Huxley Quayle von Blog

Good advice for marketers.

Marketing Chiefs: Think Like a Start-up
Five Strategies for Established Brands to Dig Deeper, Move Faster

by David Ellis

Published: February 23, 2009
David Ellis
David Ellis

Panicky markets. Dazed consumers. Shifting distribution. Eroding margins. Disappearing budgets. An atomized media environment. Established brands used to pulling predictable business levers are likely to be in for a rude awakening in 2009, unless they substantially reinvent their marketing approaches. To survive in this new-world disorder, brands will have to dig deeper, move faster and execute perfectly the first time, every time. Just like a start-up.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Vincor Canada selects HQvB to create campaign for Growers Cider

Vincor Canada has selected Huxley Quayle von Bismark to create a new multi-media campaign for Growers Cider, Canada’s Number One Cider brand.

“The cider category is experiencing strong growth and as the leading brand we want to make sure we protect our market share position and keep giving back to our many, loyal consumers” says Nadine Iacocca, Brand Manager at Vincor. “After meetings with HQvB, we felt they offered a strong mix of consumer insight and creative thinking that will help us get closer to our audience.”

“Everyone here at HQvB is excited to work on this brand”, says Mark Tawse-Smith, Partner at HQvB. “Growers has a great, long history in the category and we feel strongly that our new vision of advertising not only marries well with how their audience consumes media, but will help us offer the client exceptional value.

Obviously, we can’t say what we’re planning, but we can say that the campaign will be centered around an idea that will get people involved with the brand.”

Just One Project gains international media attention on Advertising Age

How One Agency Is Doing More for Jobless
Toronto Shop Assembling Teams of Freelancers for Just One Project

by Marissa Miley

Published: February 23, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- After seeing advertising job losses mount in its home city of Toronto, an independent agency is trying to mitigate the devastating effects of the recession in Adland.

In late January, Huxley Quayle von Bismark, a 1-year old Canadian agency with a staff of 10, launched an initiative to bring new business to recently laid-off advertising professionals. The effort, called Just One Project, invites major advertisers to give "just one project" to a freelance staff assembled by the agency.

HQVB partner Andy Shortt said the company has been flooded with e-mails, portfolios and résumés since the recession hit Canada in late November. At first it was disheartening. "As much as we would have liked to hire everybody ourselves, we couldn't," he said. But then Mr. Shortt and his partners started to think about the possibility of doing exactly that through Just One Project.

"You can't be an industry leader if you don't care about what happens to the people who make up the industry," Mr. Shortt said. If his agency could help keep out-of-work ad people afloat for a month or two on a project, he was all for it.

Hundreds of résumés
In the few weeks since Justoneproject.ca went live, more than 300 laid-off professionals have responded, and two national media companies have offered special deals for advertisers that assign projects to the initiative, Mr. Shortt said. Aegis Group's Genesis Vizeum is also working with HQVB to negotiate media buying for the project.

Assignments through Just One Project are intended to be in the $15,000 to $20,000 range, just enough for freelancers to have some livelihood and not be a threat to ad agencies with multimillion-dollar accounts. HQVB will charge about $125 per hour: $100 per hour for the freelancers and $25 per hour to cover its in-house costs.

For the most part, Mr. Shortt has received kudos from agencies around the world. Closer to home, some agencies have argued that the project is undercutting general-market fees.

"The goal here is not to deprive other people of work," Mr. Shortt said, noting that Just One Project seeks work that is small and that the initiative has turned down at least one advertiser's request to bid.

HQVB is sorting through résumés for its first project, the launch of ConnectInPrivate.com, a secure online network for file sharing. It expects to announce the creative team this week.

While Mr. Shortt said he and his business partners, Chris Hall and Mark Tawse-Smith, are trying to help out those in need, he added, "We believe that if you do good things, good things happen to you."

HQVB has worked with Travel Alberta International; the Ontario Art of College & Design; Toronto Community Foundation; and Vincor Canada, part of Constellation Brands.

Anheuser-Busch cuts agency fees. It's about time.

Anheuser-Busch Whacks Retainers for Its Agencies
New Compensation Model Could Cost DDB Dearly

Posted by Jeremy Mullman on 02.16.09

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Agency fees are the latest casualty in Anheuser-Busch InBev's quest to trim $1.5 billion in costs out of the world's largest brewer.

A-B has swapped its long-held retainer-based model of compensating its busiest agencies for a new approach based on an agreed-upon scope of work at the shops. That shift, which has become an increasingly common one for marketers looking to cut agency outlays, puts the agencies on the hook if projects require more hours or greater cost than expected. Other changes include stingier reimbursement rates for production costs and smaller, flat per-concept fees.

Read the rest of the article here.

More press for Ontario College of Art & Design ad

HQvB launches Ontario College of Art & Design online film.

Ad Age reports 77% of marketers are looking to reduce their advertising costs. It's about time, we say.

Today on Ad Age Online I read an article about marketers in the US cutting budgets and challenging agencies to find cost savings. Specifically, here's the numbers from their latest survey:

• 72% of marketers plan to reduce advertising-campaign production budgets
• 68% plan to "challenge" agencies to reduce internal expenses and/or identify cost reductions
• 48% are looking at reducing agency compensation today.

Funny how it takes a recession to force people to look at being more efficient and finding more creative ways of doing more with less. Here at HQvB that's just plain-old-everyday-how-we-work.

Anyway, click here to read the whole article.

Thought of the day - February 7, 2009

I've been reading a lot about how historical it is that President Obama became the first African American President of the US and it got me thinking that would really be an historical day is when a black man wins the Presidency and every article about his victory doesn't contain a reference about his ethnicity.

Just One Project the subject of Globe and Mail story

On the weekend, the Globe and Mail launched a video story about Just One Project. they interviewed HQvB partner Chris Hall along with Boris Pan, who had been recently laid off from Cossette's Fjord Interactive.

Wasn't interactive supposed to be immune to the downturn?

To watch the video, click here.