Footwear maker Crocs Inc. has named Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago its global agency of record. This marks the first time that the company has consolidated all of its advertising, media, digital and public relations with a single, integrated agency. C-K won the consolidated assignment following an three-month review process. C-K's Chicago office will handle brand strategy, creative, interactive, online, media planning and buying and public relations, with global support through the agency's ICOM network.
"Our goal is to help Crocs further differentiate itself and expand the 'Crocs community' by sharing the unique story and substance behind the brand," said Karen Seamen, general manager of C-K/Chicago. "C-K presented a global brand platform and creative executions that, when combined, provide a compelling brand story sure to reach the millions of Crocs fans worldwide, while introducing new people to our unique and innovative footwear," added Ken Chaplin, vice-president of marketing at Crocs.
C-K's first work for the client is expected to launch in spring of 2010.
Is Cramer-Krasselt going international soon? Apparently not, according to a spokeswoman for the agency, which has its principal office here in Chicago. But that oft-rumored foreign expansion still will be one of the topics expected to be touched on in an article on Cramer-Krasselt and its leader Peter Krivkovich in next Monday's edition of Crain's Chicago Business. Whatever else may be said about him, Krivkovich undoubtedly is one of the city's most aggressive ad agency executives, though circumstances -- like account defections -- often have prevented him from growing his agency as fast as he might have liked.
Cramer-Krasselt recently suffered a big setback in its Chicago office when Crown Imports took the Corona Light business out of the agency and initially awarded it to Publicis/New York. But that move backfired when it was revealed Publicis was in talks with Anheuser-Busch InBev about working with that competing brewing giant. Aside from the Corona account issues, C-K also is currently searching for a executive creative director in its Chicago office.
No matter the setbacks though, Krivkovich always has seemed to be focused on growth, and apparently, he fully intends to keep foreign expansion on the table as an option.
It's not been a great few weeks for Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago and its hold on various facets of the Corona and Corona Light business. First came word that Corona importer Crown Imports was moving the Corona Light ad account to Publicis/New York -- a step that, at the very least, suggests C-K's grip all on all things Corona no longer is as solid as it once was.
Now, Crown says it intends to relieve C-K of media buying duties for the flagship Corona Extra, Corona Light and Modelo Especial brands. C-K had been handling media buys for the Corona brands since 1993. A Crown spokesman said the importer wants to find a single media buying agency to handle media chores for all the aforementioned beer brands, as well as the Pacifico brand, for which Creature in Seattle currently does both creative and media buys.
The plan is for Crown to select the new media buying firm by year's end and transition all media buying to that agency early in 2010. That means that Cramer-Krasselt will be left with a lot less of everything related to Corona -- including income -- in about another six months. It's not the best of situations, to say the least. C-K and its aggressive CEO Peter Krivkovich will have to start beating the bushes just a little harder to find some new business to make up for what it will be losing with all the Corona changes.
Of course, it might help if C-K managed to find a new creative leader for the Chicago shop sooner rather than later. We've always been told that clients -- potential and existing -- feel more comfortable when they know who will be overseeing the creative output at agencies where they are investing a lot of marketing money.
Is the beer stein half full or half empty? Certainly the folks at Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago want --in the worst way -- to believe it's still half full. But the fact remains the agency, which has worked on the Corona business since 1993, has lost a bit of its grip on the business.
Chicago-based Crown Imports, which distributes Corona Extra and Corona Light in the United States, said Thursday it is giving the Corona Light ad business to Publicis/New York on a project basis -- at least at first. Crown Import sources said the project could evolve into an agency of record relationship at some point.
Light brews, of course, have been the most aggressively marketed beer products in recent years, which suggests Publicis may be getting the best part of the Corona account with which to work. And what of that ad work that will come from Publicis for Corona Light? Sources say it isn't clear yet whether Publicis will try for something that resembles the low-key touch C-K has made famous in its advertising for Corona and Corona Light over a number of years. But it's likely, as one source put it, that Publicis will come up with a campaign "somewhere down the beach," which is another way of saying Publicis will offer up creative that won't be easily confused with the work C-K did on the business.
For now, C-K appears to be content with what it's been left with, but there has to be a bit of uneasiness within the agency ranks now that Crown Imports has made this move toward Publicis. Time will surely tell us whether that beer stein we previously mentioned is now indeed half full or half empty at Cramer-Krasselt.
Just as the doors were about to close for good at JWT/Chicago, there appears to have been a reprieve. The shop is believed to have prevailed in a review for the $5 million Illinois Bureau of Tourism advertising account. JWT was the incumbent on the business, and in recent weeks, it had been competing with Euro RSCG/Chicago and Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago for the account. JWT's apparent win, sources say, means the Chicago shop would stay open at least as a satellite office to service the tourism account with approximately 20 staffers, including creative and account executives.
Perhaps the strongest aspect of JWT's work on the tourism account in recent years has been the eye-catching posters promoting a number of off-beat tourist destinations around the state. These executions helped pique interest in some attractions that vacationers otherwise might not have given a second thought.
Scott Wild, a semi-legend in the Chicago advertising community, stopped by for a visit today, along with an apprentice named Tucker Loosbrock, a recent graduate from advertising school who is helping Wild with his latest project.
Wild has been doing a lot of freelance work since he departed Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago, where he was a group creative director who pulled down a handsome salary of around $250,000 a year. Some who work in the trenches in Chicago's ad community were aghast when they finally learned just how much Wild was making at C-K, but the agency paid him royally because they believed he could help elevate the shop's creative profile. And for a while Wild did do just that, until it became apparent he never was going to be a good fit at the shop. Wild's income today is nowhere near what he commanded at Cramer-Krasselt. He unabashedly informed us while he was in our office that he made $68,000 last year. "And you can print that," he told us. So we have.
Now, Wild, with Loosbrock's help, is embarking on a new venture developing subject-specific Web sites that he hopes will attract interested visitors who will contribute content and, in turn, pull in more visitors. Wild calls his start-up the Run Wild Network, and he wants to sell the "group creation network" concept to ad agencies and companies looking to leverage the Web's assets. Wild tested his concept with the development of the GoodbyeGeorgieBush.com project. As Wild traveled around the country last year promoting the site and the end of the George Bush regime, over 5,000 people, by Wild's count, eventually participated in creating events for the site.
If his new Run Wild venture should fail -- something Wild isn't anticipating at this juncture -- he figures he can always fall back on his basic advertising skills. And Wild isn't shy about touting those. In his brochure for the Run Wild Network, Wild describes himself as the "international (sic) acclaimed advertising writer and creative director."
Just in time for the annual vacation season, the Illinois Department of Tourism is in the final stages of a review of its ad account. The finalists are said to be incumbent JWT/Chicago, which will cease to have a fully-functioning office in Chicago in about two weeks (go figure), Euro RSCG/Chicago and Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago. Of the three shops in contention, Euro RSCG arguably has fewer internal issues to deal with at the moment. It at least has a chief creative officer in place. C-K recently parted ways with its Executive Creative Director Dean Hacohen. The agency said it will look for a new exec creative director with a pedigree it can leverage. While that search is in progress, Marshall Ross is running the show creatively at C-K.
No one watching this review play out can figure out how the state's tourism department could realistically hand the account back to JWT, given that the agency has pulled the plug on its storied Chicago outpost. JWT/Chicago shop did some great poster work for the account, but that was about it. Some speculate that JWT could keep some sort of service office open here to handle the tourism account, but for such a relatively small account, it hardly seems worth the bother.
Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago said Thursday that the agency and its Executive Creative Director Dean Hacohen have agreed to part ways. The agency said it would conduct an aggressive search for his replacement. The agency also said it is looking for a creative leader with a pedigree the shop can leverage and the experience to handle the evolving and integrated needs of C-K's diverse portfolio.
With Hacohen gone, three of Chicago's largest ad agencies now are without creative leaders. DDB/Chicago has been searching for a CCO for more than a year, and Leo Burnett began a similar search several weeks ago.
News of Hacohen's exit comes as C-K was announced as one of four finalists for the TGI Friday's ad account. The other three finalists are the Martin Agency In Richmond, Va.; Doner in Southfield, Mich., and Publicis/New York.
It was a marketing match made in beer heaven. And it's back for an encore. We're talking, of course, about Corona beer's sponsorship of country crooner Kenny Chesney. As it did last summer, Corona has signed on to sponsor Chesney's latest tour, dubbed "Sun City Carnival Tour." To promote the newest sponsorship deal, longtime Corona ad agency Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago has produced a new Corona spot that has Chesney in his blue chair on a moonlit beach in what we are led to believe is Mexico. Ever so softly, Chesney is heard playing his guitar and singing "Beer In Mexico." His message reaches a group of revelers situated further down the beach, who raise their Coronas in a toast to Chesney and, presumably, the brew they are drinking. The new spot debuts on the Academy of Country Music Awards telecast on Sunday, April 5, on CBS.
Is Jim Sabia destined to ditch the familiar, low-key advertising that has become synonymous with Corona beer in this country? Today, Chicago-based Crown, which distributes Corona beer in the United States, said Sabia is coming on board as Crown's new executive vice-president of marketing. Sabia previously led marketing efforts at Constellation Spirits, where he worked on campaigns for Effen vodka, Black Velvet Canadian Whiskey and other brands.
But previous to his two-year stint with Constellation, Sabia was vice-president of marketing at MolsonCoors and was involved in United States marketing efforts for Coors Light and Coors Banquet brands. While at Coors, Sabia no doubt learned the value of pounding home key brand selling points in advertising. Coors harps incessantly on its so-called "cold refreshment" attribute. Many observers believe that approach to advertising has helped Coors hold its own in the intensely competitive beer category.
Though it remains the top imported beer in America, Corona's sales figures have dropped the past couple of years. That has prompted some concern that Crown might have to make changes in the way the Mexican beer is marketed. If that proves to be the case, it will no doubt be a shock to the system of many who work on the Corona account at Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago, an agency that has done a nice job of sustaining Corona's quiet, beach-themed style of advertising over the course of many years.
Whenever a client decides to make a change in advertising campaigns, the agency entrusted with finding a new approach always has to worry whether the new campaign will get the job done. C-K has been used to doing a certain type of ads for Corona for a very long time, so the challenge could be even greater, if Sabia decides he wants to shake up things.
