• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, December 27, 2013

Oh you damn clients! Always barking orders to your agencies and making unrealistic demands. It's as if you do it just to inflate your self-importance. Oh wait. Anyway, Advertising Age's Alexandra Bruell took a look at brands making demands of agencies over the holidays in a deliciously headlined piece, “RFPs for Christmas: Grinchy Marketers Give Agencies Tight, Post-Holiday Deadlines.” In the piece, she touches upon several holiday RFP experiences and calls out several brands -- including Cigna, Lowe's, Marriott and Bosch -- who have agencies busy this holiday season. The best part of the story? When Possible CEO Shane Atchison, who closes his agency for the holidays but received an RFP for work due January 1, told the brand to stick it. Of course, he was more polite than that and the brand in question was more than happy to grant an extension. But has everything really become so important that it has to infringe upon our enjoyment of the holidays?

Havas is ending the year on a high note. After having won the $150 million Liberty Mutual account, the agency has been awarded the $60 million Green Mountain Coffee Roasters account. Of the win, Havas Worldwide Global President Andrew Benett said, “As the brand expands its product offerings and presence in global marketplaces, Havas’s global network will prove a strategic partner in developing and executing GMCR’s marketing and advertising strategies across multiple product lines.”

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