Topics for the 10/17/09 Show

Here are the proposed topics for this week's episode of The BeanCast, and as usual we'd love to hear your thoughts and questions.

You have two ways to get in touch: 1) Send an "@" reply or DM on Twitter to @thebeancast, or 2) send an email to beancast@gmail.com

Please keep your comments succinct. Wordy comments need to be interpreted and I may not capture the essence of what you are asking. That's why I encourage the Tweet option to help keep the question or thought targeted.

This week's panel will be Bill Green (Make The Logo Bigger), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs), Angela Natividad (Live and Uncensored) and John Wall (Marketing Over Coffee).

TOPICS

Where We Were Wrong (And Where We Weren't): AgencySpy called us out for having our facts wrong. So we did some homework. And found that while actually our facts were correct (the FTC ruling does call for an $11,000 per incident penalty) Matt Van Hoven at AgencySpy may be onto something in terms of the likelihood of such fines ever being leveled. Michael McSunas, AdLawGuy on twitter and practicing advertising law attorney, pretty much sided with Matt on this...although he says he probably could have been nicer about it. The chances are slim to none that we'll see these fines except in extreme and egregious violations. Thoughts about this? What is the likelihood of such penalties coming about?

The other clarification we need to make is with our story about digital out-pacing TV spend in the UK. Apparently the IAB had to admit to a £50million rounding error. So apparently digital did not make the advances we thought. So there you go.

Lowe Goes Away: One of the venerable names in advertising got the axe this week. Interpublic announced it would roll Lowe into it's Deutsch unit. Why are they doing this? Why now? Wasn't Lowe finally turning the corner? I thought they were doing well finally? Or is that the reason they're being absorbed - essential fix it and then benefit from its success by absorbing it? Is this really about building a global alternative to McCann? In some ways is this also a vote of no-confidence in McCann considering rumblings of client dissatisfaction there?

Ethnic Agency Lock-Out: We aren't just commenting on the news this week, we're talking to some of the newsmakers. Angela and Bill have started their new podcast, AdVerve with a huge splash, starting a renewed conversation of race. Their first guest was noted inudstry watchdog and commentator, Hadji Williams. I won't steal thunder from the show - you should listen for yourself - but one point stood out for me: The fact that brands refuse to award their ethnic shops agency of record status. Hadji did a follow-up piece in Ad Age on the subject worth mentioning. Why won't clients side with their ethnic shop even when that shop is clearly doing better work? Given recent assessments of the census data, is it true that ethnic shops can't speak to "average Americans?" Is there even such a thing as an average American anymore?

Google Gets It's Evil On: It's been revealed this week that Google has quietly been feeding information to federal regulators, trying to dispel the prime argument for the Microsoft/Yahoo agreement. Are they right? Is size not important for competing with them? Are we all under-estimating the threat from Bing? Is Google just being defensive as a precaution or are they really scared? Do the recent figures that show Bing is not only gaining search share but also ad revenue a worrisome indicator to Google?

Ad Age Marketer of The Year: Kudos to Ad Age for getting the social juices flowing and allowing an open vote for Marketer of the Year this year. But is anyone else surprised by the slate of candidates? Amazon? McDonalds? WalMart? Hyundai? Lego? Is this a good list of choices? Are there more compelling candidates that got left off? Who is your marketer of the year?