Hard to place dollar value on ad – SMH
In The Sydney Morning Herald’s Media and Marketing section today, Nina Hendy looks at the impact The Gruen Transfer is having on the bottom line of the two ad agencies most closely associated with the programme. The regular panelists Russel Howcroft and Todd Sampson are the heads of George Patterson Y&R and Leo Burnett respectively.
Industry speculation suggests that both agencies have benefited from their chief executives being on the show. To what degree is hard to prove. The pitch consultant Darren Woolley, of TrinityP3, said marketers pitching their advertising accounts were keen to discuss Howcroft and Sampson, and others requested they were added to the pitch list. ”The pair is far more high-profile in marketers’ minds because of the television exposure they’ve had,” Mr Woolley said. ”I certainly get a lot more clients wanting to talk about Todd and Russel these days.”
Click here to read the full story.
16 Comments
I’ll chuck my two-cents worth into the debate: I’m increasingly finding Russel annoyingly shallow and undiscriminating – he just loves all advertising, good, bad or indifferent and reinforces the truism that if you want an opinion on creative matters, don’t ask a suit. Yet I believe he’s someone who’d probably be fun to have a beer with. And Todd, whose POV I used to respect, is becoming increasingly irritating for his unrelenting intensity and know-it-all self-rectitude. I can’t imagine having a beer or a laugh with him.
Darren Woolley. Hahahahahahaha. Ahhh….brilliant. Thanks. I needed that.
One understands the wider job is to push the brand that is advertising.
The other pushes his own brand.
Having met both of them I think Russel was far more accommodating than he appears to be on TV, and Todd was a lot quieter. That said, I don’t feel Todd’s rep is justified: so what if people think he’s a know it all? Get over it you dolts, and acknowledge a man smarter than you.
Another example of how we make celebrities out of people who don’t deserve it. Vets, Gardeners, Builders, Surf Life Savers (hang on, they do something important so they’re alright), Neanderthal sports people and now Advertising Folk. Oh dear!
Good on them. It will be interesting to see if a far more ‘considered thinker’ like Neil Lawrence picks up any more business from his Gruen Nation appearances.
Watch this space.
Excellent
We should have our own version of Masterchef too!
Hang on we already have it.
We need to televise AWARD School!
Hey Sandy Crack
What a great idea? Televise AWARD school. What about having a camera crew follow a would be creative as he trudges from agency to agency listening to pompous self-congratulatory tossers critique his portfolio and then deliver a psycho-babble riddled subjective interpretation of what makes a good ad. If we’re lucky they might add a comment or two on the use of the pun, the decline of print as a medium, and if they’re at all erudite an explanation as to why the Oxford comma is, in fact, correct and how the possessive apostrophe has become an archaic pretention when applied to the word ‘years’.
Hey 6.05,
We’re looking for a proofreader at Whybins (not sure about the apostrophe). Call us.
Doddsy
It would be just as illuminating to see how many clients they’ve lost over the same period, especially GPYR.
I love it how half the time they just regurgitate comments off this blog with a pseudo-intellectual face and badabing! They’re experts on advertising.
I also know for a fact they email all their staff the list of questions before the show and have their answers prior to being asked the questions, which may be the reason why some people think these overly rehearsed answers are a little ‘know-it-all’.
To answer the question posed by the Herald – do Todd and Russ get paid?
There’s your answer. They aint dumb.
That’s funny I have worked at Leo Burnett for over 3 years and Todd has never emailed anyone questions or asking for information. In fact he never mentions the show at work. I know that for a fact because I actually work there.
8:09, funny that, I work there as well. And in the creative department we’ve received regular all staff emails.
You in dispatch?
The issue is simple. 50% of his ‘facts’ are 100% wrong.
You clearly work at LB. We don’t have dispatch.
but do you have ‘despatch’ near your writer’s desk?