MediaPost has the details about Sprint, a big advertiser for radio, attempting to cut back on $2.5 billion on the cost side of its balance sheet. The company has created an in-house advertising agency called YellowFan Studios. The agency has about 30 employees already and is focusing on creative and messaging. It’s been two years since Sprint parent Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son blasted Sprint’s advertising effort in a guest column in which Son said that “Sprint spends a large amount of money on advertising every year, but its effects have been almost negligible.”
No small task, but likely a good move.
The concern, though, might be in the number of folks already on board.
Will creative get in the way of creative and will there be a staunch and leery group at the top who will be getting in the way – as part of the culling process? This, too, is likely.
Over all my years in da biz, the most significant and amazing scenario has always been: Not so much that terrific creative can be produced, but that there are those clients who can and will say “Yes!”.