Did you hear that AT&T acquired DirecTV?
Today the parent company projected big revenue growth following its latest M&A move–and I, for one, welcome our new cable/wireless overlords.
But what about the advertising?! Below is the first campaign promoting the new entity, and it also marks a collaboration between two competing ad agencies: Grey and BBDO. The Omnicom shop recently lost some P&G business to its WPP rival, but they’re working together now that their two clients have become one. Grey created the TV/radio/print components of the new campaign while BBDO will handle digital and social.
Here’s “Times Square,” which will debut on Saturday during the PGA Championship.
That was definitely historic.
As the release tells us, AT&T seeks to frame the move as a good thing for consumers everywhere, because “there’s nothing better than a big campaign to celebrate a new, powerful beginning.” More on that:
“Combined entertainment and mobility means the way our customers watch TV will never be the same, and the campaign definitely reflects that. The center of this is all about making lives better and more enriched with the seamless mobilization of video entertainment.”
The F.C.C. seemed to agree by approving this deal as opposed to the failed Comcast/Time Warner merger that allegedly led Goodby, Silverstein & Partners to close its New York office.
So which agency, if any, will win the merger? That’s not yet clear. Just yesterday, TBWA’s Integer Group announced that it had opened an office in Atlanta in order to more effectively collaborate with BBDO on the AT&T business, and a client spokesperson tells us that the expanded company looks forward to working with both agencies to promote its new offering.
AT&T’s claims that “the way we watch TV will never be the same,” but where will the newly expanded company will spend the “double-digit consolidated revenue growth” it expects to record in 2015? Will it promote the DirecTV offering, thereby sending more work Grey’s way?
“Times Square” will probably be the only full-length ad promoting the merger, but we can expect print ads and digital/paid social to come.