Financial crisis, seen from New York
Financial crisis did not get itself intimidated by the creativity of BBDO and sent a shiver up ad persons’ spines. In November, BBDO Detroit cut 145 jobs, nearly 22% of its workforce, after its main client, Chrysler reduced the marketing budget, according to Advertising Age. A month later, BBDO North America was discharging 189 employees, as part of Omnicom’s strategy to shrink workforce by 3,500.
For David Lubars, the reduction stage ended. “BBDO had last year a reduction. The people we have here – a few people can do a lot of work. We’re in a good shape for now”.
The ad agency is now trying to seek anticrisis solutions for its clients’ narrowed budgets. Brands are now seeking resources to set them apart, to detach from the competition and to become symbols of the markets they are part of – “that’s how you really win”, says Lubars.
“An idea doesn’t cost anything (..) Clients are looking for brilliant ideas that will set them apart, but they just don’t have all that funds. So you have to be really creative not only in what the idea is, but how you execute it and where you put it”.
For the man who said back in 2004 in an interview to New York magazine that “selling stuff was not his job”, the idea that “money has to be part of your thinking” stated in early 2009 could seem as disagreement. It is not, Lubars replies. “You have that relationship – it’s like a marriage, right? (Brands/clients) have a relationship with their consumer, they get married, and then they plot their lives together and they help each other. The client helps the consumer by giving him these cool important products that he needs and then the consumer helps by buying them. But you need to have the relationship before you can have them helping each other”.
The idea of a marriage would rule out the panicked search for in-quarter earnings that many Romanian marketers invoke when it comes to clients’ preferences in times of crisis. “You want to make sure clients remain on a solid ground now, there’s no doubt about it. But I don’t think any client wants to abandon everything they’ve been to short term results. And then, when things get better again, they lost all the cache they had and why people loved them. You have to do both: short term results, but you have to still keep your eye on the long term. Because otherwise, if you trade everything you’ve earned to short term sales, when things get better you have no value anymore”.
Some of the brands that Lubars is trying to build up “marriages” for are General Electric, AT&T, FedEx, HBO, BBC, Starbucks, HP, Monster.
For David Lubars, the reduction stage ended. “BBDO had last year a reduction. The people we have here – a few people can do a lot of work. We’re in a good shape for now”.
The ad agency is now trying to seek anticrisis solutions for its clients’ narrowed budgets. Brands are now seeking resources to set them apart, to detach from the competition and to become symbols of the markets they are part of – “that’s how you really win”, says Lubars.
“An idea doesn’t cost anything (..) Clients are looking for brilliant ideas that will set them apart, but they just don’t have all that funds. So you have to be really creative not only in what the idea is, but how you execute it and where you put it”.
For the man who said back in 2004 in an interview to New York magazine that “selling stuff was not his job”, the idea that “money has to be part of your thinking” stated in early 2009 could seem as disagreement. It is not, Lubars replies. “You have that relationship – it’s like a marriage, right? (Brands/clients) have a relationship with their consumer, they get married, and then they plot their lives together and they help each other. The client helps the consumer by giving him these cool important products that he needs and then the consumer helps by buying them. But you need to have the relationship before you can have them helping each other”.
The idea of a marriage would rule out the panicked search for in-quarter earnings that many Romanian marketers invoke when it comes to clients’ preferences in times of crisis. “You want to make sure clients remain on a solid ground now, there’s no doubt about it. But I don’t think any client wants to abandon everything they’ve been to short term results. And then, when things get better again, they lost all the cache they had and why people loved them. You have to do both: short term results, but you have to still keep your eye on the long term. Because otherwise, if you trade everything you’ve earned to short term sales, when things get better you have no value anymore”.
Some of the brands that Lubars is trying to build up “marriages” for are General Electric, AT&T, FedEx, HBO, BBC, Starbucks, HP, Monster.