Bam! Acquires Micron Advertising, Resigns Akia, Plans New Hires, Idaho Satellite Office

Austin, Texas, agency Bam! is adding a second location and about a dozen staffers after being awarded creative and strategic planning duties for the direct PC manufacturer Micron Electronics.
Bam! principal David Bernert said the agency will open an outpost in Micron’s home of Nampa, Idaho, for day-to-day contact with its largest client.
Micron plans to spend in excess of $50 million in 1998, with media buying handled in-house. Billings for Bam!’s portion of the account are still being determined.
Micron creative director Mike Rosenfelt confirmed the assignments for Bam! would include broadcast and imaging work expected to provide a larger impact than was felt in the company’s 1997 branding.
“The company continues to win a huge number of [industry] awards, yet its . . . brand awareness is laughable,” said Rosenfelt.
Bernert agreed, noting that despite Micron’s substantial advertising budget, “Nobody knows who the hell they are.”
As a result of the new business win, Bam! was forced to resign it $6 million account with computer maker Akia Corp. in Austin [see page 6] to avoid a conflict. The agency also saw its $8-10 million relationship with Motorola Computer Group end in December, after that client dropped its line of Macintosh-compatible systems.
Bam! capitalized on its past relationships with four key Micron executives, including chief operating officer Joel Kocher, who were at Austin’s Power Computing from 1995-97. Power was an early client of 2-year-old Bam!.
The Micron advertising account was estimated at $35 million when awarded in late 1996 to Baltimore’s Trahan Burden & Charles. That agency launched the client’s first television campaign last year featuring unemployed middle management types who were dismissed after failing to secure Micron computers for their company.
The TV campaign’s tagline was: “Now you know.”