Without a doubt, 2002 has been a tough year for the advertising industry, especially as the economic meltdown continues. Anyone in the business will tell you that clients are more conservative, budgets have been slashed and competition is fierce. Buckling under the pressure, some agencies floundered creatively in the past year. But others flourished—perhaps none more so than BBDO New York. In fact, despite the current economic climate and proclamations that advertising is dead yet again, the creative minds at BBDO managed to conceptualize and produce extraordinary work for clients such as Federal Express, Pepsi and Visa. Based on the strength and breadth of the agency’s creative output in ’02, SHOOT has chosen BBDO New York as its ’02 agency of the year.
Just take a look at the agency’s ’02 compilation reel, which includes spots for the aforementioned clients, as well as for Cingular, General Electric (GE), Guinness, Snickers Crunchers, M&M’s, Sierra Mist, Mountain Dew and Diet Mountain Dew, and you’ll see why BBDO—a venerable agency founded in 1891—is a creative standout.
BBDO has seen several of its spot endeavors featured in SHOOT "Top Spots" this year, including Doritos Extreme’s "Cheerleader" (1/18, p. 10), directed by Marcos Siega of bicoastal/international hungry man; Mountain Dew’s "Davey and Goliath" (3/8, p. 10), directed by Michael Bannon, who is also creative director of Wreckless Abandon Studios, East Granby, Conn.; Diet Mountain Dew’s "Golf" (4/5, p. 10), directed by Dayton/Faris—Jonathan and Valerie, respectively—of bicoastal Bob Industries; Pepsi Twist’s "Britney Sighting" (5/31, p. 10), directed by Bryan Buckley of hungry man; M&M’s "Pituitary" (9/13, p. 10), directed by Rob Pritts of Backyard Productions, Venice, Calif.; and Nicotrol’s "Wake Up" (11/1, p. 10), directed by Jeff Gorman of JGF, Hollywood.
Press kudos aside, BBDO also fared well at the advertising award shows this year. The agency recently won seven awards for six different clients at the London International Advertising Awards (LIAA), making it the LIAA’s most-awarded U.S. agency for the third year in a row. The judges granted awards to the following spots produced in ’02: Snickers Crunchers’ "Telemarketer," directed by Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles; GE’s "Journey," directed by Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-headquartered PYTKA; and Citizens Against Terrorism’s "Tourists," directed by hungry man’s Buckley.
The LIAA also gave the agency awards for spots that were a part of last year’s pro bono New York Miracle campaign. Created for the Office of the Mayor (under the aegis of former mayor Rudolph Giuliani), the commercials found New York personalities—including Billy Crystal and Robert De Niro—demonstrating how New York makes dreams come true. The specific spots honored were "Deli," "Skating," and "Yankee Stadium," directed by Pytka; and "Turkey," directed by Barry Levinson via hungry man.
Additionally, several of the agency’s Mountain Dew spots were honored at this year’s Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show. "Davey and Goliath" and two ’01 spots—"Duo," directed by Tarsem of bicoastal/international @radical.media, and "Ram," directed by Kinka Usher via House of Usher Films, Santa Monica—were all honored by the AICP, as was Citizens Against Terrorism’s "Tourists."
Among the agency’s other wins, BBDO won two Lions at the 49th Cannes International Advertising Festival—a Silver Lion for FedEx’s "Great Idea," directed by Frank Todaro of @radical.media, and a Bronze Lion for Citizens Against Terrorism’s "Tourist." BBDO was also named the winner of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) O’Toole Award for creative excellence (among those agencies with billings of $300 million or more). The O’Toole Award was based on BBDO’s entire body of work, as opposed to a single ad or campaign.
The agency also won several new clients in ’02, including Bank of America, Long John Silver’s and Harp’s Lager.
Staying The Course
There were a few reasons why ’02 was such a banner year for BBDO, according to Ted Sann, who has been chairman/chief creative officer of BBDO since ’93, and last year added the post of vice chairman/chief creative officer for BBDO North America to his duties. (The agency has U.S. offices in Chicago, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Francisco.) One of those reasons is the fact that BBDO has stuck to making commercials, rather than branching out into other areas.
"It’s funny, I was talking to—of all people—a financial guy, and he was telling me that one of the lessons everyone learned from this last downturn is that it’s really important to stick to what your fundamental business is—your core business," says Sann. "Our core business is creating ads for brands, for our clients, and we’ve stayed with it. We didn’t look up from it, and in a certain way we got dinged. [People said,] ‘Okay, these guys aren’t on the leading edge of the Internet. These guys don’t do this and that.’ But we know how to make ads, and we stuck to that."
That’s not to say that BBDO isn’t interested in potential new advertising avenues, but Sann would rather wait and see what methods stick first. "The business will change," he muses, "and then we will." And while some clients were cutting back on ad spending in ’02, Sann reports that BBDO’s clients remain committed to spot advertising and building awareness of their brands. "It makes a big difference, especially in times like this," Sann says. "In fact, most of them understand that in times like this, you may have to push even harder."
Of course, Sann also praises his creative team, noting that the people who work for him have "a real passion for the business." A few years ago, Sann streamlined the creative department to ensure a more efficient operational flow. "This place is predicated on the fact that the top creative people are hands on," he states. "We had three groups, and they kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and it was pulling [top creative] people further away from the work because they had so much area to cover. So I thought about it, and said, ‘Wait a minute. Everybody’s got to get back into the work, and the way to do that is to make the groups smaller.’ Some people weren’t thrilled about that when it happened, but the truth is, the work got better."
The way the agency is structured today, Sann oversees all creative—"Even I occasionally still write a commercial," he notes—with six top executives running creative groups and reporting directly to him. Sann’s team is comprised of Charlie Miesmer, Michael Patti and Jimmy Siegel, all of whom are vice chairmen/ senior executive creative directors; Al Merrin, vice chairman/executive creative director; and Gerry Graf and Bill Bruce, who are executive VPs/ executive creative directors.
Graf, who works on accounts such as FedEx and Guinness, can testify to the effectiveness of the reorganization. He joined BBDO in ’94 as a copywriter and was an associate creative director by the time he left the agency in ’97 to join Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. In ’00, Graf returned to BBDO, and he saw a real difference in how the creative department operated. "Before, one of my struggles was getting through all the layers," Graf recalls. "All of a sudden there were no layers."
A Simple
Philosophy
When asked if BBDO is guided by an overarching creative philosophy, Sann replies, "Actually, yeah. I had to go to the hospital once in the middle of a Pepsi pitch, and [Michael Patti] asked me what to do. I said, ‘Do good ads.’ That’s my philosophy."
While Sann’s edict is succinct, it is one that his employees take to heart. "I’m not just paying lip service, but I think [BBDO] has been an agency where creative is always held to the highest standards, and that’s what’s most important," says Siegel. "When I say that, I clearly don’t mean you’re forgetting strategy, you’re forgetting selling the client’s product—because you’re absolutely not. We’ve just always felt it’s possible to do both."
Strategy and research are, of course, key components in guiding creatives, but Sann says he "doesn’t get bogged down in the research." Siegel expands on that: "Let’s face it—with all the testing that goes on and all the pressure of a bad economy, the one thing clients sometimes forget is that if you don’t get people’s attention right off the bat, you can put everything you want into a spot—every single strategic point you want—and it doesn’t matter, people aren’t going to watch it," he relates. "You’ve got to break through. You’ve got to get people wanting to see your spot, so you have to entertain just to get noticed. We’ve always been cognizant of that. We’ve always preached that you’re working with a place where creative is king. It’ll always be king."
Each of BBDO’s varied clients is dealt with individually rather than in a cookie-cutter fashion. "We deal specifically with clients’ problems," says Bruce, who works on accounts such as Pepsi and Mountain Dew. "We think, ‘What is the best solution?’ as opposed to, ‘This is a BBDO spot.’ The personality of the work comes from the clients."
The work created in ’02 has certainly been diverse in tone. For Pepsi, BBDO created youthful, energetic spots featuring pop sensation Britney Spears. Ads for GE—including "Journey," which finds a doctor traveling to a remote African village with portable sonogram equipment in tow—have been moving and emotional.
Clients of BBDO know they will get creative that’s applicable to their goals, and notably, many BBDO brands—including Visa (a client since ’85), Pepsi (since ’60) and FedEx (since ’89)—have had enduring relationships with the shop. When working with long-term clients, the agency is vigilant about keeping the work fresh. "You have to beat what you did before—just always trying to outdo what you’ve done and stand out," Bruce says.
Now BBDO will stick with a concept that works—as long as it hasn’t run its course. For instance, Siegel, whose clients include Visa and Frito-Lay, points out that Visa has "a heritage of using celebrities, and when we use them we try to use them in a way that fits. We use them for a specific reason. We don’t just plug them in there." Some memorable ads created for Visa in ’02 continue that tradition of celebrity appearances, making clever use of famous faces, including Kevin Bacon in "Bacon," a Super Bowl spot directed by hungry man’s Buckley. In the latest Visa campaign, football stars—and identical twins—Tiki and Ronde Barber appear in "Barbers," directed by Frank Samuel of Harvest, Santa Monica; and father and son actors Martin and Charlie Sheen appear in "Sheens," directed by Allen Coulter of hungry man.
A Hands-On
Approach
As previously noted by Sann, BBDO’s top creatives are intimately involved in the creative process. They don’t just supervise, and they don’t step aside when it comes to production. Like his counterparts, Bruce, for example, personally makes the final decision on which vendors will be called upon to work on a particular spot—from the director, to the editor, to the visual effects house, to the music shop. "The director doesn’t come to me and say, ‘I’m working with this editor and this special effects house.’ If they do, you go, ‘Okay, well, thank you. It was good talking to you,’ because in the end, you’re responsible," notes Bruce, "and I only work with directors who I know are going to be collaborative."
BBDO worked with a wide range of talent in ’02—from industry veterans like Pytka to rising stars like Siega. Like Bruce, Siegel wants to work with collaborative types and notes that he is receptive to requests by directors to take part in the first cut of a spot. "I’ll always say, ‘Go ahead.’ I welcome that. Usually, we send them the first cut anyway, to get their opinions," Siegel says. But directors do not have the final say. "Sometimes we’ll take [their suggestions] into account, and sometimes we won’t." Given the crucial nature of the editing process, top creatives—including Sann—take part in edit sessions to ensure that the final cut is what’s best for the client.
The Big Game
At press time, creatives at the agency were working on spots for the Super Bowl. The agency has always been active in the most popular sporting event of the year, but Sann says BBDO was quieter than usual this past Super Bowl. In ’02, the agency created three-and-a-half minutes worth of original, in-game commercials for clients including Pepsi, Charles Schwab and Visa. (Other BBDO-created spots, including one for FedEx and another for M&M’s, also ran, but they were not originally created for the Super Bowl. The agency also created an additional two minutes worth of original spots for the pre-game show.)
BBDO’s all-time high in terms of Super Bowl ads came in ’01, when the agency created about seven-and-a-half minutes worth of original commercials for clients including Pepsi, Visa, Charles Schwab, FedEx, Snickers Crunchers, Doritos and Cingular.
While the creatives always strive do their best work, several admit feeling a particular rush when it comes to creating spots that will break during the Super Bowl, which is traditionally a showcase for commercials as much as it is for the gridiron. "Obviously, it’s become quite an advertising showcase over the last ten or fifteen years," Siegel says. "You know that eighty million people—or whatever the figure is—are going to be watching what you do."
Interestingly, many of the high-level creatives have been with BBDO for many years. Miesmer joined BBDO in ’68. Siegel has been with the agency for 21 years; Bruce for 17.
"I think the reason I’ve stayed—and there have been other offers—is [because] it gets in your blood. It’s the work. That is all it comes down to. You have the ability to produce the work that you want to do and not compromise," Bruce says. "You work with the best people in the business, and you do work that you’re really proud of."
When asked why his staffers are so devoted, Sann, who has been with BBDO since ’70, says, "I can only judge from my own experience here, and it’s a great place to work. Good work is rewarded. What you do is valued. There’s not a lot of other stuff that gets in the way. There aren’t many places like that."
