Intel has moved their creative account to Venables Bell & Partners in San Francisco from McCann Erickson Worldwide. According to The New York Times, “Intel has not made final decisions on its budgets for 2009, but by some estimates, master brand ads could total from $50 million to $150 million each year.”
Regardless, this is a big, big win for the newly named global creative lead. Even if Intel spokesman David Dickstein has said that “Intel plans to work with a panoply of agencies rather than limiting itself to the traditional model of designating an agency of record.” Agencies who have already been working for the bran, such as Doremus and Razorfish will continue to support Venables.
Many of you thought that McCann should have lost Intel way back in 2007 when the poorly conceived print ad above hit the streets. It didn’t happen. Back in April, Universal McCann lost the media buying portion of the Intel account. Then, folks were saying that the creative was next. Not sure much. A few weeks ago, we mentioned that ex-AOR, McCann, was getting jerked around by the client and was forced into pitching for an Intel project. We also noted that Intel was expecting weak demand for their products. In this recession, we’re not surprised that Intel has taken the leap. Finally.