• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, September 18, 2014

Attention marketers. And by marketers, I mean clients. You know, you guys who think your agency is just a vendor you can toy with at your leisure as if they were a vending machine spitting out predetermined and prepackaged items that you can simply toss aside if it turns out you're not actually hungry. Yeah, you marketers. Nationwide CMO Matt Jauchius has a message for you. And it's simple. Stop treating your agency like a vendor. Now we've all heard this refrain over and over and over again ad naseum. "I think the word vendor is poison. I think the word vendor creates an us-versus-them and it creates a wall." Jauchius says. He then goes on to say that both agency people and client-side people are knowledge workers who are creative thinkers who want to create exciting and engaging work. And he used to work on the professional services side of things and did not like being referred to as a vendor. We're all grownups. We're all professionals. We're all smart and want the same successes no matter what side we're on. Isn't working together as a team much better than working as adversaries? Think about that for a minute.

Chicago Business Journal reporter Lewis Lazare thinks he knows why MillerCoors awarded its Miller Lite account to TBWA\Chiat\Day over Leo Burnett and Royal Order. In addition to the shop's location in LA and its talents, Lazare writes: "In my conversation with him (MillerCoors VP of Marketing Gannon Jones), Jones suggested that the different kind of vibe the TBWA account pitch team exuded -- coupled with the shop's ability to tap into a Los Angeles sensibility closely tied to the entertainment and fashion industries -- perhaps made it easier for the ad shop to develop a new Miller Lite positioning that would resonate with the target Millennial audience. Jones hinted as much when said 'what you hold in your hand says something about who you are.'" Now I'm in agreement with the age-old axiom that marketers need to "get 'em while they're young" but isn't all this focus on Millennials just going to alienate the brand's core audience?

So Interpublic Group CEO Michael Roth was quoted in The Economist as saying: "We're the next one to be consolidated." Apparently, that statement was taken out of context and is something Roth has said several times in relationship to consolidation in the industry and was not meant to imply a merger was imminent. Well, how that statement can be taken any other way than to mean that, well, yeah, IPG just might be the next one to be consolidated is a bit baffling. But Roth would never admit acquisition activity unless he was ready to. Those kinds of things tend to be kept secret until the parties in play want the public to know. Which, oddly, supports IPG's claim that the statement might have been taken out of context. Confusing, I know. That said, the bigger-is-better, testosterone-fueled holding company mentality practically predicts there will, indeed, be another mega-merger-like merger sometime in the not too distant future.

Okay, first of all, who knew there was a .wtf domain? I mean, WTF? Who made that up? Who approved that? Who...oh who gives a...well anyway. Durham-based agency The Republik has launched a gallery and is promoting it on Create.wtf. The gallery, which opens Friday, September 19 at 6 p.m., will showcase the creative works of those in and around the agency's community.

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