• by Christine Champagne , December 29, 2006

Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Finessing Creative Media Approaches

In 2006, MDC Corp.'s Crispin Porter + Bogusky had some turnover in its media department, as rival agencies lured away a handful of the Miami hot shops' staffers. But Jim Poh, who heads Crispin's media department as vice president of creative content distribution, took it as a compliment.

"I felt kind of validated by the fact that there finally were other agencies interested in hiring media people from an agency in Florida. That probably hasn't happened before in the history of advertising," Poh says, laughing.

Crispin's media department, once again fully staffed with 40 employees, remains top-tier, scoring honors as Media magazine's Media Department of the Year for the second year in a row on the strength of innovative approaches for clients such as Volkswagen, Burger King, and Virgin Atlantic Airways. The agency was a Finalist for Outdoor or Place-Based Media, Media Plan, and Communications Channel Plan on Media's 2006 Creative Media Awards list.

Even Crispin's competitors admire the agency's media prowess. "When you look at Crispin's work, you can't tell where the creative stops and the media starts and vice-versa," says Lisa Seward, media director of Minneapolis-based Fallon North America. "It's exciting, and it's good for all of us in the business."

One of the attention-getters in 2006: A Volkswagen ad on the back cover of Playboy featured a Playboy bunny whose bunny tattoo was digitally replaced with the carmaker's Rabbit logo. WPP Group's MediaCom, New York, Volkswagen's media planning and buying agency (Crispin is Volkswagen's creative shop), negotiated the deal. David Fasola, senior vice president, group account director at MediaCom, praises Crispin's "idea-centric versus advertising-centric approach, and its ability to find unique media approaches to communicate those ideas."

The Rabbit media package included a reproduction-themed TV spot, wild postings in major metropolitan areas featuring city-appropriate critters--think rats in New York and Broncos in Denver--and a guitar giveaway.

"It used to be ... finding that one message and just driving that home over and over again. We still believe in driving the central idea home, but we think it's more important to express that idea in a lot of different ways," Poh says. "That really increases your chances of striking the right chord with somebody."

Crispin's Rabbit work certainly revved up auto buyers. Sales of the vehicle--which sold under the Golf name for part of 2005 into 2006--jumped 54 percent from 2005 to 2006, reports president and analyst Todd Turner of Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Car Concepts Inc.

In addition to reinvigorating the Rabbit, Crispin branded the king in the video game arena, working with Blitz Games, which produced video games starring Burger King's monarch, sold only in restaurants and promoted in TV commercials. "We want the content that we develop to be about the brand, not about the brand as an incidental inserted into creative content," Poh says.

In keeping with that idea, Virgin Atlantic Airways saw the fabulous "jetrosexual" lifestyle it helps consumers attain chronicled in the book Sleeping Your Way to the Top. Crispin created the book and distributed it at airport bookstores and lounges, as well as in boutique hotels.