Advertising, ad campaigns, ad agencies, and the people that make it happen

I am convinced that the best scam in the ad biz has to be being an agency search consultant. After all, if the marketing people at the client end were on top of their job, they would know which agencies are currently doing the best work. But no, I guess clients would rather spend thousands of dollars having someone doing the job their in house people should be doing. Today’s news that Weight Watchers has hired consultancy Pile and Co. to lead a review of its $70 million advertising account is a perfect example with an even more ironic twist because WPP's Young & Rubicam, New York is the incumbent. The agency won the business three years ago in a Pile-led review. So, does that mean Pile helped the client pick the wrong agency in the first place, if it isn’t working out? If so, why would they do any better job this time around? But as usual, it’s all motivated by a change in advertising management at the client end. Wanna bet that the agency these people worked with at their previous company will be part of the Pile organized shoot out, and do you think there’s the slightest chance Pile would advise the client not to include them, ‘cos they don’t consider they’re worth it? Not likely.

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