• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, September 7, 2014

Some agency recruitment efforts are more laudable than others. This one from Happiness Brussels is on the laudable side of things. To find some super-talented copywriters, the agency launched Sell the Jobless, an effort that urged applicants to write cover letters for one of 14 unemployed people featured on the campaign Web site. The campaign was designed to challenge copywriters to complete what is arguably one of the toughest tasks in today’s economy -- namely to write a standout cover letter that successfully sells a jobless person to a potential employer. Over 594 cover letters have been written since launch. Each of the cover letters will be judged by a pool of 10 top agency creative directors. The writers who are successful in helping to get a job interview for a jobless person will be invited by the Association of Communication Companies to attend their “Masterclass in Copywriting.” Writers will be given several challenges and one winner will be selected and offered a job at Happiness Factory. Check out the campaign video here. 

Sales are down. There's a new CMO in place. And a new president just took over last month. Things are in flux over at Cadillac, which some believe is on the hunt for a new ad agency. While that Neal McDonough Poolside spot that had everyone buzzing back in February did get some great viral play, it doesn't seem to have had a positive effect on the brand's business. Personally, I don't think Cadillac has been awesome since the 70's, when cigar-smoking neighborhood dads used to tool around in those massive gas-guzzling behemoths while the moms made dinner and the kids played war outside with toy machine guns. Yeah, outside. With guns. Okay -- that went off on a tangent, but Cadillac needs help. Are you the agency to provide it? Clearly Neal McDonough can't do it alone.

Explaining the decision to outsource its media buying, Anheuser-Busch InBev VP of Marketing Jorn Socquet said: "We always strive to be the best in all we do, and earlier this year we decided to benchmark our connection strategy and execution. After this thorough process, we concluded to partner with a media agency to lead our connection strategy, media planning and buying. This decision will guarantee that Anheuser-Busch will stay at the head of industry with innovative and breakthrough connection planning in a vastly changing media landscape." In 2011, Anheuser-Busch shifted planning and research duties away from the internal Busch Media Group to Starcom. The decision to outsource media buying came out of the currently underway planning review which includes Starcom, MediaCom, OMD, and Vizeum.

Here's what Nissan Senior VP of Sales Marketing and Operations had to say about the recent hire of 38-year-old Jeremy Tucker, who has no experience in the automotive space. “That does not worry me at all. We have a plethora of automotive experts in this house. We have to do things differently to break through the huge auto industry clutter. His outside perspective on how advertising is being done elsewhere is going to help us do things differently.” Hmm. An outside perspective. Will it work ?