17272: FCB RIP.

Advertising Age presented a retrospective on the eliminated FCB, highlighting milestones and signature changes throughout the years.

 

It’s a safe bet VYSICAL CEO Howard Draft feels the FCB finale is karmic retribution for having his name ingloriously erased from the masthead in 2014.

16916: FCB Moving From Top Of The Heap To Dung Heap…?

 

MediaPost reported The One Club named FCB New York and FCB Global as Global Agency of the Year and Agency Network of the Year, respectively—a repeat victory for the former.

 

Should the White advertising agency stage a three-peat next year, it will be as part of the Omnicom Advertising Group. And it’s impossible to guess how many current FCB drones will avoid redundancy and remain with the enterprise at all.

 

Hey, FCB may ultimately learn how Howard Draft felt having his name erased from the corporate masthead.

 

IPG’s FCB New York Repeats As One Club’s Global AOY

 

By Steve McClellan

 

Interpublic Group’s FCB ended the year repeating its top positions in The One Club for Creativity global creative rankings, with FCB New York again crowned Global Agency of the Year and FCB Global finishing as Agency Network of the Year for 2024. 

 

The free annual worldwide benchmark report is a ranking of agencies, brands, countries, and individuals based on points earned from winning entries in The One Club’s eight global, regional, and local awards shows.

 

Rounding out the top five Agency Of The Year list were Rethink Toronto, McCann New York, TBWA\Media Arts Lab Los Angeles and Serviceplan Germany Munich. 

 

Ogilvy Group and VML rounded out the top-three Agency Network Of The Year rankings. 

 

The top three in-house shops were Google Brand Studio, Apple Marcom and Superette (DoorDash).

16379: Look, Up In The Sky—It’s Howard Draft!

 

Although Draft was officially erased from the FCB masthead back in 2014, Chicago still has an Honorary Howard Draft Way—which is in front of the old Draft headquarters (pre-DraftFCB) and blocks away from the current FCB Chicago office.

 

Meanwhile, the former DraftFCB CEO retired in 2014—yet is currently listed as the Co-Founder & CEO of Vysical, an enterprise whose mission and vision are as bizarre as the website team portraits, which look like comic book illustrations. Delusions of super-heroic grandeur?

 

14634: Dodging The Draftline With Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Advertising Age reported Anheuser-Busch InBev launched an in-house agency called Draftline. Okay, maybe it’s a nod to draft beer, but the name feels like a Howard Draft enterprise—and even shitty White advertising agency FCB saw fit to shed the Draft label from its masthead.

11787: FCB Cuts Draft (From Logo).

Adweek reported Draftfcb is moving ahead with its rebranding, reintroducing a stodgy old name with a shitty new logo. FCB features a diagonal cut in the final initial, perhaps to symbolize the regular cuts in staff. Plus, the colored letters represent “the palette of flags in FCB’s 90 operating countries.” Of course, there’s not a Black to be found.

Draftfcb Is Unveiling Its Rebranding

Emphasizes its positioning as an integrated shop

By Noreen O'Leary

This may be the most public course correction in modern agency branding: Draftfcb, formed by the combination of two Interpublic shops in 2006, is unveiling its new identity as FCB (Foote, Cone & Belding). It’s an unexpected reversal from when direct marketer Draft effectively took over FCB in a shift touted as a new behavioral-driven model supplanting the influence of one of the industry’s storied ad agencies.

The change has been rumored since the September arrival of Draftfcb’s new global CEO Carter Murray, who said that after eight years the merged entity, with its single P&L, needs one brand positioning. “We had two very iconic names with different heritages, different pasts,” said Murray. “It didn’t fully reflect our integrated nature.”

Additionally, Murray said the agency has fewer global clients than its peers: “We are intrinsically local, and this celebrates local creativity and local spirit.”

Case in point: New York now becomes FCB Garfinkel, reflecting the January arrival of creative executive Lee Garfinkel as CEO. “When I say I’m putting creativity into the center of this company, I’m not messing around,” New York-based Murray added.

Which leads back to FCB’s 140 year-plus pedigree—a shop once run by Albert Lasker, known as “The Father of Modern Advertising”—that includes branding oranges as Sunkist; asking “Does she or doesn’t she?” for Clairol; and producing groundbreaking Levi’s 501 Blues work. Post-merger, most Foote Cone executives were excluded in top management ranks; “Draft” fronted the logo and “fcb” followed in lowercase type.

“The reason we put my name on the door was we wanted to make it clear this was not direct marketing being subsumed by an agency,” recalled executive chairman Howard Draft. “When I was more active in the agency, it made sense. My brand connotes more direct, digital, retail, but now we’re fully integrated.”

That was the original intent. But in the last few rocky years as Draftfcb lost big accounts like S.C. Johnson, Kraft and MillerCoors, the perception of the agency was that it had swung too far in the direction of Draft’s CRM practice and lost FCB’s creative understanding of consumers and narrative advertising.

The new identity, designed by FCB International CCO Luis Silva Dias, incorporates local elements that visually follow a diagonal cut in FCB’s “B.” Those details may include an operating city or the name of an acquired company because of its local equity or a specific expertise, like FCB Health. In New York, where the agency is predominately a health practice, that distinction differentiates those operations from the agency bearing Garfinkel’s name. While he is the first to become part of an office rebranding, other creative execs may follow. (Those names disappear when the individual exits.)

The logo’s colors represent the palette of flags in FCB’s 90 operating countries and the typeface is Code Pro Light, which Murray describes as a bar code font reflecting Draft’s digital heritage.

10428: Hunting For A Concept.

This Motorola campaign from Draftfcb definitely falls into the 80 percent category. It’s simply terrible.

10132: Draftfcb Redefines Memorial Day.

Memorial Day Weekend 2012 commemorates special fallen service people—namely, the Draftfcb employees axed in response to the MillerCoors account shifts announced earlier this month. Razorfish might have also trimmed workers, as the beer maker fired the digital shop too.

The trade press has been oddly quiet about the scenario, perhaps deciding to stop publishing news on advertising bloodbaths. Agency Spy reported up to 40 people were cut, while AdScam declared at least 200 staffers were dumped. The AdScam numbers are probably more accurate. Losing a multi-brand beer account translates to lots of billings and bodies. Plus, Draftfcb is notorious for trickling pink slips, quietly letting employees go in small spurts over an extended period of time.

It’s bad news overall for the Chicago job market. New York-based Saatchi & Saatchi picked up the Miller Lite account, while a Chicago-based coalition of WPP shops will handle Coors. Agencies often avoid hiring former staffers from ex-AORs, so the newly unemployed will face a tough road ahead.

Add the MillerCoors departure to the SC Johnson dismissal of roughly a year ago, and it’s safe to say Draftfcb is reeling. Management shuffles can’t be helping matters or morale. Draftfcb Chairman Howard Draft’s dream of running a small shop may come true sooner than later.

The self-proclaimed Agency of the Future has a fuzzy future, mostly because it ultimately acts like a relic of the past. That is, Draftfcb features all the characteristics of a standard BDA—politics, egos, bureaucracies, silos, outdated processes, lumbering structures, contrived catchphrases and White men. The breakthrough model is a Model T. A New Brand Agency is an old brontosaurus. And accountability apparently does not apply to the powers that be.

Don’t forget that Draftfcb President and CEO Laurence Boschetto promised, “…by 2014 we will be an organization that no longer uses the term ‘diversity and inclusion.’ We are working tirelessly, from the C-suite to the intern ranks, to foster an atmosphere of inclusion, where everyone is empowered to reach great heights.” Um, by 2014 Draftfcb may no longer be an organization—period.

10060: Draftfcb Officially Fucked.

Advertising Age reported the inevitable—MillerCoors dumped Draftfcb. Man up, Howard Draft and crew, your Miller Time has expired.

10041: Unrealized Creative Potential.

Advertising Age reported on a global study indicating 75 percent of people believe they are not living up to their creative potential. Last year, Draftfcb Chairman Howard Draft admitted only 20 percent of the work his agency generated could be deemed great creative—so his shitty shop is actually doing worse than the global norm. And Draft was arguably generous with his estimate.

Global Study: 75% of People Think They’re Not Living Up to Creative Potential

Adobe Data Looks at How Creativity Is Perceived and Valued Around the World

By Rupal Parekh

Only 25% of people believe they are living up to their potential to be creative, and more than 75% of people feel that their countries are not living up to their collective potential to be creative.

That was just one of the startling findings in a global-benchmark study, conducted by Adobe and just released, about how creativity is perceived and valued in different regions. The research was fielded in March and April, with 5,000 adults in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France and Japan interviewed.

“The purpose of the study was to get a gut feel for how people are feeling about creativity today,” Ann Lewnes, senior VP-marketing at Adobe, told Ad Age. The release of the data coincides with a campaign that Adobe is launching to market a new service, the Creative Cloud, a suite of touch applications available on Android and iPad devices.

Across the study data, people in the U.S. said they have the highest regard for the value of creativity but also expressed the most concern about the way creativity is valued.

In the U.S., 52% of respondents described themselves as creative, the highest of all the regions. It was significantly higher than France, which was 36%, and much higher than Japan’s 19%.

Overall, Japan rose to the top as the most creative country, but Japanese respondents themselves didn’t view Japan as the most creative. Tokyo was deemed the most creative city—cited by 30% of people—followed by NYC.

Six in 10 people felt that being creative is valuable to their country’s economy, while in the U.S. that number was seven in 10. France was the country with the lowest number of people thinking creativity is very important to its economy—13%.

Nearly two-thirds of all surveyed believe that being creative is valuable to society. In all regions, more than half said they believe that creative impulses increase during times of economic uncertainty or downturns.

More than half of all the respondents said that the educational system stifles creativity.

“The most disturbing data was on the state of education. … Teachers were perceived as the least-important judges for creativity, which is troubling for the future and for youth,” said Ms. Lewnes, who pointed out that with severe budget problems, arts programs are often one of the first things cut.

Respondents overall reported that they spent less time creating at work than they did outside of work.

“We see that as being hampered by lack of time and the environment they are in not being conducive to creativity,” said Matt Norquist, exec VP at StrategyOne, which conducted the research. “We clearly haven’t quantified the value of creativity in the workplace. … Productivity and creativity shouldn’t be [contradictory]. If we can get to the point where the two are brought together, that value can be taken to the bank.”

Indeed, respondents reported increasing pressure to be productive rather than creative at work. In the U.S. and U.K., 80% of people felt that way, while the number rose as high as 85% in France.

“That speaks to discouragement in the workplace for creativity,” said Ms. Lewnes.

And despite the proliferation of open-space environments in ad agencies and design firms, it’s possible that such office settings may be hampering rather than fostering creativity. Seven in 10 of the respondents reported that they prefer to work by themselves when being creative.

Interestingly, social media plays at most a minor role in motivating people to create; less than 15% of respondents said it plays a large role.

9642: 12 Predictions For 2012.

1. Corporate Cultural Collusion will enjoy an all-time high.

2. Team Sprint will make Enfatico look like Wieden + Kennedy.

3. Howard Draft may get his wish for running a small shop.

4. A White adperson will create a new minority scholarship program—and honestly believe it’s an original idea.

5. There will be no original advertising ideas presented during Black History Month.

6. Jeff Goodby will win an ADCOLOR® Award.

7. Donny Deutsch will continue to embarrass the industry—and never even realize it.

8. AgencySpy will continue to be the place where adpeople anonymously reveal their inherent racism.

9. Advertising Age and Adweek will devote more coverage to Miley Cyrus than Cyrus Mehri.

10. The Big Tent will fold.

11. “Where Are All The Black People?” will remain an unanswered question.

12. Summer’s Eve will launch a conservative coochie campaign.

9137: Draftfcb Checks Out Of Hampton Inn.

Adweek reported the Hampton Inn account is going into creative review, and incumbent Draftfcb will not be defending. Howard Draft once admitted he’d prefer to be running a small shop. Given the agency’s recent and impending losses, it looks like he’s making his wish come true.

Hampton Inn Launches Creative Review

Incumbent Draftfcb not defending

By Andrew McMains

Hilton Hotels has launched a review of its Hampton Inn creative account, with annual revenue estimated at $2 million.

Incumbent Draftfcb in Chicago is not defending. As a result, the agency will lose its last piece of Hilton business. The Hampton Inn split comes four months after Homewood Suites left and three years after the exit of Doubletree.

In a statement, the agency attributed the latest split to “philosophical differences,” adding, “The financial impact on our agency will be minimal.” The Interpublic Group agency had worked on the brand since 2003. Hampton Inn could not be reached late Friday afternoon.

Draftfcb’s Hilton divorce comes just a week after S.C. Johnson ended its 58-year relationship with the agency. That split, however, is much more painful, given that SCJ was a global account and supplied $50-60 million in revenue. The agency’s Chicago office steered the business and will have to make deep cuts as a result. That office now employs about 1,000 staffers.

Other top clients at Draftfcb Chicago include MillerCoors (Coors, Coors Light, and Miller Lite), Kmart, Volkswagen (direct marketing), and Coca-Cola (shopper marketing). The office also works on Beiersdorf, Draftfcb’s largest global account.

Historically, Hilton has considered both roster and non-roster agencies for its various hotel assignments. Other roster shops include Publicis in New York (Hilton, Hilton Honors), BBDO in Atlanta (Embassy Suites) and Laird + Partners in New York (Doubletree).

Hampton Inn’s media spending totaled about $19 million last year, up from more than $17 million in 2009, according to Nielsen. Those figures don’t include online spending.

9125: Miller Lite Has One Big Problem.

Advertising Age reported Miller Lite is suffering in sales. The truth is, the once-iconic brand has been sliding into irrelevance since its “Great Taste, Less Filling” heyday. At the same time, the current advertising has gone from culturally clueless to insultingly idiotic. Don’t mean to kick an agency while it’s over $1 billion down, but Howard Draft did admit that the majority of his shop’s work lacks great taste and feels less filling. Even the gratuitous sex of the Miller Liteguards is uninspired. The client surely shares the blame for diminishing the brand’s image. All the packaging innovations, for example, are bullshit that blur with Coors. But MillerCoors executives must “man up” and realize there’s a simple, one-word answer to Ad Age’s question, “What Is Wrong With Miller Lite?” Draftfcb.

What Is Wrong With Miller Lite?

MillerCoors CEO Blames Bad Weather, Weak Economy for Sales Drop While Analysts Point to ‘Strategy,’ ‘Marketing Front’

By EJ Schultz

MillerCoors still has a Miller Lite problem, with the brand failing to emerge from its long-running slump in the second quarter.

Sales to retailers fell by “mid-single digits,” which contributed to a 2.7% sales decline across all of the brewer’s brands in the quarter, the brewer reported today. MillerCoors, a joint venture of Molson Coors and SABMiller, was still able to grow earnings by 2.6% in the quarter to nearly $400 million, thanks in part to strong cost management, the company said.

But Lite’s decline, which came at the beginning of the all-important summer beer-selling season, is an ominous trend, considering that it had shown signs of life in the first quarter, with sales to retailers only down slightly. The slump could also put more pressure on the brand’s ad agency, Interpublic Group of Cos.’ DraftFCB, to find marketing solutions quickly in advance of the upcoming football season, another key period for beer sales. (DraftFCB is already under stress after losing one of its biggest accounts last week, SC Johnson.)

“Miller Lite definitely took a step backward in the second quarter and it does suggest they still have some work to do in the marketing front,” said Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Still, MillerCoors did not signal any major marketing changes for the brand, instead pinning some of the losses on external factors such as the weak economy, record rainfall in many parts of the country—which could limit beer occasions—and higher fuel prices, which officials said “all impacted consumer spending on beer.”

“We would like [Miller Lite] to be growing faster, obviously,” MillerCoors CEO Tom Long said on a call with analysts. “We are putting more pressure on its marketing position,” he said. He added that “we do not plan to fundamentally change our policy on Miller Lite, but we are going to keep working on it.”

In an interview, MillerCoors spokesman Julian Green said: “We very pleased with DraftFCB’s work on our flagship brands.” Miller Lite is the nation’s fourth-ranked beer brand by shipment volume, but has suffered declines of 3.9% last year and 6.6% in 2009, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights.

With DraftFCB at the helm, MillerCoors has sought to position Lite as the light beer with the most taste with its “Man Up” ads that mock men who choose other brands. It is arguably a tougher sell than the cold positioning MillerCoors uses for sibling brand Coors Light, which has ridden the “world’s most refreshing beer” message to stellar growth. That growth has put it on the verge of overtaking Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser as the nation’s second-ranked beer by shipments. (A-B’s Bud Light is the No. 1 beer brand.) Coors Light is also handled by DraftFCB.

On today’s earnings call, analysts suggested more radical changes for Miller Lite, prompting a few testy exchanges with Mr. Long, who took over as CEO on June 1. Credit Suisse’s Carlos Laboy suggested the brewer was placing too much blame on the economy and weather, noting that its other brands fared better, such as Coors Light, which was up slightly in the quarter, and Blue Moon, which continued its double-digit growth. “The only unemployed consumers who keep getting rained on are the Miller Lite consumers,” Mr. Laboy said sarcastically. He suggested that MillerCoors try dropping the price on Miller Lite. (In an analyst’s note published Monday, he called Lite “structurally impaired” and said it “needs a new strategy.”)

Mr. Long on the call replied that “we consider the price on the brand every day by market.” But he said a general price decrease would not work because “taking a brand down, it almost never comes back.”

So why is Miller Lite underperforming Coors Light? MillerCoors officials suggested one reason could be that Lite relies more on sales in bars and restaurants, which have been weak because fewer people have gone out in the tough economy.

9093: SC Johnson Finally Fires Draftfcb.

Crain’s Chicago Business reported Draftfcb lost $65 million in revenue, as SC Johnson reassigned its billings to Ogilvy and Energy BBDO. The firing is actually not news, as everyone has been predicting the move for quite some time. Draftfcb leadership will probably blame the dumping on newly hired CCO Todd Tilford. Oh, and count on Howard Draft to continue admitting that 80 percent of his shop’s work is shit. The figure just won’t include stuff for SC Johnson anymore. One thing is certain: Lots of people who had nothing to do with the shift will lose their jobs—while the assholes who had everything to do with the client’s defection will remain gainfully employed. And no amount of Glade PlugIns can cover the stink.

DraftFCB loses entire S. C. Johnson account

By Kate MacArthur

(Crain’s) — In a big blow, Chicago ad agency DraftFCB has lost its $65-million-revenue global account with S. C. Johnson & Son Inc., which is splitting the work between Chicago-based roster agencies Ogilvy & Mather and EnergyBBDO, Crain’s has learned.

After seven months of back and forth, the Racine, Wis.-based maker of home care products including Glade air fresheners, Raid pest control sprays and Windex glass cleaner will end its nearly 60-year relationship with DraftFCB, according to two executives close to the situation.

None of the agencies nor S.C. Johnson returned calls requesting comment.

Half of the work, valued altogether at nearly $1 billion in billings, will go to EnergyBBDO and the other half to Ogilvy & Mather, DraftFCB senior managers learned this evening. S.C. Johnson plans to issue a formal statement later Thursday night.

“Every assignment that DraftFCB had domestically and internationally will be gone,” said one of the executives with knowledge of the move. The assignments likely will begin transitioning over the fall.

S. C. Johnson Chairman and CEO Fisk Johnson contacted Michael Roth, chairman and CEO of DraftFCB’s New York-based parent Interpublic Group of Cos., at the close of business Thursday.

S. C. Johnson in December announced the global review that included roster agencies for advertising, digital and Internet, shopper marketing, promotions, direct marketing, and media buying and planning.

The company had narrowed the contenders to DraftFCB, Ogilvy & Mather and Energy BBDO. DraftFCB made its final pitch on June 1.

9004: Raise Your Advertising’s Taste Level, Yum!

Advertising Age reported Yum! Brands Chairman-CEO David Novak challenged his advertising agencies to lift sales at KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut. Apparently, U.S. Yum! franchises are not growing at the rate that the international business is experiencing. Draftfcb mishandles KFC and Taco Bell, while The Martin Agency oversees Pizza Hut. Somebody alert Novak that Draftfcb honcho Howard Draft admitted only 20 percent of his agency’s work is outstanding—and it’s safe to say KFC and Taco Bell are in the 80 percent silo.

The problem is not with Yum! Rather, its main agency is Yuck!

8866: Creativity And McRib® Sandwiches.

This week’s Advertising Age is titled, “The Creativity Issue.” Yet industry trends seem to indicate that creativity is becoming less important to clients and agencies alike.

One glaring example is the recent success of McGarryBowen, which managed to win the Sears and Burger King accounts, as well as become a finalist in the United Airlines pitch. While MultiCultClassics is not a McGarryBowen hater like other blogs and critics, it is difficult to deny that the shop does not seem committed to producing breakthrough work. Most McGarryBowen campaigns are solid and professionally executed, but it all feels safe, contrived and dated. Apparently, the clients love it.

Mediocrity is the new black, usually justified with fuzzy data allegedly showing small ideas lead to big sales—and big ideas lead to small sales.

Going back to McGarryBowen, consider the Burger King scenario. For many years, Crispin Porter + Bogusky arguably generated highly memorable and compelling messages for the fast food chain. However, the award-winning stuff did not move Whoppers off the flaming grills. On the flip side, Mickey D’s has enjoyed unprecedented success—while shitting out the lamest advertising in decades.

McGarryBowen is not unique in its client-approved conservatism. Agencies such as Zimmerman and Partners regularly add accounts to the roster, without adding creativity to the offerings. Meanwhile, Draftfcb Chairman Howard Draft openly admitted that only 20 percent of his agency’s output is outstanding—an optimistic estimate, based on the shop’s consistently crappy commercials.

The holding companies share the guilt for the generic and stale state of affairs. Omnicom certainly endorses Zimmerman. Hell, the network is notorious for stacking the deck with sister agencies during reviews, promoting parity whether real or imagined. Can anyone say with a straight face that Goodby Silverstein and Partners is equal to Fathom Communications? Can anyone even identify Fathom? Nonetheless, the obscure firm managed to pick up the Propel business that had formerly been handled by Goodby. And the switch was blessed by PepsiCo.

Keeping the ship racing forward—at warp speed with cheapness disguised as fiscal responsibility—is the course of the day. Rock the boat and you’ll be cast overboard by your own crew.

Agencies focused on digital and below-the-line initiatives compound the madness. These places tend to be project-based, which forces a cost-driven approach to the work. A shop’s reliance on stock photography—and clients’ insistence on royalty-free stock photography—is a recipe for ordinary versus extraordinary.

At Advertising Age’s Small Agency Diary, Derek Walker explored the growing lack of respect for the creative process by relating it to the time-consuming craftsmanship that his father put into preparing ribs. The public, however, has demonstrated being comfortable without a dedication to excellence, as evidenced by the popularity of the McRib® sandwich. We’re too willing to settle for a fast, sloppy bargain. If something kinda looks and feels like a rib sandwich—or a branding campaign—we’ll eat it. And come back for seconds too.

The truth is, these issues go beyond a lack of respect for the creative process. Nowadays, too many clients and agency denizens barely believe the creative process is necessary.

8772: Coors Light Tastes Like Old Spice.

The World’s Most Refreshing Beer presents the least refreshing advertising. In fact, this commercial is a blatant rip-off of the Old Spice campaign. Draftfcb Chairman Howard Draft claimed only 20 percent of his agency’s work could be considered great. This Coors Light shit is clearly in the 80 percent.

8765: Fuelling A Ship Of Fools.

Advertising Age reported Draftfcb London is buying 60-person digital agency Blue Barracuda. Perhaps Howard Draft will spin it off to realize his dream of running a small, interactive shop. Draftfcb CEO-president Laurence Boschetto gushed, “In the five years since DraftFCB was created, we have been focused on building our fully integrated model, which means one P&L, no silos. … Rather than infighting over budgets, our employees are able to put our clients and their brands at the center of all we do. Now we are committed to further enhancing our capabilities.” Wow, this guy is a delusional douche—and a fucking liar too. Draftfcb has more silos than the Atlas Missile System Project. Hope the folks at Blue Barracuda realize they’ll be “fuelling” a broken, sinking ship.

DraftFCB to Acquire London-Based Digital Shop

New Shop Will Be Called ‘Fuelled By Blue Barracuda’

By Kunur Patel

Interpublic agency DraftFCB will acquire London-based digital agency Blue Barracuda. The new entity will be called DraftFCB London “Fuelled By Blue Barracuda.” Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Blue Barracuda’s 60 employees will be immediately merged with Draft’s London office, increasing headcount 50% at the agency. Blue’s management team will also be integrated, with former CEO Martin Talks becoming Draft, London’s president of digital. The office will serve as the digital hub for Draft’s agency network in Europe.

Blue Barracuda, founded in 2002, handles digital strategy and media buying and planning for clients such as Pizza Hut, Getty Images and Roche Pharmaceuticals. Draft also gains access to Blue Barracuda’s offshore-production unit in Tallinn, Estonia.

“In the five years since DraftFCB was created, we have been focused on building our fully integrated model, which means one P&L, no silos. … Rather than infighting over budgets, our employees are able to put our clients and their brands at the center of all we do. Now we are committed to further enhancing our capabilities,” said Laurence Boschetto, worldwide CEO-president for DraftFCB.

While London in particular has been a recent hotbed for boutique creative shops, it has not seen as much mergers-and-acquisition activity as other markets. In recent years, the Big Four companies have snapped up agencies in emerging markets like China and Brazil. Meanwhile, London-based independents like Engine and LBi have set sights on growing stateside footprints with recent acquisitions in the U.S.

8740: Delayed WTF 14—Why Draftfcb Sucks.

MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.

Advertising Age reported on a panel at the 4As 2011 Transformation Conference that featured a gaggle of agency wonks including Draftfcb Chairman Howard Draft. During the discussion, Draft made a series of comments that clarify why his agency sucks:

• If Draft were to launch an agency today, he said it would be a digital shop that would never exceed 50 staffers and would charge clients at least $1 million per month.

• “You can’t be great with 10,500 people on a regular basis,” declared Draft. “Size does matter on controlling the product you put out, if I’m looking to make money.”

• When a panelist wondered if agencies were keeping pace with change in the industry, Draft whined, “Why are you blaming the agencies? I would blame the clients. … Everybody talks about procurement, but fuck procurement. … I don’t think the clients are structured in such a way today to work with the agencies. … Just like we built siloed agencies … they have all these different departments that work with different agencies that don’t communicate with each other. The agencies are willing to change, but are clients going to change fast enough to do what’s right for them?”

• Draft estimated that only 20 percent of the stuff coming out of his agency is great creative.

Mr. Draft is a lost soul, and his weak leadership appears to have drained his agency of its soul.

For starters, his statements reveal an obsession with monetary profit. Being in the game for the primary purpose of collecting dinero makes for an uninspiring mission statement. Don’t take this the wrong way. A business must minimally remain solvent, and earning gobs of loot should always be a goal. But when the pursuit of dollars becomes the goal, something’s dreadfully wrong. Be about the work. Or the company’s culture. Or the craft. Or even serving clients to increase their quarterly numbers. Don’t let money be your key motivator. It actually cheapens the place and demoralizes the troops.

Next, Draft’s dreams of hatching a digital agency—as well as his growling over silos and agencies’ willingness to change—sound peculiar coming from a man who proclaimed the global Draftfcb an “Agency of the Future” that boasts true integration. Guess the final result is not revolutionary or interesting enough to keep Draft from wishing he could oversee a siloed digital boutique instead. And for Draftfcb drones, it sure is nice to know your boss would rather be somewhere else.

Finally, Draft’s admission that merely 20 percent of his agency’s total creative output deserves to be labeled as great puts an exclamation point on his failure. Attempting to excuse it by noting a roster of 10,500 people is lame. He insulted the employees behind 80 percent of the company’s product. Then again, the original direct marketing Draft Worldwide was not a creatively-driven enterprise. So for Draft, 20 percent could be progress. For the rest of us, it’s pathetic.

In the end, Howard Draft is pathetic too.

8685: From The 80% Of Shit Via Draftfcb.*

Not sure what’s worse—pairing DiGiorno Pizza and Nestlé Toll House Cookies or this awful commercial promoting the bizarre combination. It’s not delivery, it’s DiGiorno—and it’s also dismal dreck delivered by Draftfcb.

* The title of this post was inspired by a panel discussion at the 4As 2011 Transformation Conference, where Howard Draft estimated that only 20 percent of the work from his agency is great. Actually, the man’s figure seems at least 20 percent too high.

8620: Diversity Transformed To Disinterest.

The 4As 2011 Transformation Conference certainly lived up to its name—at least in regards to diversity. That is, the trade soiree successfully transformed the issue into, well, a non-issue.

Only in advertising could there be so many conversations surrounding talent management with virtually zero mentions of the biggest talent-related problem in Madison Avenue’s history. Oh, sure, IPG CEO Michael Roth coughed up the obligatory “Our industry has to do a better job…” line before quickly turning the discussion focus back to the dearth of White talent. And Coltrane Curtis of Team Epiphany reportedly stressed “the importance of diversity as it relates to being able to influence pop culture,” as minority agency representatives are wont to do. But that pretty much covered the public display of affection for inclusion.

Arnold Worldwide Global CEO Andrew Benett drew a small audience to his speech on talent, prompting the executive to quip, “This is about right. About 1/3 of the industry cares.” Hey, that figure significantly beats the number of adpeople who give a shit about integrating colored folks into the fold. MDC CEO Miles Nadel shared his tactic of hosting “four kosher dinners” in an attempt to persuade a Jewish creative to return to CP+B. However, Nadel made no references to “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner.” Draftfcb Chairman Howard Draft announced that if he launched a new agency today, it would be a digital shop whose roster never exceeded 50 employees. Gee, wonder how diverse Draft’s dream enterprise might be.

Perhaps conference attendees held high-level powwows on diversity behind closed doors. In fact, teams of the best and brightest were probably brainstorming breakthrough concepts for The MultiCultClassics Cultural Competence Contest that was presented at the inaugural Transformation shindig.

Look forward to a fresh batch of inner-city internship programs in the weeks ahead.