Another Day of Infamy: The Martin Agency Loses the UPS Account

It was just announced that Ogilvy has just won the UPS Global Advertising account. It's a sad day for all of us in advertising and branding.

UPS, you know the great “Whiteboard” campaign on TV with the long haired guy who impeccably draws out all the values and features UPS offers that its “unnamed” competitors don’t? Well, that amazing branding campaign which legitimized UPS, is over and the brilliant agency, The Martin Agency of Richmond, VA has been shown the door.

So how could this have happened? Was there a new VP of Marketing? Does he play golf with the head account guy at Ogilvy? Did the President of UPS wake up and have a bad breakfast?

Who knows, but this much is true: not since the late 70s when Needham, Harper & Steers (my alma mater, among others), lost the McDonald's business to Leo Burnett, has an agency which has so richly rewarded the client with sharp strategic thinking and brilliant creative execution been so royally screwed by them by giving the account to another agency.

Martin put UPS on the map and made UPS a REAL brand and a recognized viable competitor to Fed Ex. No offense to the winners, but you have some PRETTY big shoes to fill—and it better not be the run of the mill crap McDonald's settled for in the 80s which led to the demise of the brand. God love Keith Reinhardt—who had the guts and fortitude to make it his life's mission to get the McDonald's business back to DDB. It took him well over a decade-plus, but he got them back. Their work is better because the man at the top had a passion and love for the McDonald’s business. It was personal to Keith Reinhart.

I’m not sure the people at Martin will want to. If I were Fed Ex, I’d be popping the cork on some very nice champagne to celebrate the weakening of their chief competition and I’d call the Martin Agency and sign them on.