• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, November 6, 2014

Finally! Fetch happens! Gretchen would be so happy! Dentsu Aegis has acquired mobile ad agency Fetch. Fetch will retain its brand identity and work collaboratively with Dentsu Aegis Network’s brand, media and communications businesses to help the agency scale and accelerate the group’s mobile offering. Headquartered in London with offices in the U.S., Germany and Hong Kong, Fetch is one of Europe’s most awarded mobile advertising agencies. The business was founded in 2009 by James Connelly and Declan Reddington and currently employs 96 who work on clients in over 90 countries. Of the acquisition, Dentsu Northern Europe CEO Robert Horler said: “With consumers increasingly engaging with brands through mobile devices, mobile media has become a critical part of the communication ecosystem and a key driver for business outcomes. Growing our digital profile across all capabilities is one of our five strategic priorities and this deal clearly recognizes the potential we see in both Fetch and the wider mobile market.” 

Waxing eloquent about the cycle of creativity and collaboration, former Saatchi & Saatchi X CCO and former Walmart VP of Marketing Sean Womack said: "Because we believe it so deeply in our bones we operate from a place of fear and control. Afraid that someone is going to get credit for our ideas or that too many cooks will ruin our idea. Yes, groupthink is bad, but many cooks came before us and we borrow their techniques and recipes as we create our inventions and tweaks and changes. We all borrow. We all steal. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. We all look over the shoulders of those who work beside us. It has always been so. It will always be so. It should be so. But our creative cultures, structures and systems fight against this, even though the latest creativity research from Keith Calder and others shows that collaboration is the key to real genius. And Ed Catmull's brilliant book on Pixar shows it's possible to build a culture that fosters collaboration." Well said, Sean.

At the end of November, Saatchi & Saatchi London will launch VivaWomen!, an exhibition that will feature work done by female artists and creatives who don't play by the rules. The exhibition will initially be revealed at a private viewing at Saatchi & Saatchi’s Charlotte Street offices before moving to the Assembly Rooms in Soho, where the work will be on display to the public until the 19th December. The exhibition takes its name from the 1980s bestseller written by Marianne Grabrucker. Grabrucker’s book detailed her attempts as a mother to observe the social conditioning on her daughter, to inspire her to overcome gender stereotyping and help her realize her full potential. A percentage of any artwork sales will be donated to the charity Plan UK which helps children in impoverished countries.

Well, this is hilarious. There once was a time that an ad was an ad and when it was placed, it ran and when it ran it was seen. Simple. End of story. Thanks to the Internet and a whole bunch of shady characters that have come out of the woodwork, the medium is rife with fraud. Now, in an effort to assuage the fears of brands with money to spend online, ad tech companies and networks are now screaming the likes of "97% fraud free!" One such company is DataXu which is teamed with DoubleVerify to reduce fraud. Of the new guarantee, DataXu CRO Ed Montes said: "When brands see sensational headlines in the press, it creates friction for us. It’s my job to remove that friction for the sake of our business.” Of course, now every agency media buyer is now wondering what the hell was being sold to them prior to the now supposedly fraud-free media they are being sold today. Commenting on these new guarantees, Razorfish Chief Media Officer Vik Kathuria said: “I can understand that their goal is to encourage uptake, but for me those are table stakes." And you know what? He's right.

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