***I see that Mauricio Sabogal (left), global CEO of Interpublic’s third media agency network BPN, is leaving to become global supremo of Kinetic, WPP’s out-of-home behemoth.
BPN, which always seemed like a shot in the dark given that IPG’s existing media networks UM and Initiative are struggling, has suffered a number of departures recently.
As has Kinetic – most notably former CEO Steve Ridley who was rudely defenestrated a few weeks ago (another MAA exclusive ). This seemed particularly unjust as Ridley had just helped Kinetic UK hang on to the Warner Brothers film business, worth about £40m.
Kinetic used to be British poster-buying company Poster Publicity, which thrived mightily by never letting a deal that could be remotely defined as ‘outdoor’ pass unattended. The likes of Dennis Sullivan, Gerry McSharry, Eric Newnham (now Talon), Mike Segrue (now Accenture) and John Ellery (FEPE) beat their rivals into a cocked hat.
Will a more institutional Kinetic prosper as well? Doubt it, but we’ll see.
***I note also that Havas has lost the £40m UK Camelot lottery business after 16 years or so. Strangely enough this follows quite hard on the heels of the departures from Havas Media UK of bosses Marc Mendoza and Mark Craze (cousins, as it happens). Bound to go to OMG I’d have thought.
What these marcoms giants don’t seem to realise is that media is just as personal a business as creative. They might have ‘big data’ all over the place but you don’t give your account to an algorithm.
***PS Former Havas CEO David Jones apparently left with a pay-off of £4.4m. Cheap I’d say, Dave was good for Havas.
*** A new survey by Cloudsense says that the online audience likes ads if it means they don’t have to pay to access said services. 74 per cent of 4000 people questioned said that they don’t currently pay for online digital access and 46 per cent said directed advertising was preferable to forking out subscriptions.
So, it seems, ads are still with us, whether we like them or not.
As someone remarked the other day, people don’t hate advertising, just bad ads (the great majority, alas).
***London ad agency Holler has created a new TV show to air on new UK local TV station London Live, highlighting the issue of cyberbullying for the charity Cybersmile.
The TV show, called CTRL Freaks, is a game show where two contestants hand over their social network log-in details to three comedians, allowing them to take over their social reputations.
To stay in the game the contestants must go along with everything the comedians post on their social networks on their behalf, such as how they are feeling, a fabricated event or a public confession.
The contestants’ reactions are filmed by hidden cameras as the comedians put their reputations on the line. The contestant judged to have best handled the experience wins a dream holiday.
CTRL Freaks will run in six episodes on London Live every week with the first episode airing today.
Jonathan Fraser, Holler’s global head of strategy & ideas, says: “Cyberbullying is on the increase mainly because people don’t understand it’s a real issue. We pitched the platform idea for CTRL Freaks to broadcasters and we’re excited that London Live has commissioned the series. We wanted to show genuine reactions to everyday cyberbullying in a way that connects to an audience.”
I note that my old pal Stefano Hatfield, editor of Campaign, Ad Age and newspaper i before Joining London Live as editorial boss, departed very soon after its launch to join Robert Campbell’s new version of over-50s exercise Saga. Most peculiar.
What happened Steph?
***Heard a cover of ‘Girl From the North Country’ on BBC Radio 6 Music tonight (the wonderful station that the Beeb tried to kill off a couple years ago),
Well here’s a rather sleek Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash doing the honours in the days when Johnny was a prime-time TV host.
From Nashville Skyline, when people thought Dylan had sold out – yet again.
Wrong, of course. He’s just Bob. And he came from near the cold border with Canada, which makes this even more personal. Here’s the original music-only version – which is quite magnificent.
