Can an Agency Overshadow its Brands?

It is no surprise that an agency can elevate a brand to new heights. Some of the most successful brands owe a large share of their success to their agencies...but could it be that an agency actually gets bigger than its brands? Maybe the agency becomes both a means and an end?
Could it be that an agency's communication for all of its brands has a certain, style, wit, humor that is so typical that it overshadows those of the brand itself?
And we are not talking about any agency that simply executes one idea across mulitple brands...nope we are talking about arguably one of the most creative agencys of today, yesterday and most likely, if Colorado proves as inspirational as Miami (yes they are moving), tomorrow.

Yes it sounds pretty bizarre for a piece of communication to resonate an agency's values as opposed to the brand it was conceived for...
I feel that way every time I see a Crispin Porter + Bogusky ad. Wake Up With The King or subservient chicken for Burger King, Let’s Motor.” for MINI, VW's unpimp my ride and Fast, Victoria secrets Pinkpantypoker.com. The ads I have sited seem to resonate more CP+B values than their respective brands...I guess what I am trying to say is that CP+ B has so much damn character in all the communication it develops, I feel like I'm watching a CP+B ad not a burger king ad...

An inside look at Crispin here.

Coffee with BBDO Planning Director, Hubert Boulos

D: Could you tell us a little about you, sorta bring your life to life!

H: You only live once!

D: Every planner gets the same first kick off question, in your limited experience in this region,is planning undervalued or does the region lack value in planning?

H: Neither. Whether here or in the rest of the world planning has to be defined within the agency and for its clients. I believe planning is an
agency related issue vs a geographic one. Some agencies are better than others at it in the Middle East and elsewhere.

D:So everyone claims a different method to the madness of planning, what's yours?

H: Quantitative research!

D: What is it you look for when hiring a young planner? Could you give us a sneak peak at an unorthodox question you might ask?

H: I look for people with whom I could have a beer after work or with whom I could enjoy a good lunch.

D: So you hired a junior planner what would be their first task you'd assign?

H- Ideally (if a client is running a promotion) I would send the junior
planner to actually sell the product in a supermarket (part of a
promotions team)

D: Someone roles up to you one day and claims to be heavens marketing director. For some odd reason, you believe him (possibly due to his business card being trailed by a halo) He goes on to elaborate on how people are losing faith in heaven and putting all their allegorical eggs in this life's basket. Any idea what any sentence on the brief would look like?


H: What do you have to lose? (though it runs against my personal
philosophy -see answer #1)

D: As planners we are constantly vexing over the right sentence,or words to bring something to life. What sentence or combination of words bring Hubert to life as a planner?

H: If it does not sell it's useless!

D: If you were conducting this interview, what would you have asked yourself?


H: What strategy would you have loved to have written?
Answer: the Axe/Lynx strategy developed by LINTAS Paris (FYI: most
people think it's BBH but it's not!)

D: Many thanks Hubert and good luck at BBDO!

Rants From the Right Side - Guest- Miss Y

Ever wonder what happens to the ideas that don't make it?

And I'm not talking about the ones you knew never had a chance. More like the ones you'll describe over and over again to whoever shows a glimmer of interest because they sound so damn good. The ones that make time fly as you work on them because, for a change, they're fun and you can't wait to see them out of your head and materialized.

It really doesn't matter how it's done (painfully slow and or heartlessly fast)... good ideas are killed all the time. I'll be the first to admit that I don't accept the death of my (good) ideas easily. But I'm not one to force an idea where it just doesn't work. I'll give it the funeral it deserves and bury it in my own personal idea graveyard.

Some time later, in a brainstorming session turned séance, something will bring that idea back from the dead. A word, smell, image, expression... anything... It’ll just fall into place as if this was the situation it was made for and you just happened to have thought it up too early. You’ll be racking your brain for an idea and coming up blank. Then suddenly somewhere in the recesses of the mind you’ll stumble over it. And there’s no shame in bringing it out to the open again. It doesn’t make you less creative for not coming up with a brand-spanking-new idea. You just found the right time to use it.

(Your idea can also come back to life in someone else’s head. It’s not your idea anymore. It’s gone through their mind and morphed into a new idea. It might have been planted there by you in that discussion you had way back when. Ok. Don’t know where that’s going, I’m just rambling)

Anyway just felt like writing and there was that idea we talked about before so I tried to write about that.

Words of a Mother...

One of the smartest (in conjunction with the loudest) women I have met to this day also happens to be my best friends mother and on occasion sits in for mine.
I was having a little chat with her a while back when she made one hell of a point that got me thinking a little recently about where the future of brands is headed...the chat went something like this.
(Just to set the stage, she's as greek as you get and I call her Mom)

MOM says: X let me tell you samthing...loyalty is sabjective"

I say: Mom what do you mean by that, are trying to say that it differs with each individuals value system?

Mom says: No X I am not trying to say anything of the sort, its mach simpler than that. X... people are only as loyaal as their options...




...and Mom just in case your son happens to forward this link to you...
Hi! I missed you, as does he, he is fine, his love life is good, he is eating well, doing well at work and looks very healthy (though a little on the plumpy side recently)

Phenomenal video for Sia's Breathe me.

Courtesy of ndegeocello

Louis Vuitton "Superflat Monogram" Japanese Cartoon

'An ad campaign for LOUIS VUITTON by Mamoru Hosoda. an updated alice in wonderland, in which a girl, searching for her lost cell phone, floats in a dizzying world of the company's logos. While waiting to meet her friends outside of a Louis Vuitton store, Aya's cell phone is eaten by the LV Panda, who then promptly swallows Aya - but the inside of his stomach is gateway to a psychadelic wonderland. Based on characters created by famed superflat artist Takashi Murakami.'

Many thanks Freckles:)