»
Wal-Mart has lost two top executives hired to help overhaul the retailer’s marketing efforts, just months after the retailer’s chief executive told analysts that the retailer had gone too far in pushing trendy merchandise.
Julie Roehm, senior vp for marketing communications, and Sean Womack, vp for communications architecture, left their posts on Monday, writes The New York Times. A spokesperson wouldn’t say why they left or whether or not they would be replaced. They had worked for Wal-Mart for less than a year.
The two were hired to help Wal-Mart change its image from that of a discount retailer to a more stylish image on the order of Target. Under John Fleming’s leadership, Wal-Mart’s CMO and the executive who hired Roehm, the company began emphasizing more expensive items and flashier apparel in its ads.
However, as holiday sales slipped, the company has returned to a message focusing on discounted prices.
Wal-Mart’s chief executive Lee Scott told analysts in October that the retailer had gone too far in pushing trendier merchandise. He reported the retailer would refocus on promoting low prices, writes BusinessWeek. The retailer spent close to a billion dollars on advertising last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
Roehm was key in conducting an agency review that resulted in the severance of the retailer’s ties with its two longtime agencies, Omnicom Group Inc.’s GSD&M and independent Bernstein-Rein Advertising Inc. The company brought on DraftFCB and Carat USA to handle creative and media buying.
Roehm, in a statement, said that one of her first orders of business was to help spearhead a comprehensive agency review. Now that that has been completed, and that she has “established the marketing communications organization,” she is ready to move onto the next challenge.
Womack declined to comment.
Roehm is leading a charge to implement a new way to buy and sell ads. She and other marketers at other big companies including Microsoft formed a task force that hired eBay to develop an online auction system that automates ad sales.
Though off-air online and experiential advertising grew modestly as a part of the overall radio revenue pie, and election-related political ads increased in Q3, total radio ad revenues were down 9% to $4.97 billion for Q3 and down 10% for…
Glamour magazine is running its photo of Britney Spears not only on the cover of the U.S. edition, but on the covers in seven other countries, as well.
Britney will grace Russia, Sweden and Greece’s editions of Glamour, among others.…
Titan Worldwide has signed a five-year deal with the Delaware River Port Authority to manage out-of-home advertising for the Port Authority Transit corp.
The contract covers advertising on PATCO’s rail service and stations between Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia, writes Mediaweek.…
Publicis has acquired full-service agency W&K Communications, continuing its Asia expansion that began several years ago.
W&K will be pulled under the umbrella of Publicis’s Burnett agency network, and will be renamed Leo Burnett Beijing Advertising, writes Adweek.
Other recent Publicis…
With only four weeks separating Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, Cyber Monday One (December 1) and Cyber Monday Two (December 
may command a greater share of online sales than they have in years past - thus increasing the importance…
Top American non-luxury auto brands received higher ratings and less negative comments from online consumers than competing Japanese brands, according to an analysis of consumer opinions collected from automotive review websites by Biz360, MarketingCharts reports.
The research, which aggregated a year’s…
