Umm.. most agencies are focused on b2c communication... Every ad that an agency creates is an ad for the agency. :-)

It's about the little man. with the little weenie, but the BIG MBA, who just wants to be loved. How about the client just wants to have the agency to deliver shitty advertising. The clients that I have worked for seem to have a problem with ruining the exact thing that will work for them, just because they want their goddamn colors and as many product shots as possible. Sigh....

WalMart as #1? Mark Stevens is high. He's angry, and high.

What are his clients? Has he done BMW films? Has he recommended that GoldenPalace.com buy strange french fries? Did he sponsor assvertising?

He's angry because he hasn't done anything new. Fack him.

Interesting article Paula. And Kim I agree with you It's all about Branding. The thing with ROI is that it is often more difficult and expensive to track it effectively than it is to advertise in the first place. Advertising/branding works over time, it is a cumulative process. One of the keys to advertising working is for the message to be noticed. In my mind that is where creativity comes in. Some categories and products are higher interest than others. If you shop every week you are more tuned into the advertising for Walmart or Target. conversly if you are not in the market for say car insurance, you probably won't pay attention to a Geico ad. Here's where branding comes in When you are in the market for a product what comes to mind? How do you measure that? With a ton of money and a lot of time. Yes Advertising has to move the needle on your metrics, be they awareness or sales or recall or whatever but You will never be able to track every penny you spend. I think it is foolish to think you can.

Paula, you bring up a marvelous issue that every now and again is brought up here. Advertising vs. ROI. In my humble opinion, branding is key. Walmart created a "brand" not an advertising campaign. Advertising should flow from the "brand" as well as customer service, quality of product etc. Which leads me to my second point, if your product is worth buying once, then chances are good for repeat business. If your product fails, the consumer trust is gone and so is your profit. As far as Stevens taking issue with advertising in general, I think he's right to some degree (esp. about the awards bit), however, without getting "your name" or "your product" out there into the wide wide world, who would ever know about it?? Perhaps what's lost is that advertisers are hired to advertise, and they're not being included in the "branding" process... As an in-house advertiser, we ALWAYS start with our brand and promote out from there.

Definitely an account guy. I agree with some of his points about award shows being over-emphasised, but I think he comes across like kind of a tool. He used Walmart as an example but I bet he hasn't come within ten miles of an account that large.