The 800-Pound Ad Review: Wal-Mart
| posted by Danielle SacksIt must have sucked to be Bob Bernstein and Skip Rein last Wednesday. The two founders of Bernstein-Rein, a Missouri-based ad agency, have been the agency of record for Wal-Mart for the past, get this: 32 years. Less than a week ago the behemoth retailer announced they were putting its $578 million account -- which Bernstein-Rein shared with the sexier Omnicom GSD&M -- up for review -- the first time in 30 years. Ouch. It couldn't have been any easier to be one of B-R's 300 employees, knowing full-well that Wal-Mart was its 800-pound feeding tube, and they better start dusting off their resumes.
Since Wal-Mart's new CMO, John Fleming, came on board from Target last year, he's been making chess-like moves to shake off its "deep-discount" positioning to court wealthier, hipper customers. Last year the 19-year Target vet assembled a NY office of "trendspotters" (sound like Target anyone?), plucking fashion and design talent from Levi's, West Elm and Jonathan Adler -- and advertising its new fashion line, Metro 7, in Vogue last fall. This week's AdAge tracks Fleming's other moves over the past few months, which include: trying to land a big name designer for their roster, adding upmarket products to its shelves, pumping up his marketing team with 60 new brains, and quietly retiring the 11-year-old smiley faced icon to some sunny resort in Florida.
Bernstein-Rein and GSD&M will not lose the account without a fight, though. Both agencies say they plan on keeping themselves in the review mix. But with Wal-Mart keeping the review open equally to Madison Ave monoliths as well as smaller boutique hotshops -- and Fleming's clear craving for change -- they better start plotting for Plan B. Wal-Mart, on the other hand, may enter a new chapter of cooler, sexier brand positioning -- but no matter how good their new shop's ads are -- they still have plenty of nefarious imaging to shake off.
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Recent Comments | 5 Total
May 9, 2006 at 3:17am
roger fultonwell, dust off your resumes, welcome to the 21st century where you take nothing for granted, not even 30 years of hard work and success. You are only as good as your last balance sheet.
So the new CEO will rest only on what he can do for the Barbarians at the gate. I notice in this issue of WSJ, CEO turnover rates rival that of low ranking hotel sales managers. Pity they don't make nearly as much for the line of baloney they sell the hiring decision makers sounds as sweet as the CIA's recently departed top gun who made it just about as short-timer as the latest wall streeter top-dog.
Ah for the back yard garden chair.
May 9, 2006 at 4:23pm
daveCMO not CEO.
May 10, 2006 at 11:19am
ericIt's too bad, BR and GDS&M has done quality work for Wal-Mart and would have no problem adapting to attract a new audience for Wally World. Everything that BR and GSD&M had done was inline with what Wal-Mart wanted, now they think an agency review will fix it?
Give them both a chance, the whole new CMO = New Agency thing is a sad excuse of a power trip.
July 7, 2006 at 6:16pm
kramerI agree with the post above. The creative on Wal-Mart looks and feels the way it does because of the client. Period. It's their own damn fault, and agency reviews aren't gonna help if they aren't willing to try something new as a corp. culture overall.
September 8, 2006 at 9:15am
Lamar ColeLife doesn't get any better than a cold Coca Cola and a trip to Wal-Mart Heaven.
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