• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, December 2, 2014

In a move that is both trendy stunt and brilliant self-promotion, MRY has announced it will accept RFPs through SnapChat. Yes, you read that right. A professional ad agency with a stellar history of amazing work for big-name brands is accepting work through a selfie-addled playground designed for 14-year-old girls. But it's all for charity -- at least at this point -- so it's all good. Starting on December 2, potential clients will be able to submit paid pitch requests to MRY using Snapcash, SnapChat's new peer-to-peer payments feature. To celebrate this new feature, the agency spent December 2 answering briefs for taglines, logos, and small-scale creative ideas for $20 a pop. All proceeds generated in this manner will be donated to Pencils of Promise.

This is what happens when we let children run "marketing firms." Perhaps you have seen the Drunk Girl in Public video? If not, here it is. When it was released by Stephen Zhang Productions, run by 20-year-old Stephen Zhang, who also heads up Hygo Inc. and was behind the controversial 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman video, it became a viral sensation with over 12 million views. Initially an SEO firm, Hygo, according to Zhang, now helps brands, news outlets and public figures drive traffic to their Web sites using social media. In the video, 24-year-old LA actress Jennifer Box, donning a short sundress and high heels pretends to be drunk and asks guys for help. The video's producer, Seth Leach (appropriate name), duped both parties telling the Box the video was to be a lighthearted hidden-camera prank or student video and the guys to do everything they could to get Box to come home with them. Predictably, the internet reacted with anger over the portrayal of men purportedly taking advantage of an inebriated woman -- and in the wake, left both Box and all of the men in the video defending themselves as fine upstanding citizens. And why? Seemingly for Zhang to add yet another notch in his diaper of "case studies." 

Poor Steve Stoute. Poor Translation. The agency has been hemorrhaging Budweiser business for a while now, and it just had the last piece of business pulled out from under. After having lost Bud Light to BBDO, Translation had been handling the Budweiser Made in America music festival curated by Jay Z. That last piece of business has been handed to Anomaly, lead agency for Budweiser. The move is being described as a "synergy" play. Hmm -- thought that word went out with the 80s.

But not all account losses are a negative. Texas-based TKO Advertising, which just resigned the Santa Fe Convention and Visitors Bureau account, is quite pleased at opting for early termination of the contract. Explaining the move, TKO President and CD Raul Garza said: “Agencies have a blended rate, so we divided the gross amount by that blended rate and that told us how many hours we should be allocating to this project for the whole course of the year. What we found is that the hours that it took to fulfill the contract greatly, greatly exceeded what they should be in order for us to be breaking even.” That statement does not seem to have detracted from other agencies hunting down the business. The Santa Fe CVB immediately received 10 responses when it issued an RFP right after TKO resigned the account.

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