Ad agency Wieden & Kennedy parts ways with Starbucks

"There are times when it just makes sense to part ways with a client," says Wieden founder Dan Wieden. "In this case, this seems to be the best decision for both parties." The agency was hired by Starbucks four years ago. It developed Starbucks' "Pass the cheer" TV commercials that aired last Christmas. || Wieden Parts Ways With Starbucks (AdAge.com) || More from Adweek

Comments

[cupajoe]

I think this is possibly a great thing, considering the fact that I can't remember one advertising campaign in the last four years that has stuck in my mind. I can't remember seeing one food or beverage item in a commercial recently, I can't remember looking at a picture of any item that looks so mouth watering that it makes me want to go out and buy the item. The only way I have heard about the new healthy food initiative at Starbucks is through this website.

I think they should hire the advertising agency that does ESPN commercials. Invest the money to create a new image.

[AG]

Why does a company that is staunchly against TV/Radio advertising need an outside advertising agency? Does Panera pay one? I feel like you can cut costs by bringing a few people in house to handle the few forms of advertising Starbucks does embark on.

I'm not mad or anything...just curious.

[ex sm]

These are the same ad people who gave us those awful commercials last winter. Why anyone at SBUX corporate thought a deer on a ski-lift was a good idea is beyond me. These ads lost an opportunity to really convey what the company stands for and what you can expect as a customer.

SBUX used to have the cultural influence to be popular without advertising, but it long ago lost that ability. It really needs to step up its advertising presence (just not to the point of Rachel Ray & Dunkin) and start changing the minds of people who dislike the brand.

[Coffee Soldier]

I think Starbucks should pay Oprah to eat oatmeal on TV and say she loves it then everyone would come to Starbucks!

good stuff.
The ad campaigns have been contrite and poorly managed. We come up with better promotions in store.
Hurrah for another step in the right direction!

[Patrick]

Starbucks had an ad agency?

[Ken]

I guess any move as far as advertising would go would be a good one. I honestly can't recall EVER seeing a Starbucks add. So, ever if they decide to not do any advertising at all, it would at least save money.

[Ryan]

the fact that you had to ask is EXACTLY why we got rid of them!

[the boy]

"I think Starbucks should pay Oprah to eat oatmeal on TV and say she loves it then everyone would come to Starbucks!"

Heck man, we could get the whole book club coming in! They could synchronize our current literature offerings to Oprah's book club!

Starbucks + Apple + Oprah = The next chapter in Starbucks never-ending book.

[Mike]

If the "Pass the Cheer" campaign was its biggest contribution, then good riddance...

[elle]

..."I think they should hire the advertising agency that does ESPN commercials. Invest the money to create a new image."

Wieden+Kennedy DOES the ESPN commercials. Duh. It's not a question of investing a lot of money to create a new image. Perhaps you should realize that Starbucks doesn't always buy into phenomenal ideas that W+K probably pitches to them.

[The ASM]

Coffee Soldier...you are so right!

[?Sm?]

I 3rd Coffee Soldier. It would be the best investment the bucks made in years!

[ku]

The only SBUX ad I recall seeing was the full page, poo-colored ad in the Wall Street Journal heralding the arrival of the craptastic PPR...

[spence]

Have you all noticed that if you watch TV for 60 minutes that you are going to see someone telling us that oatmeal is good for us. I do not doubt that those commercials have influenced our oatmeal sales.

[Me]

Did you guys realize they got rid of starbucks? not the other way around. they didn't want to deal with us anymore. Apparently it's not even fun working with starbucks as a supplier anymore. they are having waay too much fun in seattle creating hoops to jump through for their partners, so they decided to expand the program to suppliers. Maybe they thought starbucks as a customer is irresistible and people would do everything to keep them. good thing some companies still have a backbone.

"treating each other with respect and dignity"
anyone?

[drive]

A few years back Sbux had the worst holiday commercial ever, showing someone leaving a Starbux drink on top of a taxicab. The cab then zoomed through the streets, practically hitting innocent pedestrians along the way. It was both dumb and offensive.

They needed an ad agency to create those ads? Wow, that's just pissing money down the toilet.

[Pat Nerr]

time to post the Open Forum where Howie says.. ."Vendor's don't want to work with Starbucks anymore..." This isn't a new phenomenon...

[ICLover]

If the agency's making a point of announcing that they're not "partnering" with Sbux, it probably means either Sbux showed them the door ("You can't fire me, I quit.") or Sbux changed the rules (i.e., reduced spending/reduced income for the agency) and the agency couldn't accept them. It's all about saving face.

[sbuxne]

I hope that starbucks looks to the ad firm that does the promo work for Kashi.

Talk about telling a story.

Seattle LOOK to KASHI!

why cant they team up with or split ad costs with the likes of maybe a Weight Watchers company? could be a great promo...I'm just sayin...who needs an ad agency???? whatta waste of $$.....

[cupajoe]

Elle,

Thanks for letting me know that W&K DOES do the ESPN commercials. I didn't know that. Maybe it's the wrong pitchman working on the Starbucks account. Maybe it's the wrong Starbucks rep working with the ad agency.

[ex coffee wench]

umm years ago bucks did sell the oprah book club books.....they didn't sell. so they stopped. but i do agree with her eatting oatmeal.

[Ari]

To Pat Nerr:
Please post that Open Forum!

[onethreethree]

man those penguin commercials were bad. i remember us partners gathering around the MWS to watch them, and all of us laughing at the absurdity of them. all the big announcements that "we were finally advertising on tv!" and this was all we got...
never saw one on tv anyway....

[guy from the east]

Did anyone read the linked article? W+K didn't want to have to bid with other groups for the work, so they walked away. It's like not being first picked for a game and then not wanting to play at all.

They felt they were better than a bidding process.

[Belle]

I doubt they thought they were "better than a bidding process". I suspect they got the message that "you're not going to win" and chose not to bid.

Preparing and submitting bids costs a company money, in some cases, lots of it. It's not like W&K were going to be able to submit old work as the basis for their bid. It was probably going to require developing new concepts and proposed campigns--basically, Starbucks getting the initial work for free. I can't blame Starbucks for wanting that, but if W&K didn't think they had a real shot at winning, there's no good reason to put the significant time and money required into it.

Proposals aren't cheap to prepare. If W&K didn't believe they had a good chance to win it (and maybe that's the not-so-subliminal message they got from Starbucks' decision to compete the work), then why throw that time and money away? It's better to put it on getting business they really have a shot at winning.

[Cam is Cam]

I'd just like to point out that Weiden+Kennedy also worked on all the Vivanno promotional material.

That sign in front of your store... "The Best Drinks Ice Could Hope For." Yeah, that was them.

I'll remain in the middle on this one. I'm a shift at Starbucks but I actually would love to get a job at W+K at some point.

Also, some of you seem to immediately think of an advertising agency as a company that strictly does TV/Radio commercials. This isn't the case. A company like W+K comes up with all the visual and design aspects of any new product launch. Their goal is to send a cohesive message to the consumer that illustrates what the heads at Sbux want to convey with their new product.

And for the record, Starbucks initially had their in-house agency come up with the Vivanno promotional materials, but they were shit, so they handed the reins over to W+K. And I think they did wonderfully.

[houtxbarista]

"And for the record, Starbucks initially had their in-house agency come up with the Vivanno promotional materials, but they were shit, so they handed the reins over to W+K. And I think they did wonderfully."

Yeah... Especially with all the emphasis dring training put on not *ever* referring to Vivannos as smoothies, but a week later at launch, the billboards and signage says "Today is a new smoothie..."

Unfortunately the same story often lately -- operations, and marketing/promotions being totally out of touch with each other...

[THANKSALATTE!]

Good Riddance Wieden & Kennedy! I manage a location that, at one time, had a billboard along the interstate. When my DM & myself, both, agreed the store wasn't getting a big enough return on our investment ($1200/month), we decided to cancel our agreement with Wieden & Kennedy once our year contract was up. We abided by the contract & gave more than the required 30 or 60 day cancelletion notice (can't remember exactly). That's when all hell broke loose! For several months after, my store continued to be billed the $1200/month & continued to pay it! After getting everyone from my DM, to my RD, to the Sbux marketing people, to Wieden & Kennedy, to Retail Accounting involved, every month I kept getting assured it wouldn't happen again &, sure enough, it continued. Oviously, it had a very significant effect on my store's P&L every month/quarter. Not to mention, my RD, almost, had to have an exception granted, so I would receive my quarterly bonus! Also, the design on the billboard, as I found out later, was a design Sbux quit using years before (it was very ugly). It gets even better; when the billboard was completed, through some kind of communication screw up, the directions to the store on the sign were incorrect (wrong exit #)! That took a few months to correct/fix & the store was forced to pay for the correction, which was another $1200! Needless to say, Wieden & Kennedy aren't my fav people!!

[adprof]

To address "cupajoe's" comment, Wieden + Kennedy does ESPN's advertising...

To address "AG," SBUX tried to create an in-house ad shop but failed to deliver effectively. The best advertising talent go to agencies, not in-house retailers. Also, outdoor is a local medium that requires market-by-market planning. In order to ensure consistency in branding, a centralized organization needs to provide oversight. SBUX did not possess the people or the expertise to manage the logistics of such an effort.

To address "ex sm," keep in mind that clients have the final say in what is ultimately produced. In the case of last year's winter campaign, Wieden + Kennedy actually had pitched a campaign that was more "on message" and reflected better the core values of the brand. SBUX was apparently afraid to run it. According to the Wall Street Journal: "Wieden + Kennedy has also been developing an edgier idea for about six months. The proposed ads would show Americans discussing issues of importance to them and depict Starbucks coffee shops as the living room of the national conversation.
In a pitch meeting, the agency showed a short reel of consumers talking about the war in Iraq and health care, says one person familiar with the matter. The agency also showed images of what people were talking about, such as a picture of pop singer Britney Spears the day she shaved her head and a picture of a U.S. soldier."

To address "belle," typically when an agency resigns an account or refuses to "compete" with other agencies, it's due to a break-down in client-agency relations over time, not an immediate "I quit". Losing an account (including resigning the business) ultimately results in agency layoffs, which cost a lot more than pitching new ideas. I doubt W+K set itself up to lay people off because it thought it MIGHT lose out to another agency.

To address "thanksalatte!," OOH buying is often outsourced through an OOH buying service and is not undertaken by a media PLANNING agency like W+K.

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

I heard that Starbucks uses Deloitte or something like that in New England

[adprof]

BSR - SBUX relies heavily on its PR firms to market itself, often more so than on its ad agencies (seems less "corporate" but PR is more under the radar than advertising). Perhaps a PR firm is who you are thinking...? I believe SBUX uses Edelman on the West Coast.

[Limey]

Hmmm...anyone think this had something to do with Karate Guy..?

[Nerfebarista]

Limey, what was it that made us take the karate guy away before he even got on the windows?

[THANKSALATTE!]

Hey, "adprof", in this particular situation, it was all handled by, unfortunately, W&K.

[Limey]

*Nerfebarista - unchecked powers got checked at the bottom of the ninth before Karate Guy got up to bat...

[Howie for Prez]

The reason W+K has such dynamic relationships with Nike, Coke, EA, ESPN, Target, etc. is because those companies and clients recognize that W+K wants the best thing for the brand because it's the best thing for the relationship. For three of the four years, SBUX had their guard up against W+K, insisting that a group of non-SBUX partners couldn't ever grasp the REAL essence of the brand. Once SBUX ego popped because of many of the things W+K warned SBUX against, it was too late. About 75% of the countless suggestions and proposals W+K presented were non-advertising based proposals. W+K recognized the ubiquity of the brand and the barrage of non-coffee menu items and peripheral elements was choking the humanity and sincerity out of the brand. The remaining 25% of the time W+K was developing advertising was at the request of SBUX Marketing who had already decided to support a seasonal (remember Green Tea Frappucinos and all of the other Holiday campaigns that appeared on billboards, bus shelters, etc.) initiative. In short, it's a shame that W+K was never treated as a member of the family. No matter how hard W+K tried, it was as if they were only guests, not partners. W+K has respect and admiration for SBUX, and shared a sea of dynamic creative ideas for the business that consumers and many outside of SBUX Brand Communications unfortunately never got to see. That is perhaps the biggest shame. A graveyard of great, creative thinking (remember, they weren't ads) that could have prevented the brand from it's current illness.

[bdanfers]

Starbucks has a long history of hiring good agencies and telling them to create great campaigns. Typically they have, and the company loses its courage and decides instead to just focus on new flavors, and we all know that hasn't worked out so well in recent years. Agencies love the opportunity to work on the brand but invariably end up frustrated because the company can't see beyond the end of teh next quarter.

[Nerfebarista]

er.. was he holding a beating human heart or something?