Kraft

This is on Kraft and we ended up losing Kraft soon after this. I think there were a lot of factors at play that were beyond what we were doing here, because the whole company went to another agency, which was huge. Get the test results and there was a little bit of negative results in the sense that some people within the segment of target that liked it, found it a little offensive. [3343],[3344]
This one was a great idea that everybody was super excited about. It was really, really funny and it was really big for the brand. Had to do all kinds of crazy testing, of course. Got through all the test results, but the one thing that was a little high ... This is on Kraft and we ended up losing Kraft soon after this. I think there were a lot of factors at play that were beyond what we were doing here, because the whole company went to another agency, which was huge. Get the test results and there was a little bit of negative results in the sense that some people within the segment of target that liked it, found it a little offensive. [3302],[3301],[3303]
The client was super scared to go out there with something that could be at all offensive. It was this Evangelist guy that was doing miracles with Miracle Whip. She thought that some people were going to be offended, so we were changing it. We did everything we could to keep it alive. Months and months of changes, and redos, and all that shit. Eventually, it just went away and we lost the business. [3345],[3306],[3346],[3304],[3347],[3305]
I think we hurt it internally in the sense that the guy we had running the place I don't think sold it hard enough. I don't think the relationships with who we had in place that were supposed to be the people in contact with Kraft, there was not trust there at all. I don't even know if there was any like there, quite frankly. They didn't listen to each other. They didn't care what we had to say. This happens quite a bit. On person at Kraft blew up and ruined the whole thing. [3348],[3349],[3350],[3351]
I think we hurt it internally in the sense that the guy we had running the place I don't think sold it hard enough. I don't think the relationships with who we had in place that were supposed to be the people in contact with Kraft, there was not trust there at all. I don't even know if there was any like there, quite frankly. They didn't listen to each other. They didn't care what we had to say. This happens quite a bit. One person at Kraft blew up and ruined the whole thing. [3308],[3309],[3307]
One person at Kraft blew up and ruined the whole thing. [3311],[3310]
She's the one who said, "No." She was the one who made the final decision. The people underneath her loved the idea, wanted to go forward, she said, "No, I'm not going to do it." [3352],[3314],[3312],[3313]
Like I said, it may have been more political in the sense that the upper levels were the ones who were moving agencies. They may have known that and it may have been a part of it, I don't know. [3353],[3320]
Not really, because we went and presented a bunch of ideas, but this one completely rose to the top. Everybody was super excited about this one, including her, the lady who demolished it. [3317]
Not really, because we went and presented a bunch of ideas, but this one completely rose to the top. Everybody was super excited about this one, including her, the lady who demolished it. Like I said, it may have been more political in the sense that the upper levels were the ones who were moving agencies. They may have known that and it may have been a part of it, I don't know. [3316],[3318],[3315],[3319]
Yeah, right. In theory, it was huge. Miracle Whip's a pretty big brand and it's been around for a long time. They were looking to revamp it and what they ended up doing was just horrible shit. [3354],[3355],[3356]
One, two, three, four, I would say five. Three out of the those five had a lot to say on a daily basis, one had the overall say when it was all said and done. We dealt with massive, massive amounts of comments. They would not let it go. It was horrible. It was a horrible time. [3323],[3321],[3322]
That's all right. I'm still pissed off about it, actually. [3324]
No, it wasn't. They actually had money and we had enough time to test it 10 times. [3326],[3325]
They weren't good. There was actually not a whole lot of trust. People really weren't getting along, quite frankly. [3327],[3357],[3329],[3328]
It got ugly every now and then. There were ugly phone calls and ugly messages, so they weren't getting along. I have to admit, from an agency standpoint, we tried to stand up for ourselves and say, "Look, this is a brilliant idea, you guys have to do this." Then that got out of hand and I think it was because the lack of trust and maybe even the lack of like with the people who were running the show for here then. Kraft, we were working with was a very Midwest company and they were very Midwest people. We were completely run by British people. I know it sounds like biased, but I think there was tension between that. [3358],[3359],[3335],[3331],[3330],[3360],[3332],[3333]
There were ugly phone calls and ugly messages, so they weren't getting along. I have to admit, from an agency standpoint, we tried to stand up for ourselves and say, "Look, this is a brilliant idea, you guys have to do this." [3334]
I felt tension between it in meetings. [3336]
I think, quite frankly, all three of them are super smart people and did a great job here, but I think from an ego standpoint, somebody failed to realize that the relationship was more important than them having to swing around saying, "I'm the President," or whatever. I think they should've put somebody in place that was a little more Midwestern to get along with them. [3338]
The fact is, there wasn't any Americans in the room. Everybody who was ever in the room selling it, we had an English account person, an English head creative, and an English head President. I think, quite frankly, all three of them are super smart people and did a great job here, but I think from an ego standpoint, somebody failed to realize that the relationship was more important than them having to swing around saying, "I'm the President," or whatever. I think they should've put somebody in place that was a little more Midwestern to get along with them. [3361],[3362],[3363],[3364],[3339],[3365],[3366],[3337]
Everybody was just trying to get this thing sold, together. Everybody was doing everything they possible could on every angle to try and get this sold. It just didn't happen. [3340]
The idea was just my partner and I's, but then we have our creative director who was also trying to sell it, and the President, and the head account people all trying to help sell it. [3341]
Yeah, it got all the scores we needed to get. It just had a little higher level of possible dislike. It was negative because of some sort of annoying. It could possibly annoy. It was [anamatics 00:18:13] and this guy was kind of screaming around. It could've been anything that brought that up. They just couldn't get over it. We tried to tell them, "Look, once we shoot this with live people they're going to be more likable. It's facial expressions." [3342]
Reference Tags
[3343] Alignment,[3344] Internal changes/challenges,[3302] Insufficient Feedback,[3301] Internal changes/challenges,[3303] Premature idea evaluation,[3345] Alignment,[3306] Insufficient Feedback,[3346] Irreconcilable differences,[3304] Irreconcilable differences,[3347] Risk compensation,[3305] Risk compensation,[3348] Alignment,[3349] Irreconcilable differences,[3350] Trust,[3351] Unresolved relationship conflict,[3308] Communication issues,[3309] Internal changes/challenges,[3307] Trust,[3311] Man blaming woman,[3310] Unresolved relationship conflict,[3352] Alignment,[3314] Dismissive,[3312] Man blaming woman,[3313] Unresolved relationship conflict,[3353] Authority bias,[3320] Empathetic disposition,[3317] Man blaming woman,[3316] Dismissive,[3318] Insufficient Feedback,[3315] Internal changes/challenges,[3319] Trust,[3354] Alignment,[3355] Lack of trust,[3356] Pessimism bias,[3323] Indecisive leadership,[3321] Insufficient Feedback,[3322] Reactive devaluation,[3324] Anchoring,[3326] Appropriate resources,[3325] Balanced workload pressure,[3327] Forceful conflict about relationships,[3357] Trust,[3329] Trust,[3328] Unresolved relationship conflict,[3358] Alignment,[3359] Cultural differences,[3335] Cultural differences,[3331] Forceful conflict about relationships,[3330] Irreconcilable differences,[3360] Trust,[3332] Trust,[3333] Unresolved relationship conflict,[3334] Forceful conflict about ideas,[3336] Unresolved relationship conflict,[3338] Empathetic disposition,[3361] Alignment,[3362] Authority bias,[3363] Communication issues,[3364] Cultural differences,[3339] Cultural differences,[3365] Forceful conflict about relationships,[3366] Trust,[3337] Unresolved relationship conflict,[3340] Organizational encouragement,[3341] Organizational encouragement,[3342] Confirmation bias