Daily Archives: November 18, 2008

Change at Yahoo and Pepsi?

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Jerry Yang is stepping down at Yahoo (without a named successor) and PepsiCo has removed long-time ad agency BBDO in favor of white hot TBWA/Chiat Day.  Change is in the wind.  Yahoo needed to do something, though I’m not sure removing Yang does anything. The number 1 website in terms of traffic, they still do not know what they want to be. The next CEO had better have a focused strategic vision beyond “I wouldn’t have f’ed up the Microsoft deal.”

 

As for TBWA/Chiat Day picking up PepsiCo, it is the second black eye they have given BBDO in the last couple of years; taking Visa was the first.  Both these agencies are on a par if you ask me with the slight edge going to TBWA thanks to good leadership (Tom Carroll and Lee Clow) and the ability to do striking, simple work.  But “Life Takes Visa,” though a fine line, hasn’t yet been actualized.  

 

These two changes are incremental, certainly not seismic. And so are they changes at all? Nah.

 

But ladies and gentlemen, change is in the wind and it is to those who take advantage of it – with tight strategic understanding – that the spoils will fall.