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Why did GSD&M, Wal-Mart’s agency of twenty years, turn down the retailer’s offer to repitch for the creative assignment, particularly since, with DraftFCB out of the picture, the agency may have had a strong chance to fight its way back onto the roster?
According to agency executives familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the agency was reluctant to subject employees to another arduous review, particularly around the holidays, reports the New York Times. Too, the agency has already received feelers from other retailers that it might like to pursue relationships with.
The Martin Agency, another of the four agencies which had lost the original review to DraftFCB and which were invited back after that agency was ousted, had also wondered whether to accept the offer to repitch. Martin’s parent company, Interpublic, was reluctant to risk a second high-profile loss if Martin was once again not picked, but has decided to move forward in spite of the risk. Executives said that, as stewards of a publicly traded company, they could not allow “wounded pride to overrule their duty to shareholders to pursue new business.”
Speculation had it that Wal-Mart might invite its other incumbent, independent Bernstein-Rein, to re-pitch the account as well. Bernstein-Rein had been with the retailer since 1974, but was eliminated from the first review when the field was cut to five. Bernstein-Rein executives and Wal-Mart CMO John Fleming reportedly did have discussions about the possibility, but a spokesman at the agency said that, “for both of us, it wasn’t in the best interest going forward,” for the agency to try again.
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