We’ve heard over the last few months that TBWA’s digital output for Gatorade was coming to a close. AdAge has the story, and naturally we have some insight. Namely, TBWA doesn’t have the digital capabilities of its competitors — case-in-point, RefreshEverything.
Earlier today we updated a post from yesterday on the RefreshEverything campaign to include the agency that did the digital work (from strategy to production, say various sources), Brooklyn-based HUGE. It was our mistake not mentioning them in the first place since that info was readily available on the Web.
It’s not just digital strategy and production that TBWA is lacking — but social strategy/execution, too. Proof of this, since the agency would never admit it, is in who they’ve hired to execute those portions of their business. For example, HUGE handled social media/site development and design, according to the Times. Sources tell us Chiat has also partnered with Undercurrent and MIR, too, though not on this project. It’s an all-too-common practice for bigger agencies.
Word on the street is Chiat tried to buy a smaller social media agency, probably in a bid to prevent Pepsi moving business away (WPP’s VML got the business, btw). But the deal went south, as did the relationship with that shop.
The bigger loss, though, is for Omnicom. HUGE is an IPG company and VML is WPP’s. So not only was Omnicom not doing Gatorade’s digital in the first place, they still won’t be going forward. TBWA is expected to “remain Gatorade’s strategic and creative agency” reports iMediaConnection, so that’s something. But how long will it take Pepsi to take a meeting with some biz-dev team who convinces them to work with an agency built on digital?
The lesson other traditional agencies should take-away: build up your digital capabilities and hire someone high-ranking enough to give “swing-dick” and get the little guys more strategic control.
What this doesn’t mean: TBWA lacks people who think about how to execute digital/social media. You know better than we do the nuances of these scenarios — ie the big agency has people to plan digital/social, who then hand the work off to the shop that’s executing it, which also has strategy folk. Both big and small shop need strategists, and it’s usually the vendor who ends up looking like, well, a vendor as a result of their employer’s posturing. Regardless, most every agency has a digital/social role built in. How that person’s work plays into each shop is for another story.