Career Builder’s Absurdity
Have the people at Career Builder lost their minds? What the hell kind of Kool Aid are they drinking over there? They can’t possiblity be that stupid can they? In what has to be the most absurd of all reasons ever uttered publically, CareerBuilder put its account up for review today saying that the Cramer-Krasselt Super Bowl ads failed to rank in the top 10 in USA Today’s viewer poll. Yes, that’s what they said to C-K. The USA Today poll for God’s sake. A stupid poll that no one gives a rat’s ass about. That doesn’t reflect results, sucess or anything of any meaning whatsoever. But, because they didn’t make the top 10, they are putting the account into review. Lunacy!
Cramer-Krasselt president, Peter Krivkovich immediately resigned the account. (Good for him!) And sent out at an internal memo, summarizing his take on the split. According to AgAge, his memo reads in part:
“To our amazement, to our total astonishment, all that astounding business success was less important than one poll,” reads part of Mr. Krivkovich’s memo. “C-Kers, we have to tell you — in our entire history, hell in the history of this crazy thing called advertising, I’m not sure there has ever been any thing as baseless or as unbelievable as that. It’s so ludicrous and they are so serious about that poll it’s almost funny.”
“They wanted us to make them famous; we did that in spades (brand awareness up by 64% — even Millward Brown, the venerable research firm, said their brand-building model couldn’t explain such incredible growth). But the TV ads did not make the top 10 in the USA Today poll — a poll that everyone knows doesn’t mirror results (see the continuing Bud sales decline for one!) — they just told us they will do a creative review.”
“‘Wait a minute,’ we said, ‘what about the incredible growth that is going on, the shares, the revenue, the awareness, the two best internet sites ever, the massive buzz, etc, etc.? What about all of that? That’s huge.’
“‘Yes,’ they responded, ‘but you [C-K] didn’t get the top 10 in the USA Today poll.’ ‘Hold on … we crushed every possible business metrics/barometer for success. Out of all the metrics and polls, it’s all about this one? You have to be F’ing kidding, right!?’”
“‘No, that’s it. It’s because of the poll.’ That was about the extent of the conversation.”
In the ideal world the agency industry would take notice of this lunacy and just say “NO” should the Career Builder folks come knocking at their door. Sadly, given the millions that CB spends, that won’t happen. But it would sure be nice if the industry had some balls or even self respect.
This post was written by: Kim Mickelsen
February 24th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
I dunno…sure…it’s dumb…but you guys all sound so surprised at the lack of logic used for this business decision…as if it’s unique…hell, this is consistent behavior…it only reinforces our belief that so many are successful “in spite” of themselves…it’s the IDIOT FACTOR running most of these arrogant, self-absorbed board rooms….suck it up….give it a smirk…and move on…CK’s got the right idea…
February 28th, 2007 at 11:53 am
So you’re saying we shouldn’t go for them? Kidding, just kidding.
March 1st, 2007 at 2:45 am
[...] Career Builder’s Absurdity [...]
March 5th, 2007 at 7:52 am
[...] In truth, I was not a big fan of the most recent monkey ads because frankly I didn’t think they were funny. I thought they were bleak and painful to watch. I assumed at the time that the client was a partner in the decision to move away from monkey slap stick and figured they’d get back to the original shtick faster than you can say “whoopie cushion.” Wrong again, banana breath! Instead, the agency takes the fall and the client moves on. Certainly left more than a few industry heads scratching. Here’s a few of my favorite comments about CareerBuilders’ decision from around the blogosphere: CareerBuilder is retarded. (b12partners.net) There has to be more to the story. Who fires their agency because of a low-rank in a poll in the fracking U.S. Today? Especially a poll of only 238 people (located in Houston, Tx and McLean, VA). Come on, that’s ridiculous. CareerBuilder’s ROI on Super Bowl ads is ludicrous (Ed Moed). Yesterday’s news that Cramer-Krasselt resigned the enormous CareerBuilder account came as no surprise to this blogger…However, sometimes agencies needs to accept more responsibility for a colossal account loss (such as this one) than its senior executives would like. It’s still apparent to me that too often agencies fail to set up measurable goals and benchmarks for a campaign (or program) that is agreed to and signed off on by both the agency team and client. Career Builder’s Absurdity (MarketingInsideOut) Have the people at Career Builder lost their minds? What the hell kind of Kool Aid are they drinking over there? They can’t possiblity be that stupid can they? In what has to be the most absurd of all reasons ever uttered publically, CareerBuilder put its account up for review today saying that the Cramer-Krasselt Super Bowl ads failed to rank in the top 10 in USA Today’s viewer poll. [...]
March 5th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
[...] We all know what happened. It shocked many of us (it certainly did me). CareerBuilder put its account up for review February 23 saying the reason was that the Cramer-Krasselt Super Bowl ads failed to rank in the top 10 in USA Today’s viewer poll. And Peter Krivkovich said “no thanks…we won’t play” and resigned the account. [...]
March 14th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
They are the “Most{{” worthless))” ( nice English) company ever.
I have been working with them since Aug 2006, with NO return contacts or follow-up. I should have asked my grandmother for better info!!!!!!!
These guys are worthless and serve no purposes than SPAM and TRASH.
I can not find a # to call or a NAME to contact. WHY!!!!!!!!!!! They SUCK. Build THIS!!!!!!!
Mike I’m DONE!!!!!!
September 10th, 2007 at 10:44 am
[...] They’re on a roll…Zantac then Bissell and now Porsche…a great winning streak after getting screwed by CareerBuilder in February. You got to love when you tell a client, who puts you into review for no good reason, to fuck off and have it help your new business efforts. Like Peter Krivkovich, CEO of C-K did when he was told by CareerBuilder that they were going into review because the superbowl spot didn’t make the USA Today poll of favorites… “There are a few times in your life when you have to tell someone to fuck off and mean it,” Mr. Krivkovich said in an interview shortly after the memo leaked. [...]