• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, December 12, 2013

In the Papa John's pizza review, we're pulling for Arnold Worldwide. Why? Well, after having lost the $50 million U.S. Volvo creative business to Grey New York, losing the Hotels.com pitch, losing McDonald's New England, losing Lee Jeans, losing Aetna, losing its chief creative officer and a few other things, the agency could use a win right about now. So while we're also fans of Doner, BBDO and Grey, we're rooting for Arnold on this one.

OK so what the hell does this mean? When a large, global health, hygiene and home consumer goods company puts out a press release announcing a review for a portion of its business and then also says its happy with its current agency, what are we supposed to think? But that's exactly what Reckitt Benckser is doing with its Finish, Air Wick and Clearasil brands...which, along with 14 other RB brands, are currently handled by Havas Worldwide. Apparently, the brand wants to "explore new sources of creativity." Haven't we past the era of forced smiles?

Every ad geek has to work somewhere, right? Even if it is at Pittsburgh's 5th largest ad agency. And that's what Pittsburgh-based Gatesman+Dave, Inc. has become after acquiring Quest Fore Marketing. The agency's combined revenue will now top $13 million with staff doubling to 80. Of the acquisition, John Gatesman said, “This deal brings additional horsepower and expanded capabilities to our existing clients, and it will help put us on the radar for more national business.” Rock on, John. Let us know when you become #1.

This is awesome in so many ways. First, it involves an agency named Bob's Your Uncle. Yeah, Bob's Your Uncle! A name so stupid it's awesome. Second, it involves Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. And anything that involves Rob Ford these days is pure gold. So BYU (oh look, I just made it sound like a university) decided to latch onto the Rob Ford train with a holiday charity campaign entitled Coal For Ford. The campaign urges people to send Ford a lump of coal by clicking a button on the website. On December 20, the agency will deliver that coal to the steps of Toronto's City Hall. So far, 870,980 people have clicked. That's a lot of coal! The agency will also donate $1 for each piece of coal. That's a lot of money! Of course, the site carries a disclaimer stating the maximum donation will be $5,000. Still, love this promotion.

Laura Bowles is standing by her man. Oops. Better re-word that. Rob Reilly is standing by his woman. OK, better re-word that one too. We don't want the PC Police inundating our inbox. Anyway, married couple (is that better?) Rob Reilly, CCO of CP+B and Laura Bowles, partner and managing director of CP+B are leaving the agency. Rob, who's been with the agency over a decade, said, "As a creative, the worst thing you can do is stay stagnant. After twelve years at CP&B, this was the time for me to recharge, and for the agency to recharge." Though what Reilly will do next is still unknown. Reilly said, "It's all still under debate."

One wonders how long it will be before big agencies realize the power of content and inbound marketing. And by "realize the power" we mean invest actual money in the acquisition of a content/inbound marketing firm like Pennsylvania-based Square 2 Marketing just did by acquiring content marketing agency Fullquota. The acquisition is said to make Square 2 Marketing the largest inbound marketing agency in the U.S. Of the acquisition, Square 2 Marketing President Mike Lieberman said, “This is a tremendous opportunity to add a world-class content marketing team to our company. We are on a mission to be the largest and most successful inbound marketing agency, and the acquisition of FullQuota accelerates our growth significantly.”

Wait, what? Agencies actually care if their work is successful besides looking pretty and winning a Cannes Lion. Well at least in India. It would seem so given that the country's Effie 2013 Awards -- you know, that organization that awards work that actually does something for the brand -- has received the highest number of entries in its 13 year Indian history.