• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, October 16, 2014

Well, this is interesting. Recently, two agencies were honored with Silver placements in the International category of Advertising Age's 2014 Small Agency Award. A tie. But one of the agencies -- Argentina-based +Castro is having none of that likening that tie to kissing one's sister. And so the agency has challenged the other Silver winner -- South Africa's Volcano to a smackdown to break the tie. And Volcano has accepted. A live online battle kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday. The two agencies will battle it out across three challenges that will put to the test the most essential professional skills that any great agency needs: Staring, Pole Dancing and Beer Pong. No, seriously. The challenges, we are told, will be overseen by an Ad Age judge to ensure complete objectivity. Whether or not that's true is really irrelevant. Because in a grudge match that involves pole dancing and beer pong, who really cares who wins? Tune in at 6 p.m. Friday at Untie the Silver to see it all unfold. 

Hmm. Just what does this mean for ad agencies? For those getting on the programmatic buying bandwagon this might be a very good thing. Those who have clients that are taking programmatic in-house may not fare so well. And those who are still manually buying media, well, your days are definitely numbered. Recent figures from eMarketer reveal U.S programmatic ad spend will top $10 billion this year and hit $20 billion by 2016. That's a lot of computers buying banners that no one clicks on anymore! Oh, but hey -- maybe when programmatic hits $100 billion and CTR hovers around 0.00000000000000000001%, the ad world will wake up and realize that...oh yeah...maybe native advertising isn't such a bad thing.

Oh, and if you're STILL buying TV, former Procter & Gamble exec and current President of Global Client and Agency Solutions for Google Kirk Perry has a few words for you. While he admits he had a love affair with TV right up until the time he left P&G, his eyes have been opened to the world of digital, and he thinks it's ridiculous that so much time is still spent on TV. Recounting one of his last meetings at P&G, Perry said: “The first 80% of the meeting we spent talking about TV. The latter 20% was spent repurposing the selling line and key visuals and putting it into the banner ad." Of course, in his new position, Perry wants everyone to think digital first. Which, surprisingly, still isn't the norm.

Oh, and just for fun, ever wonder where all those pictures of creative directors with folded arms go? To a Tumblr blog called ECDs With Folded Arms, of course. See Pete Favat, David Abbott, Mark Tutssell, Colleen DeCourcy, David Lubars, Ted Royer, Andy Greenway, Tom Spicer, Bob Isherwood, Donny Deutsch, Jeff Goodby, John Hegarty, Amir Kassei and many others fold their arms in that typical, "I'm a really important ECD and you better not fu*k with me" stance seemingly designed to ward off anyone who might dare disagree with anything any of these super important people might have to say.

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