see somebody finally calling a client out for this kind of thing, it’s not just the bad behavior. It’s the arrogance that really gets to me, which was my first reaction when I saw it,” said Nancy Hill, co-founder and CEO of Media Sherpas and former CEO of the 4A’s. “It was a way that he was so dismissive of ad agencies and what it is that they can do for a brand or for a company.”

 

Standing up

 

The issues brought up from the tweet struck a nerve with other leaders in the industry, with a recurring theme that this is an all too common problem.

 

“If you stand up for your work in this way, you can be labeled as difficult to work with. And no agency wants to be that. So we stay silent. We don’t say anything,” said Kendra Schaaf, managing director at Mojo Supermarket. “We let people steal our ideas because we want clients to call us in the future. This is the primary reason you don’t hear stories like this. But we’re seeing more agencies believe in their work and their reputation.”

 

“And on the ‘No agency could have done this,’ I didn’t realize all the creative advertising geniuses were hiding at Coinbase. Looks like we’ve been recruiting from the wrong places,” Schaaf added.

 

David Demuth, CEO at Doner said, “I think more and more with clients building in-house operations and doing project-based engagements and things like that, it’s bound to happen. For agencies, our ideas and our intellectual property, that’s our currency. And when those things are being co-opted or stolen and we don't get paid for it, that’s unfortunate.”

 

Lindsey Slaby, founder of Sunday Dinner added that she was “befuddled” as to why Armstrong “felt it necessary to have this Twitter dialogue,” but applauded Cavallo’s willingness to speak up. “I like to see leaders who are always looking forward and that can mean blowing things up. It takes very brave and new leaders to do this. People from different industries, different backgrounds, and with different points of view.”

 

And she added: “Since when is Accenture not creative either? [Global Chief Creative Officer] Neil Heymann and [CEO and Creative Chairman] David Droga happen to be at the helm and are two of the most visionary creative talents of our lifetime.”

 

‘Promiscuous world’

 

Jeff Goodby, co-founder of Goodby Silverstein & Partners, said both clients and agencies have obligations, particularly now given the unraveling of agency of record relationships.

 

“In a promiscuous new world of project work, it’s up to the clients to keep these things straight. You are playing fast and loose with people’s creativity, craft and ultimately, livelihoods,” said Goodby, adding that clients need to consider: “Will your brand want that reputation? Brands are going to have to give a shit about things like this.”

 

This discussion is far from over and Cavallo, for one, believes it’s overdue. “I have received a few emails from industry leaders that I respect that have suggested that we get together and talk about how we can propel the industry forward and I look forward to that,” Cavallo said. “I hope that agencies and clients unpack why this struck a chord. I hope they unpack what is the deeper issue that motivated so many people in this instance and how can we create a level footing between agencies and clients based on mutual respect and value for the role of marketing in generating business success.”

 

Contributing: Keira Wingate

15240: Publicis Goofe Shows $4 Billion Won’t Buy You Basic Intelligence.

AgencySpy posted about the Publicis Groupe virtual event—hosted over Marcel—that was shut down by a Google outage. So, after spending roughly $4 billion on digital acquisitions and a digital doodad, the French holding company experienced IT impotence. Perfect. Publicis Groupe drones should certainly keep this in mind as the inevitable layoffs commence in the weeks ahead.

 

Publicis Event With Michelle Obama Postponed by Google Outage

 

By Erik Oster

 

Publicis was set for a big day today, with a virtual seminar headlined by Michelle Obama.

 

Everything was about set to go when YouTube, which Publicis was utilizing as a live video platform for the event hosted over Marcel, suddenly went down this morning as part of a larger Google outage.

 

Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun explained the issue and resulting postponement with a lighthearted video which also references the recent end-of-year with former CEO ­Maurice Lévy.

 

Sadoun was not shy about his frustration with the latest thing to go wrong in 2020 and joked about what it said about clients and Publicis alike needing to decrease their reliance on platforms.

 

While Google was quickly back online today, Sadoun explained that they made the difficult decision to postpone out of concern that anyone might not be able to watch the seminar live.

 

He outlined the seminar sessions for the rest of the week, starting tomorrow with a session featuring Michelle Obama, which will address Publicis’ DEI agenda and vision for 2021, one Wednesday featuring Bob Iger about “Winning in a Platform World” and concluding Thursday with a session dedicated to “The Future of Work” featuring Satya Nadella.

14434: Media Buying Is A Terrifying And Traumatic Experience.

Confessions of a young media buyer: ‘I got PTSD’ might be the most ridiculous entry in The Confessions series at Digiday—which is saying a lot, given that the series has been consistently awful and patently pathetic.

The pitiful “young media buyer” blubbered:

I got PTSD from my old job when I left for my new one. My body didn’t know how to cope with not constantly being stressed and also being treated poorly by my boss. My old boss used me as a whipping post. If anything went wrong, I was somehow the one who got yelled at. He took all his frustration out on me. It was not fun.

Really, dude? Sounds like someone would be better suited for a career with Old Navy—sales floor, not marketing—or serving as a Walmart greeter.

First of all, PTSD is a serious condition usually resulting from experiencing a terrifying event. There might be a handful of industry figures capable of inflicting such psychological damage, but most of them have been exposed by Diet Madison Avenue and summarily fired.

Secondly, to claim a former superior “used me as a whipping post” is an improper use of a whipping post. The doofus probably meant “whipping boy”—which makes the charge even more offensive. Of course, the young media buyer will likely view this critique as a public lynching.

At Digiday, the confessors are actually crybabies.

14369: Women Bosses Can Be Assholes Too.

Adweek reported on the departure of TBWA Global CMO Kyla Jacobs via a story that probably should have been posted at AgencySpy, as the trade journal presented lots of fuzzy implications and innuendos. Apparently, Jacobs’ resignation may have been tied to HR complaints about her “abusive” management style, as well as the wardrobe style forced on team members. Adweek noted, “Some were also reportedly required to perform personal favors for Jacobs and to attend social gatherings with her outside the workplace each month.” Um, it seems a tad unprofessional for Adweek to publicize alleged wrongdoings in such vague fashion—especially in these times of scandalous discrimination and sexual harassment. Jacobs is a signatory for TIME’S UP/Advertising, so let’s hope her alleged bad behavior doesn’t add more drama for that particular movement. Regardless, Adweek should either clearly expose any newsworthy issues or not cast suspicion on what appears to be the mutual separation agreement of a typical asshole boss.

TBWA Global CMO Kyla Jacobs Departs Company Following HR Complaints

5-year veteran led new business efforts

By Patrick Coffee

TBWA\Worldwide global CMO Kyla Jacobs, a member of the Omnicom network’s executive leadership team who has run its new business efforts around the world for the past three years, will be leaving the company, a spokesperson confirmed this week.

The agency representative told Adweek that Jacobs resigned from her position and that Ulrich Proeschel, a longtime TBWA veteran based in Berlin who currently serves as vp of business development for the European region, will succeed her on an interim basis.

“I’m resigning after five productive years leading new business at TBWA because it is time for new challenges and a fresh start,” Jacobs wrote in an email.

Jacobs and the agency spokesperson declined to elaborate further on the circumstances surrounding her departure, but two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said the move followed multiple HR complaints regarding her management style and specific actions taken during her tenure.

One person said a member of the group, which is known by the nickname “new biz ninjas,” left the company several months ago after filing an HR complaint due to ongoing conflicts with Jacobs. Information from that person that was not intended to be shared publicly eventually made its way to others at the agency’s New York office, who brought it to the attention of leadership several weeks ago.

According to both sources, TBWA\Chiat\Day New York president Nancy Reyes confirmed to staff last week that she would be leaving the company.

One source said the aforementioned individual was not the only member of Jacobs’ team to file an HR complaint. Her former executive assistant also went to human resources earlier this year to report what was described as “abusive” behavior and received a transfer to another department, the source said.

Members of the majority-female ninjas team wore “uniforms” consisting of nude heels and all-black clothing, according to Adweek’s sources. Some were also reportedly required to perform personal favors for Jacobs and to attend social gatherings with her outside the workplace each month.

During Jacobs’ five-year tenure at TBWA, she led several successful pitches for accounts such as H&M, NBCUniversal and Pernod Ricard. She joined the agency as director of business development in New York in 2014 after holding the same role at CP+B in Europe and received a promotion to global business development director the following year.

13074: C’MON WHITE MAN! Episode 46.

(MultiCultClassics credits ESPN’s C’MON MAN! for sparking this semi-regular blog series.)

Add Havas Media UK CEO and Havas Media Group UK Group Managing Director Paul Frampton to the bulging band of White brothers who’ve diverted diversity, preferring to publish patronizing pap to propagate the pro-White women platform. While Frampton openly acknowledged the underrepresentation of those with Black, Asian, minority-ethnic and LGBT backgrounds is “more shocking” than gender inequality, he opted to focus on fighting for White females. How noble.

Frampton admitted, “As a white, male agency chief, it can be difficult to say the ‘right’ thing when it comes to diversity. I think that is why many remain silent.” Actually, it’s outrageously annoying that White, male agency chiefs fail to do the “right” thing. Actions—or inactions, in the case of diversity—speak louder than words.

“I can and must do more,” declared Frampton. Then he described a new Havas diversity smokescreen initiative and admitted, “It’s a step in the right direction but we are only 1 per cent started on this journey.” Frampton can and must do more, but he’s gonna start with a 1% baby step—which will likely earn him a speaking engagement with The 3% Conference.

Frampton’s battle cry is for the UK advertising industry to launch a Manbassadors-type movement. The man puts the “ass” in manbassadors.

C’MON WHITE MANBASSADOR!

Wanted: manbassadors to join the diversity fight

By Paul Frampton

Agency bosses, especially those who are men, must also focus on inclusion, equality and well-being, Paul Frampton writes.

As a white, male agency chief, it can be difficult to say the “right” thing when it comes to diversity. I think that is why many remain silent.

But with a brighter spotlight being shone on diversity, I am determined to join the handful of male leaders who break their silence.

It’s about time more men stepped up and pushed the diversity agenda. In a world where men dominate the top of agencies and brands, this is the only way to force conversation and demonstrate meaningful action.

The legacy culture in agencies has been “laddish”, “old boys’ club” and non-inclusive. Media agencies have celebrated and even encouraged female talent to behave in a ladette fashion.

I believe more men are feeling uncomfortable about this culture – but it takes bravery to call out male “banter”.

So how do we encourage more men to speak up in favour of women? Two movements that I am in favour of, both of which have significant traction on Twitter, are HeForShe (from the United Nations) and Manbassadors.

With the rich creative and planning minds in our world, we should be campaigning for a Manbassadors-type movement in the UK ad industry.

But the challenge is not just about gender or diversity; it’s about inclusion, equality and well-being. The recent IPA/Campaign study revealed that those from a black, Asian and minority-ethnic background account for 14.5 per cent of media agency staff but just 6.2 per cent at management level and 2.9 per cent at chief executive or chairman level. A Marketing Agencies Association survey last year found that only a third of LGBT staff felt comfortable being themselves at work. These statistics are more shocking than those around gender.

As the Direct Line boss, Paul Geddes, said at a recent Oystercatchers event, today’s employees deserve to feel able to “bring their whole selves to work”. For agencies, this is essential for the future.

Not only is a diversity strategy the “right” thing to do, it’s also the smart thing to do.

McKinsey & Company data shows that gender-diverse companies are 15 per cent more likely, and ethnically diverse companies 35 per cent more likely, to outperform those that lack diversity.

I can and must do more. Within Havas, we conducted a survey to understand which elements of diversity were most important to our talent; surprisingly, the most important to the majority was mental health. Agencies are stressful and exhausting places, so we must create environments where parents can attend their children’s assembly, remote working is accepted and counselling can be given to those who need it.

But it’s just as important that change is driven from the ground up. Havas has just launched Fusion, an employee-led initiative aiming to ensure that we’re a diverse, inclusive and supportive place to work. It’s a step in the right direction but we are only 1 per cent started on this journey.

It is imperative that agency leaders properly consider the breadth of change needed to create better work/life integration, with an emphasis on staff’s well-being.

As with so much in this industry, we need less talking and more doing. If we want to accelerate advances in diversity, we need more men to stand up and be counted.

I thought twice about writing this piece, but that would have been burying my head in the sand. I hope it inspires others (yes, in particular, men) to speak out or at least consider how they could do more.

Paul Frampton is the chief executive of Havas Media UK and the group managing director at Havas Media Group UK

13030: Why Droga5, Y?

Adweek spotlighted a new campaign for the Y by Droga5—and it’s offensive on so many levels. Here’s why. The campaign depicts underserved communities in unflattering ways. But what do you expect from Droga5, a diversity-adverse, culturally clueless White advertising agency? One spot features a voiceover saying, “I’m here, can you see me? Because sometimes it feels like I’m invisible, that this whole place is invisible.” Wow, that’s probably how a Black person might feel if they landed at Droga5. “A large part of the creative concept behind these spots is to recognize that mainstream media often does not focus on the positive aspects of communities similar to those shown in the ads,” explained Droga5 Executive Creative Director Kevin Brady. “We did hours of interviews during the shoot to get a sense of how people felt about where they live, what they wished was better, and what they thought the solutions could be. It was important for us to maintain a high level of authenticity when portraying the communities in the spots.” Um, Droga5 doesn’t recognize or focus on non-White communities—especially when seeking job candidates. But hey, they immersed themselves for hours, gaining enlightenment and feeling qualified to portray the ‘hood with authenticity, ultimately producing a patronizing pile of poop.

13013: IPA UK BS.

UK advertiser organization the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) declared advertising agencies should strive to meet “ambitious” diversity targets in the years ahead. Specifically, IPA President Tom Knox announced that women—presumably White women—ought to account for 40 percent of senior-level positions by 2020. Additionally, the top agencies must aim for 15 percent of senior-level positions to be held by non-Whites. Clearly, Knox is not familiar with Leo Burnett’s prediction that fair racial and ethnic representation won’t happen until at least 2079. It’s also important to note that the IPA probably has as much influence in such matters as the 4As or ANA in the U.S. Via Campaign, the IPA shared gender figures from a survey today, and plans to release the racial and ethnic numbers on January 21. Sorry, but the percentages for White women show there isn’t a huge problem—certainly nothing to warrant the constant whining of idiots like Kat Gordon of The 3% Conference. Yet even the IPA diverted diversity by jumping on the White women bandwagon. Perhaps the organization’s acronym actually stands for Idiotic Patronizing Assholes.

12827: Chief Irrelevance Officer.

Crowdsourcing con artist and Victors & Spoils Chairman John Winsor is abandoning his Chief Innovation Officer role at Havas. It’s just as well, since innovation and Havas are two words that should never appear together in the same sentence. Ditto innovation and Winsor. MultiCultClassics has consistently recognized the pseudo thought leader as a talentless, culturally clueless asshole. The man has become so irrelevant, even Digiday didn’t bother reporting on Winsor’s latest move—only AgencySpy shat out a post. And he failed to inspire a crowd of cutting comments too.

11331: John Winsor—Wannabe Innovator.

John Winsor should seriously consider crowdsourcing to write his editorials, as he seems incapable of handling the task on his own. The man’s latest perspective at Digiday—which is barely a rung above AgencySpy as a forum for pseudo thought leaders—presents commentary on the Publicis Groupe-Omnicom merger that essentially blends common knowledge with self-promotional pap. If there were a Darwinian chart for idiotic hucksters, Winsor would definitely be depicted in the evolutionary lineup.

For starters, Winsor actually had the audacity to quote Havas CEO David Jones’ (Winsor’s boss) critique of the mega-merger: “Clients today want us to be faster, more agile, more nimble and more entrepreneurial, not bigger and more bureaucratic and more complex.” Um, Jones’ network is no stranger to bigness, bureaucracy and complexity. The company website boasts, “Havas is one of the world’s largest global advertising, digital and communications groups.” And let’s not forget the enterprise is fueled by nepotism. Havas implying Publicis Omnicom Groupe is outdated sounds like Joan Rivers calling Betty White an old shrew.

So what solution does Winsor propose to address the problems inherent in holding companies such as Publicis Omnicom Groupe and Havas? Why, crowdsourcing, of course! Winsor wants to counter the “commoditized service offerings” of traditional advertising agencies with a failed industry fad that commoditizes creative people and the creative process in the worst possible ways. As history has shown, agency mergers never improve the lives of the worker bees executing the campaigns. But crowdsourcing as performed by Winsor turns writers and art directors into anonymous, interchangeable drones—and grossly undervalues their contributions during an economic recession.

Winsor said Publicis Omnicom Groupe is “an attempt to stop the clock.” Okay, but Winsor better check the clock too—his fifteen minutes of fame expired a long time ago.

11246: Four Horsemen Of Ad Apocalypse.

Campaign published a pathetic piece—“The kings of La Croisette line up for advertising’s Olympics”—featuring the four leaders of the largest holding companies sharing their thoughts on Cannes. While Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Lévy actually has legitimate history at the annual event, IPG CEO Michael Roth sounded like a travel agent. WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell gushed that nothing is as important as the quality of the work and Omnicom CEO John Wren gushed about Omnicom. Honestly, do these assholes believe for a second that anyone feels inspired to be working for them?