Ogilvy lands E-Trade from Grey - but will the Talking Baby stay on?
Ogilvy is set to be money manager E-Trade's new agency of record, replacing its sister WPP agency Grey.
Grey - E-Trade's creative agency for six years - was responsible for many Super Bowl spots featuring the "talking baby" (see this year's ad here) -- but decided to resign the business rather than agree to defend it in a review.
That decision, leaving E-Trade in the lurch without an agency, may have led the client to cut short the review, said AdAge.
New CMO Liza Landsman did meet about five potential agencies -- including two other WPP shops, JWT and Y&R -- but decided to halt the search and go with Ogilvy based on prior experience with the agency from her days at Blackrock.
She had served as global managing director of digital at Blackrock . Ogilvy also has category experience having handled marketing for E-Trade rival TD Ameritrade.
Of Ogilvy,Landsman said: "They have a tremendous heritage in building great brand platforms, whether it's for IBM or Amex. And that's very important to us."
E-Trade has been a fixture in the past several Super Bowl broadcasts with the talking baby, but Landsman has not committed to doing that again.
But don't count the baby out. She noted, "The baby platform is iconic and hugely valuable. Certainly its continued use or use in different mediums is on the table...stay tuned."
Last year, E-Trade spent $139.5 million on "advertising and market development" .