Levi's Top Global Marketing Exec Defects to Y&R West

Sweeny Becomes President of Agency's San Francisco and Irvine Offices

Doug Sweeny is departing his post as VP-global marketing at Levi Strauss & Co. to become president of WPP-owned agency Y&R's West Coast operations. Mr. Sweeny will oversee the network's San Francisco and Irvine offices in tandem with Y&R West's new chief creative officer, Joe Kayser.
 
The move marks a return for Mr. Sweeny to the agency world, and a reunion for him and Mr. Kayser, who were previously partners at Omnicom Group's TBWA/Chiat/Day in San Francisco. There they ran the global business for Adidas. Previously, he was an account director working on Saturn at Publicis Groupe's Hal Riney in San Francisco. "We had a great partnership, and we worked well together and complemented each other really well," Mr. Sweeny said of working with Mr. Kayser. He attributes the opportunity to work with him again and improvements in Y&R's creative product as his reasons for making the jump from Levi's.


For the past four years, Mr. Sweeny helped lead global marketing for the retailer, where he was behind the global "Go Forth" campaign. He plans to wrap up at Levi's, which spends an estimated $100 million globally on advertising, within the next couple of weeks and start at Y&R in early June.

Mr. Sweeny replaces John Berg, who departed his post as Y&R West president in March. "The very first conversation Joe and I had about who would be a suitable partner for our West Coast business ... he mentioned Doug, and I had Doug at the top of my list as well," said Tom Sebok, president-CEO of Y&R North America.

The installation of new management in the office is part of a goal to elevate Y&R's presence on the West Coast. "Overall our agency needs a far greater degree of visibility than it has today," Mr. Sebok said. Clients handled by that office include Chevron, Mattel, Jenny Craig Disney, and Citrix.

More broadly, the agency network -- which has been suffering the loss of a slew of clients in the agency's New York office -- has been making management changes, like bringing in new CEO David Sable and New York Chief Creative Officer Jim Elliott from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.

Levi's didn't immediately return a request for comment about Mr. Sweeny's departure. The marketer is going through changes of its own, including the launch of its first global ad campaign later this year, and a restructuring of its marketing operation that has brought on new new Global Chief Marketing Officer Rebecca Van Dyck.

It remains to be seen whether the arrival of Ms. Van Dyck and the departure of Ms. Sweeny will have any affect on Levi's agency relationships, which include Wieden & Kennedy and OMD leading global creative and media respectively.

Publicis Groupe Sees Strong First Quarter

Publicis Groupe kicked off 2011 with a strong start, highlighted by $1.9 billion in net new business. On an earnings call Thursday, Chairman Maurice Lévy trumpeted new business from Microsoft as a “formidable win . . . against all the big boys.”


The company did see a decline in its numbers in Australia, which the company attributed to the devastating results of the January flooding there. One analyst on the call pointed out that British marketing company Aegis reported it saw no change in business following floods in the region. In response, Levy said he was “happy to see they’re not affected. My understanding is that the market is affected, but maybe I’m wrong.” (Omnicom also reported that its numbers in Australia dipped during the first quarter following the natural disaster.)

Publicis Groupe reported first quarter revenue of roughly $1.8 billion, up almost 11 percent from the same period last year. Digital business accounted for 28 percent of the company’s total revenue.

Heineken Switching U.S. Agencies as It Pursues Global Effort

Heineken USA is pulling Euro RSCG as the agency of record for its flagship Heineken and Heineken Light brands, and launching a contest between Publicis and Wieden & Kennedy for the brands as it pursues a global strategy.

The competition, to be concluded by mid-May, comes as the importer seeks to align its U.S. advertising with the efforts of its Netherlands-based global parent. The move will mark the fifth creative agency for Heineken lager since 2006, as the brand has struggled to emerge from a long-running sales slump. It's also the first big change under new Chief Marketing Officer Lesya Lysyj, a former Kraft Foods marketer who took the reigns at White Plains, N.Y.-based Heineken USA in February.


"We've got this great global strategy that need to find the best partner to help us translate that to the U.S. market," Ms. Lysyj told Ad Age. "What we're looking to do is consolidate the business under one of the two agencies that work on the Heineken brand globally," she said, adding that "we think that approach makes the most sense given where we are going as an overall worldwide company."

The pitch will be handled out of the New York offices of both agencies. The importer is already tapping the global approach in the U.S. for Heineken, running TV commercials by Wieden & Kennedy, Amsterdam, called "Open Your World" that position the Heineken drinker as a worldly, confident and open-minded consumer. The spots are running in some 50 countries. The brewer has worked with the Paris office of Publicis on tactical ads and print work, said Alexis Nasard, its global chief commercial officer. "It's an agency that actually can operate with a lot of creative agility," he said, noting that they have deftly navigated around rules in some countries such as Russia that prohibit showing people drinking beer in ads.

Heineken lager had $58 million in domestic measured media spending last year. All Heineken USA brands had $124 million in domestic measured media spending in 2010, according to Kantar Media.

Euro RSCG, which won the Heineken brands in 2009, will remain the agency of record for Dos Equis, which has enjoyed big growth thanks to the popular "Most Interesting Man in the World" campaign. But the Heineken brand has struggled in the U.S., with shipments dropping 4.9% in 2010 and market share declining from 2.3% in 2008 to 2% in 2010, according to Beer Marketer's Insights. If Wieden & Kennedy wins, it'll be getting a second crack at the brand, after running a campaign as recently as 2008.

Wieden is a "very progressive, creatively driven organization ... and I think as a client you have to embrace that and I'm not sure we were as ready for that a couple of years ago as we are now," said Ms. Lysyj, noting that she wasn't at the importer when those decisions were made. Said Mr. Nasard: "Changing agencies this frequently is not great, let's admit that, however when we do it behind the principle of global consistency with an exiting basis of coloration and a well-defined brand strategy and campaign, you'd hope the chances for endurance would be higher."

The new agency's first task will be Heineken Light, which for now is only sold in the U.S. and whose sales at grocery have dropped 14% in the year ending March. 20, according to SymphonyIRI, which does not include liquor stores and Walmart. The importer is looking to replace the "See the Light" campaign with a new effort this summer.

Disney Media Goes Into Review

Media Duties in Play for Movies, Theme Parks, Consumer Products and Disney Channel


 

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The Walt Disney Co. has begun a review for media planning and buying duties on its movies, theme parks and parts of its consumer products and Disney Channel businesses, duties that have been handled by Publicis Groupe's Starcom since 2001. This is the first time the account has been up for review since then.


Several agencies received a request for proposals this week, a Disney spokesman confirmed. "We periodically review and evaluate these contracts and our options in the marketplace," he said. "It's not all that uncommon."


Starcom referred calls to the client.

Disney was No. 7 on Ad Age's 100 Leading National Advertisers report with more than $2 billion in U.S. ad spending. Disney spent $399 million on measured media for Walt Disney Pictures in 2009, $48 million on Miramax movies and $176 million on its video division, which includes Disney, Pixar and Miramax, according to Kantar Media. The company also spent $124 million on measured media for its parks and resorts division.

In April, Walt Disney Pictures named M.T. Carney, formerly a partner at Naked Communications' U.S. operations, its top marketer. Disney Studio Chairman Rich Ross had said earlier that he was looking outside of Hollywood for a new marketing leader, one with an ability to shake things up at Disney while helping the company establish a stronger position in digital. Since the media review encompasses more than just the studio division, Ms. Carney is only one of several key executives leading the new agency search.

In September of 2009 the company dropped $4 billion to acquire Marvel and its huge cast of characters. The acquisition immediately impacted Marvel's publishing and consumer products divisions, and beginning in 2012 the company will start releasing its theatrical tentpoles like "The Avengers" and "Iron Man 3" under the Disney banner, ending a multi-year pact with Paramount Pictures.

Starcom had been showing lots of momentum lately. Last month the agency won Darden Restaurants' Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse media accounts, totaling nearly $300 million, and later that week Best Buy consolidated its nearly $300 million media planning and buying account with the agency. And in mid-November Harley Davidson selected Starcom as its new media agency of record.

UM AGENCY POISED TO SNAG $700M L'OREAL ACCOUNT

Interpublic Shop to Take on U.S. Buying Business Formerly Split With Zenith...

L'Oreal has consolidated its $700 million U.S. media buying account with Interpublic Group of Cos.' Universal McCann, executives with knowledge of the matter said. The cosmetics behemoth launched an "evaluation" of the account, which was previously handled by UM and Publicis Groupe's Zenith, back in late March.

UM was also awarded Burberry's international media planning and buying business yesterday. The shop seems to be having little trouble maintaining the new-business success it began last year when it snagged Chrysler, BMW, Applebee's, Charles Schwab and Dyson, among other accounts.

L'Oreal's brand lineup includes L'Oreal Paris (its largest division), Maybelline, Lancome and Garnier. Last week L'Oreal reported sales of $6.2 billion for the first quarter of 2010, an increase of 8% over the first quarter of 2009.

Planning, which was not affected by this review, is handled by Publicis' Optimedia for L'Oreal's luxury products and Maybelline New York line, and by UM for the L'Oreal Paris line.

TOO FEW DIVERSITY DOLLARS ON MADISON AVENUE

Progress Is Being Made, but 'Shoestring' Budgets Spread Out Over Uncoordinated Efforts Hold Back Improvement...

The ad industry has grown a little more comfortable talking about a diversity problem as old as the industry itself, but is it putting its money where its mouth is? The good news: Money is flowing into diversity efforts. The bad news: Critics describe it more as a trickle -- and one so spread out it dissipates before it can make a long-lasting impact.

The efforts look like a lot on paper and include roundtables with clients on the intricacies of minority markets, executive councils, training, recruitment, partnerships with minority universities and programs from most of the leading trade organizations.

"I'm happy you're interested in what we're doing, not what we're not doing," said Sandra Sims-Williams, chair for Publicis Groupe's diversity council. Publicis Groupe sends dozens of employee women of color, as well as some clients, to a conference to develop leadership skills. Add to those commitments executives' time and providing space for diversity programs.

But recruiting programs and professional-development courses have been around since the 1960s. And still, civil-rights lawyer Cyrus Mehri has rustled up enough instances of discrimination to file charges with U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a step toward a class-action suit against the ad industry.

So why are the programs falling? It might have to do with money.

Coming up short

In December, Howard University, in partnership with the 4A's, launched a program to train midlevel minority managers to make lateral moves into agencies. The program is under way with 27 students -- the second class was held at Grey, New York, last week and another class is slated at JWT. But all this is happening on almost half the planned budget.

The 4A's made a commitment to contribute $250,000 annually for five years to Howard's Center for Excellence in Advertising, which the university and trade organization co-founded to increase the number of African-Americans at agencies, as long as Howard could raise $750,000. Last year, the program came up short of that goal with $300,000, of which Dan Wieden alone gave $100,000. The remainder doesn't seem like too much for the Big Four holding companies to pony up, although their 4A's membership fees make up some of the 4A's contribution.

That's not to ignore that 2009 was an undeniably tough year for agencies and trade organizations. One example: The One Club ended its relationship with Julius Dunn's Adversity program designed to educate minority youth about careers in creative departments. One Club President Kevin Swanepoel attributes that split to tough economic times, though he says other diversity programs are under way.

The Marcus Graham Project launched a pilot boot camp last summer for seven black men between the ages of 18 and 34 to build skills in advertising and is also gearing up to raise money for a second boot camp, social networks aimed at mentorships and various other initiatives. Funding meetings with the Big Four holding companies haven't happened yet, but they'll need to soon.

"All these programs have been done on a shoestring budget," said Lincoln Stephens, founder of the Marcus Graham Project. "Right now we're in a crucial phase. We have interest from the audience we serve, but in order to grow, we need the right sponsorships from agencies and corporations that see a value in what we're doing."

Penalties

One reason Mr. Stephens has faith he'll find funding for his effort is he's gone out and proved his approach before seeking money from the majors. "I've done amazing things with no money," said Mr. Stephens. "I'd like to demonstrate to people what we can do if we had a budget."

Funding such groups isn't the only way holding companies and agencies are using money to tackle the diversity problem. At Interpublic, failure to meet diversity objectives on hiring, promotions and retention means cuts in executive incentive pay -- and that's meant real money lost for a number of execs.

And the holding company, while it supports other causes, sees more value in fighting the battle on its own turf. "Our agencies and IPG support the industry's many worthwhile initiatives, especially the long-term pipeline programs, but this is a fight that will be won on the agency level, where the actual hiring, retention and promotion opportunities exist. We invest substantially in our internal programs, because they make a real difference in the day-to-day lives of our people," said Heide Gardner, chief diversity and inclusion officer at IPG.

At Omnicom, BBDO's minority-education fund has meant 220 internship and scholarships totaling $885,000 since 2000, and DDB's diversity scholarship fund granted $250,000 to 50 students.

But scholarships can only go so far, especially when split up over time and large numbers of students. Consider: One quarter at Miami Ad School for art director or copywriting is $4,350 in tuition -- or $34,800 in total tuition for the two-year diploma program. Of course, there are cheaper programs to be had at city and state universities, many of which have solid undergraduate programs.

Not enough change

"People genuinely want a program like ours to succeed. Build it, and we'll come," said Adrianne C. Smith, executive director, Center for Excellence in Advertising at Howard University. "The more successful we are, the more the agencies want to help," she added. "We have support, but they don't want to do the heavy lifting alone."

Yet between the scholarships and mentoring and award shows, agency C-suites and the upper levels of creative departments don't reflect anything but the good old (white) boys club.

Can money be the only thing to blame?

"We are short on the money," said Publicis Groupe's Ms. Sims-Williams. "But even when I look at our clients that have much more money flowing into diversity, it doesn't always work."

What Ms. Sims-Williams -- and many others -- see a need for is some sort of cohesion -- or at least a comprehensive approach to the various programs available. "A solution is bringing these collective groups together to develop a full strategy," she said.

"I don't think throwing more money at [diversity] is the solution," said Nancy Hill, CEO of the 4A's. "I think it takes coordinated efforts, so that anyone that raises their hand and is talented gets mentored all the way through into agencies."

Ultimately, the money "doesn't matter unless somebody knows how to put the pieces together," said Ms. Hill.

Diversity milestones

1942 John H. Johnson established Johnson Publishing Co., now publisher of Ebony and Jet, with Negro Digest.

1952 BBDO hired Clarence LeRoy Holte to head of special markets, the first African-American at an exec level at a general-market agency.

1952 Copywriter Erma Perham Proetz, who worked for Gardner Advertising Co., was the first woman inducted into the AAF Hall of Fame.

1961 The first Spanish-language TV station in the U.S. started in San Antonio, Texas, under the name Spanish International Communications Corp, which would become Univision.

1965 H. Naylor Fitzhugh accepted a position at the Pepsi-Cola Co., where he became a pioneer in target marketing, a practice at the time called "special markets." In 1970, Ad Age named Mr. Fitzhugh one of the "Ten Who Made Advertising News in the '60s" and wrote: "The 'special markets' tag is doing a slow fade from the marketing scene. By 1980, it is hoped by people like Naylor Fitzhugh, the classification will be as obsolete as 'freedom ride' and 'lunch counter sit-in' are in 1970."

1963 The Urban League of Greater New York found that fewer than 25 African-Americans worked in creative or executive positions in ad agencies, with one-third of the top ranking African-Americans working in special markets. The 4As responded that there were 100 African-Americans employed at large New York agencies out of the industry's 20,000 in New York City. NAACP officials later met with the 4As and agency executives to present a program intended to increase black employment.

1967 The first basic advertising class for African-Americans was held in Chicago at Northwestern University and later at agencies around the city.

1968 New York City Commission on Human Rights holds hearings into discrimination in radio, TV and advertising industries. Found that among agencies, the average percentage of black employees was 3.5%

1971 Frito retired its Bandito character, created by Foote, Cone & Belding, after years of protest from Mexican-Americans.

1973 4As established its minority internship program.

1981 Burrell Advertising gets the general marketing business for Martell Cognac. This was one of the first general-market wins for a minority-owned agency.

1996 Frank Mingo became the first African-American to be inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame. He began his career at J. Walter Thompson Co. and was the agency's first African-American account executive. He was responsible for introducing the now-iconic Lite Beer for Miller.

2003 Ann Fudge becomes the first African-American to chair major mainstream market agency, as head of Young & Rubicam.

2006 New York City Commission on Human Rights, revisiting the issue of minority employment in NYC ad agencies, finds numbers still well below that of general population and other industries. Subpoenas execs of NYC ad agencies, but hearings avoided after agencies sign agreements.

2010 Cyrus Mehri files charges against the advertising industry with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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Compiled with Jason Chambers, professor of advertising at University of Illinois, and the law firm of Cyrus Mehri.