Looks like we have a pattern here: E*Trade has moved its media from Spark Communications to WPP…without completing a traditional review.
Before the change, Publicis/Starcom property Spark handled media for E*Trade for more than five years.
In case you don’t recall, the company also failed to complete its creative review in 2013 when it signed with Ogilvy (Grey, responsible for those baby spots that still define the brand in the minds of so many, resigned the account before the non-review). That change happened shortly after the arrival of CMO Liza Landsman, so we may have found our story’s villain or hero, depending on one’s perspective.
The account will be handled across the WPP team as part of a consolidation strategy that E*Trade believes will help it make more from less. In possibly maybe related news, MediaPost reports that E*Trade’s ad/marketing budget decreased by 22% last year.