Welcome to Off the Record online the August edition – where the dirt goes from static to shareable. Don't forget if you want to be in the know, as it happens, you can get the goss direct to your iPad, or subscribe in print here.
Cosy rivals
After cosying up to one of the TV networks recently, a certain sales house might be eyeing a piece of the action elsewhere. OTR loves being in the right place at the right time, although others may disagree. It was a case of great timing that OTR should fall out of a cab to find a band of TV execs and CEOs from rival networks and sales houses arm in arm, following some not so covert talks. What could they possibly be discussing?
Dinner’s on me
With the amount of acquisition talk floating around at the moment, there’s a lot of cash up in the air. Buying a company seems expensive and there’s a lot of painstaking due diligence and financials to be done with a fine-tooth comb. Or is there? One recent deal it seems was a little less complex. Just a couple of dinners between friends and the deal was done.
Plausible or pipe dreams
It’s all smoke and mirrors at the end of the day but one specific tech firm is grinding the gears of adland. “It’s a phoney” sound the cries as this tech firm peacocks around boasting about its wares,
which are actually someone else’s, along with its capital, which doesn’t quite reach the dollar figure claimed.
Jargon busting
OTR knows all too well that there’s a lot of jargon around. Some AdNews yarns are sprinkled so liberally with acronyms and tech terms that it’s hard to keep up, but sometimes it’s a case of head in hands when someone who should really know better can’t get a handle on the fundamentals. If you can’t get the basics, how the hell can you grasp the really big stuff? Here’s OTR’s little lesson: an agency is a shop. A story is a yarn. A journo is a hack and a PR, a flack.
Swimming with sharks
There is always one local campaign that gets all the attention - both on and off the award circuit. But not everyone is thrilled. One agency boss said he’d had enough of hearing about one rival campaign to the point where he’d like to “drop it in the ocean and we can all finally go swimming”. No points for guessing which campaign he was talking about.
Literally the worst
Google brought out its hot shot talent for its annual Brandcast event. And while the fans all collectively lost their minds for the alarmingly peppy and successful stars of the small ondemand screen, the love is not ubiquitous. OTR overheard one Googler admitting they can’t stand one of the YouTubers: “They are literally, the worst”. OTR would tend to agree.
Them or us
While one feted aussie adman basks in the glory of his US powerhouse, other regional hubs can’t quite seem to live up to the hype as one recent high-profile closure shows. A certain London shop will be breathing a sigh of relief having escaped the same fate. OTR hears it was perilously close to the shoe being on the other foot. It was either them or us, and unfortunately, it was us that felt the blow.
When a plan comes together
There might be just as much change and revolving doors going on at IPG’s Surry Hills HQ as over in GroupM’s North Sydney tower, but the difference is, offers one snipey rival, IPG planned its change – GroupM’s was thrust upon it. It makes a big difference as rivals gleefully like to point out.
Same old gripe
“It’s fucked”, one agency boss recently lamented to OTR. Going into specifics, this person thought it was ridiculous that the agency was having to pitch against several other agencies purely for project work, with retainers flying out the window. This is not a new gripe however, “it’s really hard to run business and staff it correctly,” this boss said. Maybe if clients want to have the best service, they have to pay accordingly.
Brain drain plus
The brain drain is not over yet. OTR hears that two more top adland execs have been scooped up by IPG global CEO Henry Tajer. It seems the lure of global roles and the New York skyline is too much to resist.
Did you catch July's Off the Record piece?
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