After losing the Molson account owing to a potential client conflict, the staff at Crispin Porter + Bogusky Canada could probably use a few beers.Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press
1. So much for chilling on the couch with a cold beer: This week Molson Coors announced a program to advocate for what it called a "healthy, active lifestyle," by giving up to $1-million to projects across Canada that encourage physical fitness. Taking a page (or, um, the whole manual) from community-based goodwill efforts like Kraft's Hockeyville and the Pepsi Refresh Project, Molson's Community Cheer aims to fund causes like a new fence for a run-down baseball field. All it takes for a project to be eligible is for people to register it (at ourcommunitycheer.com) and then – in a nod to the brewer's 225th anniversary – marshal a minimum of 225 "cheers" (a.k.a. likes). But please: cheer responsibly.
2. Molson, meanwhile, has been very active on its own this week, announcing it had ended its seven-year relationship with its advertising agency of record, Crispin Porter + Bogusky Canada, owned by MDC Partners. It seemed a strange turn of events, since Molson had frequently spoken about its happiness with the agency's successful refreshing of the flagship brand, Canadian. Then, some clarity: Late on Wednesday, Marketing magazine reported Molson had made the move after hearing the U.S. office of CP+B was pitching the brewer's rival AB InBev (likely for the Bud Light account), in contravention of Molson policies preventing their agencies from working on other booze brands. Sounds like the first Community Cheer project should be CP+B's morale.
3. Still, there's one sector of the advertising industry that doesn't need a morale boost: This week, the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB) issued its annual state of the mobile industry study, projecting that wireless advertising revenues would jump 57 per cent from 2010 to $82-million this year. Pretty great, right? Except that it appears only a handful of companies are benefiting: the IAB's Top 10 earners accounted for 82 per cent of all mobile advertising revenues. And according to the study's authors, Ernst & Young, beyond the top 20 advertisers, "demand is building more slowly than hoped for." Why? Mobile advertising still isn't considered a credible, proven medium. Which is funny, considering the way ad buyers seem to be glued to their smart phones whenever they're in meetings.
4. Of course, they might just be riding Twitter. Or at least the account belonging to Mark Davidson, a so-called "social media expert" based in California whose Twitter feed was hijacked. Late Wednesday night, some apparently unauthorized tweets began emerging that suggested someone hired to ghostwrite his tweets had quit and taken control of his account. "So now let me tell you about @MarkDavidson. He can barely type social media much less know what it is," read one tweet. And another: "I am drunk. Drunk and angry." So now, once again, we are thrust into a discussion about contracting out social media responsibilities. But come on, people. If you can't come up with 140 characters every now and then, should you really be trusted with a whole ad campaign?
Simon Houpt
Simon Houpt