Newswires: Late-Breaking Industry News

At Least 3 Agencies Pitch Ideas For Ford Focus CampaignNEW YORK At least three agencies are putting forth ideas for the next Ford Focus campaign, as the automaker looks beyond the brand's lead agency, JWT, sources said. The WPP shop is competing against sister agencies Ogilvy & Mather and Berlin Cameron and possibly one other, said sources. JWT and Ogilvy are leading their efforts out of their joint Dearborn, Mich., office, though other locations may be contributing. Berlin is based in New York. The agencies declined comment. Ford declined to identify the shops but confirmed the search. "With all the stories to tell about this car and the growing importance of the small-car segment in general, we wanted to get the most ideas on the table as we could, in addition to the ones we already have," said a company representative. Major media spending on the Focus has fallen in recent years, along with sales. In 2003, Ford spent $88 million on Focus ads, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. By 2005, that figure was $54 million and last year's total was $4 million. Mercedes Fills Top Marketing Post With Richards' CannonNEW YORK Mercedes-Benz USA last week named Steve Cannon, a principal at The Richards Group who held several positions at Mercedes early in his career, to fill the vp, marketing post that Mark McNabb vacated in January. Cannon, who becomes the company's fifth marketing chief in eight years, will oversee marketing communications, market research and product management for Mercedes and sister brand Maybach in the U.S., Mercedes said. He starts June 25 and will report to president and CEO Ernst Lieb. Mercedes' lead creative agency in the U.S. is Omnicom's Merkley + Partners here. Mercedes last year spent more than $200 million in major measured media, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Cannon, 46, spent five years at Richards, where he managed dealer ad efforts for then client Hyundai Motor America. From 1991 until 2000, Cannon held a series of posts at Mercedes, lastly director of marketing for the carmaker's Debis Financial Services division.Eastman Departs Agency.com, Heads to Sister Shop ZuluNEW YORK Less than two months after he was replaced as CEO, Agency.com's president of international operations David Eastman is leaving the shop to head fellow Omnicom agency Zulu, where he will replace Martin Brooks as CEO. Andy Hobsbawm, Agency.com's European chairman, will fill Eastman's role as president of international operations. Until Eastman joins Zulu later in the summer, Agency.com said he would assist with the transition as a "non-executive director." He reports to shop CEO Chan Suh.Kraft Hands Creative Account For Cracker Biz to EuroRSCGNEW YORK Kraft has awarded North American creative duties on its estimated $70 million cracker business to Euro RSCG here following a review, the client has confirmed. The brands awarded to the Havas agency are Ritz, Toasted Chips and Triscuits. A new campaign is expected in the fall. Other contenders for the business were IPG's DraftFCB and WPP's Ogilvy & Mather, both in New York, according to sources. Media duties, handled by Publicis' MediaVest in Chicago, were not in play. The cracker business is one of three lines totaling about $200 million in media spending that Kraft recently moved out of WPP's JWT in Chicago. Lunchables ($40 million) shifted to DraftFCB in April, while Oscar Mayer meats, Grey Poupon mustard and Kraft Singles remain under review. A client representative said those brands would be assigned by the end of summer.Deutsch Promotes Duda To Chief Strategy Officer PostLOS ANGELES IPG's Deutsch has elevated Michael Duda to chief corporate strategy officer. Duda said that Deutsch had "pioneered an integrated model that many have tried to replicate but fallen short," and that in his new role he expects the agency to "reach a new level of expectation of integration." He credited co-presidents in the Marina del Rey, Calif., office, Mike Sheldon and Eric Hirshberg, and CEO Linda Sawyer and president Val DiFebo in New York as leading that direction. Duda, 36, has been a partner at the agency since 2005. He had been svp, director of business development since 2001.Google Adds Feature to Provide More Data for AdvertisersNEW YORK Google is adding a feature designed to help advertisers track clicks on the search giant's far-flung ad network. Through a "content placement report," companies will see which sites their ads show up on, which generate the most clicks and whether those sites are so-called "parked domains" of Web pages carrying little more than ads. The reports are the latest in a series of steps the Internet giant has taken to be more open to advertisers, who have in the past had little control over where their ads appear. On top of that, many advertisers have suspected traffic from Google's ad network sites is the result of click fraud.Interpublic Will Reply to SEC As Commission Mulls SettlementNEW YORK The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked IPG to formally present its side of the story in the government's five-year investigation into accounting irregularities at the holding company. IPG has received a "Wells notice" to submit a response to SEC staffers before they make a recommendation to the commission, IPG said last week in an 8-K filing. The holding company described the request as a prerequisite to settlement negotiations with the SEC. In its filing, IPG said that the SEC's staff told the holding company that it "intends to seek approval from the commission to enter into settlement discussions with the company and, failing a settlement, to commence an action charging the company with various violations of federal securities laws." The federal probe began in 2002 after IPG revealed a $181.3 million accounting imbalance that spanned five years (1997-2001). The investigation expanded in 2005, after IPG restated earnings for 2000-04, stemming partly from employee misconduct.Hal Riney Chairman and CEO Karen Francis ResignsLOS ANGELES Publicis & Hal Riney chairman and CEO Karen Francis resigned her post last week and was replaced by managing partner Jamie King, who becomes president and CEO, the agency confirmed. The Publicis San Francisco agency lost its piece of the $1.2 billion Sprint/Nextel business to Omnicom's Goodby, Silverstein & Partners earlier this year, but recently won creative duties on Pinnacle Foods, Altoids and the $75 million U.S. Cellular. Francis had come to the agency from the client side (Ford and GM, where she was general manager of the Oldsmobile division). King joined the agency three years ago from Leo Burnett.AOL Names AT&T's Burbank As Chief Marketing OfficerBOSTON AOL has named John Burbank CMO as the company continues its push from a subscription-based service to an ad-supported model. Burbank joins from AT&T, where he had been vp, marketing, a post he held since 2002. Joe Redling last held the CMO title at AOL, but he shifted to chairman and CEO of AOL's international division in September before leaving the company two months later. AOL spent $200 million in measured media in 2006, down from nearly $300 million the previous year, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. The company spent just $5 million through the first quarter of 2007.

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