A member of Dell’s digital media team has been outspoken both on AgencySpy and Tribble Ad Agency over the recent allegations that VP of Marketing Casey Jones has been placed on probation. He says Jones isn’t on probation, and told us so by commenting on the story.
“I Don’t know where you got this notion, but there isn’t an ounce of truth in your conjecture. We understand that you’re in the gossip business, but you should have a modicum of responsibility when blindly speculating on an individual’s career. This is simply wrong.”
The commenter, RichardatDell, (real name Richard Binhammer) left this comment both on AgencySpy and Tribble (although it seems to have disappeared from AS — which we had nothing to do with). We figured out who he was after a quick Google search of RichardatDell, the name attached to said comment.
More after the jump.
Although he is right about the matter of Jones’ probation being speculative, we would like to note that because of the WPP/Dell relationship, and the unique nature of the situation, Jones has become a notable public figure. In other words, he’s not “the little guy.”
The most interesting thing to note here is that so far we haven’t heard from an official Dell rep. — save for Binhammer’s comments. We ponder; is Binhammer speaking out of turn, or is he being propped up as the company’s representation on the issue? Is Dell attempting to fight blog with blogger? Is Binhammer a blogola sponsored rep? The situation confounds.
We’re guessing we’ll find out in the next few hours and we’re happy to have an open conversation about the matter.
One last thought. On Tribble, Binhammer writes of the Enfatico situation overall, saying, “Lets set some information straight. The date we signed an agreement is not the same as the date that Enfatico began work. Also, I cannot account for you not seeing the advertisements or other marketing initiatives that Enfatico has worked with us on.”
Two questions: How long does it take to produce interactive and print work? With Enfatico Austin supposedly in full swing, we’d expect to see more. So far, there hasn’t been much. And nine months is more than enough time to be creative, and productive — in that order.
Enfatico is in the advertising public’s cross-hairs for a damn good reason. The monumental leap to WPP was bound to be watched and scrutinized from the get go — all the way down to the poor fellas at the top who are most responsible for making the whole life-ruining thing possible. There’s an old saying, “if it ain’t broke…” well you know the rest. The same was true for Dell — sure, they weren’t competing with Apple. But they were solid; not great, just solid.
According to DellShares dot com, they hold 32.9 percent and 19.2 percent of sales in the US and worldwide, respectively. Furthermore:
“…By virtue of our business model, we have outstanding cash flow generation capabilities. For example, our cash flow from operations over the past four quarters was $4.2 billion and more than $22 billion over the past five years, and through a tough business cycle, we grew cash flow from operations per share from $1.55 to $1.76 in the past five years.”
Click here to watch a boring video about Dell’s virtualization strategy.
As for Binhammer’s association with Dell, “New Communications Review” confirms his employment with the company. In a personal profile on his blog, RichardatDell dot blogspot dot com, he writes, “I get to visit blogs, listen learn and converse. Part of Dell’s digital media team…”