Commentary

Levi's and MasterCard Headed To Review?

Looks like the Levi's account is about to go into review. Yup, the brand has promoted Jennifer Sey, previously VP of e-commerce to the position of Global CMO. And we all know what that means--it's agency review time, baby!  Sey will take over for Rebecca Van Dyck who left for Facebook in February of last year. Van Dyck was responsible for the "Go Forth" campaign which aimed to unify brand messaging globally. While Sey has been a loyal employee of Levi's since 1999 serving as Dockers Senior Marketing VP and Levi's Global Marketing VP, we think it's her turn in the spotlight and we'll soon see a new look for the legacy brand.

Could the same be true for MasterCard? It seems so. The brand has hired Raja Rajamannar as CMO, a position formerly occupied by Alfredo Gangotena who will retire. Rajamannar spent 15 years as CMO of Citigroup's bank card business and is cited as dramatically improving the brand's business model. Will he do the same for MasterCard? Will he be a "priceless" addition to the marketing team? Is MasterCard even doing the "priceless" thing anymore?

Speaking of changes, agencies may get more action for their clients on Twitter. The social network has hired former Ticketmaster President Nathan Hubbard to head up its first foray into e-commerce--projected by Forrester to hit $370 billion by 2017--with tools for brands to sell goods and services inside tweets. And you thought your Twitter feed was annoying now?

OK this is funny. Remember when GM Global CMO Joel Ewanick--who, as you recall was canned after having dabbled in nefarious soccer endorsement deal financials--said last year "we simply can't justify the expense" of Super Bowl advertising? Well, maybe he's just the kind of guy that just isn't good with money because now that he's gone, GM says it will return to the Super Bowl with five spots for Chevy and one for Cadillac. At an estimated cost of $4 million per :30, GM will be spending a pretty penny. Why can't we get past the nagging thought that there were some Ewanick-fueled financial shenanigans surrounding last year's decision not to advertise in the Super bowl?

Well here's even more proof advertising agencies have way too much free time on their hands. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners' BETA Group has developed Touch Room, an app that allows two people to enter a virtual room and make their fingers touch the same point so each of their phones vibrates. Wait, what? For what purpose? Oh wait, our bad. BETA is a bunch of developers who dabble with technology to find interesting solutions to problems. But, really? Is it too difficult to just "reach out and touch someone" the old fashioned way? Yeah, it probably is. Can anyone even remember which brand that tagline was for?

Oy vey! Just two seconds after Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post for a song, the paper has announced it will up its efforts to sell native advertising in the print edition. Desperate much? Like a self-absorbed account planner trying to sell a research report to a paper clip maker, the Post's chief revenue officer, Kevin Gentzell said, "I think that a big part of native is to create experiences for brands in places in the printed pages where there wasn't formerly advertising." Oh really? You mean the places were actual vetted editorial used to exist? Why don't you just rename the paper The Washington Post Sunday Circular? At least that way, readers will know what to expect when they pick up the paper in the morning

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