Commentary

In Australia Clients Are On Top (Or At Least They Should Be)

Over in Australia it seems clients have lost the ability to manage their ad agencies. Oh wait -- my bad. That's happening here too. But over in Australia, at least they're doing something about it. Adrianne Nixon, who's been on the Australian ad scene for 30 years, has founded a program, Legends and Leaders, which has 90 senior ad execs who will act as mentors to client-side marketing teams and help them understand how to better deal with agencies and manage relationships. Of the program, Nixon said: “Many clients think they will get the best ideas by putting all their agencies in one room and setting them off but clients need to own that relationship better. It shouldn’t be agency versus client. They're on the same team. That sounds like a utopia, but there shouldn’t be any barrier to working together but it has to start with the client because they hold the power. if you want to change the relationship, it has to start with them.” Well then. And over here we thought it was the agencies who were supposed to kick ass.

Oh, how rumors fly in this business. It appears Blast Radius Executive Creative Director Steve Nesle has left the building. No, wait -- not so fast! It seems the rumor mill thought he had left, but as it turns out, he hasn't. Or hadn't up until, yes, the very same rumor mill that said he had left did an about face and said he hadn't left and was still servicing agency clients. That is until he wasn't. Still with me? Yes, Steve Nesle has officially left the building. No, really -- it's true. Until it isn't. Okay, we're done.

So you know how the NSA is all up in people's business? Well, one agency is mad as hell and isn't going to take it any longer! Brussles-based Happiness is out with Spy on the USA which supports the worldwide initiative, The Day We Fight Back, a digital protest against mass surveillance which launched February 11. With Spy On The USA, Happiness is giving the NSA a taste of its own medicine, turning the cameras on the National Security Agency’s headquarters in Maryland, USA. Visitors to Spy on the USA can click to capture footage and share with their friends through Facebook. Basically, it's a video feed of a building. But, hey -- you've got to start somewhere, I guess.

What's a retired ad man who in 1990 worked hard to convince residents of Ohio's Cuyahoga County to enact a sin tax do with his time today? If you're Alan Glazen, you flip flop, and launch a Facebook group called It's A Sin Cleveland, with the aim of overturning the sin tax. The sin tax was put in place originally to fund what is known as the Gateway complex, a multipurpose campus that houses Progressive Field and Quicken Loans Arena and a public plaza. Civic leaders at the time said the complex would create 28,000 jobs. That never happened, and Glazen isn't happy. Of the work he did on the project, Glazen said: “We were hired to be the people sending that message out, and that message was not honest. We were deceived because the most prominent civic leaders were just throwing out numbers." Lesson learned? It's never too late to correct the error of your ways.

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