• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, September 8, 2014

Oh my head! If yet another ad agency comes up with yet another new title for the same old job that's been done for fifty years, I think my head will explode. What's getting me all worked up? Dallas-based Moroch Partners hired Doug Martin as the agency's first chief client service and development officer -- or, I guess, CCSDO. Or, they could have just stuck with director of client service or VP of client services or director of account service. I suppose that since every agency now has a chief marketing officer, everyone in account service got all uppity and demanded some respect. Anyway, Martin comes to Moroch with 25 years of experience, having worked at Wieden + Kennedy and The Richards Group. He's worked on...uh, excuse me, Serviced and Developed...such brands as The Home Depot, Nike, Patron, Miller Brewing, adidas and Spalding.

Hmm. twofifteenmccann or 72andSunny might have something to say about the name of Capitol Music Group's new in-house ad agency. The record label just announced the launch of seventeenfifty which will be headed up by Tropicana vet Kate Denton. The agency will be officially unveiled September 10 during a presentation at City Winery in New York. Now, we can't really blame Capitol Music Group for going with seventeenfifty because its genesis is the address of Capitol Tower which is located at 1750 North Vine Street. What say you, twofifteenmccann and 72andSunny?

Everything's done inforgraphic-style these days, right? After all, we have the attention span of the proverbial flea, right? So it makes perfect sense that there's an infographic summarizing how clients and agencies view the new business pitch process. And the two viewpoints are far from aligned. To wit, 37% of clients want to meet everyone from the agency who will work on the account; just 5% of agencies comply. 50% or clients say they always have their decision maker in attendance; agencies see that only 20% of the time. Most clients feel agencies -- surprise, surprise -- fail to adhere to the budget or the brief or demonstrate ROI; agencies say client budgets are unrealistic and feel they are unable to show full potential during the pitch. None of this surprises. My, how nothing changes while everything seems to.

Given the fact that Apple is building out its own internal ad agency and on Tuesday will announce the new iPhone, the iWatch and a bunch of other stuff, many people at a certain division of TBWA will be in face-palm mode. But they might be able to take solace in the fact that their brotherly brethren over at TBWA\Chiat\Day have scooped up the Airbnb account. So all of you TBWAers over at Media Arts Lab should just pretend what Airbnb CMO Jonathan Mildenhall said about the TBWA pitch team, was said about you. "We're delighted to be working with TBWAChiatDay, one of the truly great global agencies, at one of the most exciting points in our history. The team rose to our challenge to find incredibly creative and authentic ways to connect with our community around the world, and we can't wait to see what the future holds." Does that help at all?

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