Volkswagen and Volvo Play Musical Execs

Share

Volkswagen Taps Volvo's Ellis as VP-Marketing

At what point does one stop and realize that these people and the experience they bring are as interchangably commoditized as the brands on which they work? This was a question posed to me by the head of HR at one of the world's premier sports, performance and style companies following his return from a major HR conference on the same topic. Didn't Pepsi just replace Dawn Hudson here too? She's another ad exec slotted for marketing by a manufacturer who wanted to make ads on the cheap who ended up with domestic sales down 7%. Just like ConAgra reairing ancient Wesson and Orville ads to save a production buck. They don't care about their ads. If they did, they'd care about their brands. Instead, they're just pretend branders. Same things gonna happen here for sure.

Pepsi-Cola Chief Dawn Hudson Exits Following Reorg

Share

Food-and-Beverage Giant Dissatisfied as North America Weakens

And it's about time. Dawn Hudson and Indra Nooyi knew long ago, exactly at the time I created the concept of Baked Lays Potato Chips (sold $310 million in first ten months domestically) that in the US people want a combination of high health and high pleasure in foods, positioning and communications messaging. What's healthier than fried chips? Baked Chips. Which chips are most fun? Lays. So there it is. Baked Lays. I did the same combination creating Healthy Choice in the early eighties for ConAgra when I learned this adroit truth for the first time - supplying the agency creatives with the ammunition they needed to launch a multi-billion dollar brand. But Dawn's major US initiative was "health and wellness" headed up by VP fiend Patty Wolff. So given that they already had the answer, how'd they miss the boat? Blame it on Indra Nooyi. At the time I launched Baked Lays, Indra insisted people just wanted lower calories and less fat. So she launched Wow! Chips with olestra (a P&G supplier idea) that couldn't even fill the pipeline with $29 million worth of product. And in beverages, they just keep slipping below the zero calorie line. Can you have a beverage that provides negative calories? That's part of identifying future consumption drivers in soft drinks.

Orville Redenbacher Gets New Campaign!

Share

If I'd had more dignity than Crispin Porter + Bogusky, realizing that younger kids always want what older kids have, and had had a crack at handling the Orville Redenbacher account at ConAgra, given that I'd already gained the cultural experience of having worked on brands such as Healthy Choice, Banquet, Butterball, Peter Pan, Wesson Oil, Snack Pack, Hunts Spaghetti Sauce, Swift-Eckrich Meats and various new product assignments over the years, I would have approached the brand this way.

Why did Crispin Porter + Bogusky launch the Orville Dedbacher campaign? Because they could.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky Seeks TiVo Answers

Share

Well what an admission that people skip over their ads. Wouldn't it be better if they just did the homework required to learn how to create ads people wanted to watch? They inject themselves into the equation and end up creating ads we skip over. There are so many examples like this. If McKinsey consultants had the answers, then why does their consumer practice web site admit that despite solid balance sheets client revenues are down and executives wonder where the growth will come from? If you fire an advertising agency, isn't that admitting that in all these years you've never really found out what motivates consumers about your products? The truth stares you in the face, but you look past it for solutions elsewhere. We are truly blind. You know, not doing this homework and shooting from the creative hip is the same reason this agency parted ways with ConAgra and Orville Redenbacher.