It is said that some people in direct marketing are so desperate to get into advertising trade rag Campaign that they will do virtually anything. To be fair, most manage to maintain their dignity, showering journalists with fine dining, tickets to concerts and top sporting events, and birthday and Christmas treats, of course. How else do you think some of those idiots get into the A-List?
Step forward Alchemetrics’ boss Francis Wallinger, whose data business is rather keen on cosying up to the agency market. Now most companies would simply take out an ad and hope for the best. But not old Franny – he decided to take all his clothes off, exposing rather too much flesh, and pose for a spoof ad under the strapline: “Alcametrics, making data sexy”.
Now I’ve heard of naked ambition but this is ridiculous. Mind you, I hear Diary editor Matt Williams can’t even get near his desk for all the gifts… As for Francis, for God’s sake man, have you no shame? Put your clothes back on and get on with your day job.
One man who’s got a new day job is graduate Edward Sharpley, who was spotted on BBC’s Breakfast by Rapp boss Marco Scognamiglio. Having been put forward for the interview by recruitment agency Give a Grad a Go, his phone rang almost immediately.
Marco is quoted as saying: “I watched this bright, articulate young man talking about his struggle to find work in the beleaguered graduate job market and thought ‘We’ll have him!’ In other words: “I watched this young man talking about his struggle to find work and thought, excellent, I can avoid paying recruitment fees and he’ll be cheap as chips too.”
However, claims that he’s being lined up as the new chief executive of the London agency are slightly wide of the mark – Pete Mitchell hasn’t officially left yet and even Rapp’s cost-cutting hasn’t got that bad.
Another agency dressing up bad news as good is the one and only Joshua G2 or is it G2 Joshua? Anyway, this week they sent out a press release claiming that they are ditching the traditional adland world of Soho and have “moved the whole agency across to Knightsbridge with the aim of recruiting a new breed of marketers to reinvigorate the industry”.
Nice try guys but a) Wells Street, where your old offices were, is not, and has never been, in Soho and b) isn’t it the case that Centaur Media need the rest of the building because they are moving out of Poland Street?
Still, Knightsbridge is a hot-bed of creativity. Isn’t that where Lowe used to be?
