• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, January 15, 2014

Former mcgarrybowen, Ogilvy, Grey and Neighbor Creative Director and current Golin Harris CCO Charlie Tercek has had an epiphany. Having been entrenched in the practice of creative development coming from the creative department (and only the creative department), Tercek was surprised (and quite skeptical) when he joined the public relations agency GolinHarris and discovered it was common practice for everyone in every department to participate in creative brainstorming. The agency is also into crowdsourcing -- the bane of most creative types -- and yet Tercek is now the agency's biggest fan of the approach. Check out how he went through this change in mindset here.

And so it's the New Year. Have you made your resolutions yet? Apparently, only 8% of those who do make resolutions they actually keep. And Boston-based Forge Worldwide believes the 92% of those who fail to achieve their resolutions simply aim too high. So the agency is making things easier for all of us. It has launched Low Resolutions 2014, a site on which you can, you know, aim low so you'll have a much better chance of actually meeting your stated goals for the year. Some of the resolutions? "I resolve to start flossing more regularly. Or at all. At least until my dentist appointment. Next month." And "I resolve to sit here a little while longer."

DraftFCB CEO Carter Murray continues to rock the boat. The latest change under his helm is a big one. The agency plans to drop "Draft" from the agency name and revert to its pre-merger name of FCB or Foote, Cone & Belding. Howard Draft has taken a lot of crap over the years -- much of it from ad blogger George Parker, who refers to agency management as Huey Dewey & Louie -- since he merged Draft with FCB in 2006. While most of DraftFCB's current pains can be traced back to legacy FCB clients, FCB, it would seem, has less baggage and has a long and mostly positive history. Although the agency is losing the Draft name, Executive Chairman Howard Draft will stay on in his current role. 

Will there ever come a day when brands will stop asking agencies to produce speculative work when pitching their accounts? Who knows -- but Quebec advertising agencies aim to make the practice unacceptable. The Association of Quebec Advertising Agencies has updated its guidelines and introduced a new guide to better define the agency selection process. The new guidelines take a stronger stance against the practice of spec work during the pitch process. Of the prevalence of spec work in the pitch process, AAPQ Chairman and Havas Montreal President and CEO Ann Bouthillier said, “We strongly believe this is not the best way to select an agency.” This is all well and good. And likely welcomed by agencies. But will they really risk showing up without spec work when they really, really want to put their best foot forward and win the account?

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