The Art of Client Service

Chapter 49Getting Fired

Just about everyone who works in advertising and marketing covets a car account. High profile, prestigious, often lucrative, and full of challenges, car accounts compel many an agency to go to great lengths to compete for and win an auto client, which makes Volkswagen's awarding its $400 million business to the agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky in the mid-2000s without a review even more puzzling until you take a deeper look at the backstory.

Volkswagen had hired Kerry Martin to serve as vice president of marketing and brand innovation. Martin had previously worked with Crispin when she was director of marketing at Mini U.S.A., where she collaborated with the agency on resuscitating a near-dormant brand on a very limited budget. There are lots of reasons why Martin made the change, but among other things, it is a testament to the power of relationships.

That's a tale with a happy ending, except for what happened to Arnold, the agency that fell victim to Martin's decision. It was a situation many of us have faced: an account makes a change in marketing personnel. The new marketing chief wants to make an impact. The easiest way to demonstrate change is to fire the incumbent agency. That's what happened in this case without even going through the motions of a review.

I know first-hand the empty, defeated feeling of losing a client. I was fired by Standard Oil of Ohio. I was fired by Digital Equipment Corporation. I was fired by MasterCard. I was fired by ...