September 30th, 2003
Media & Marketing -- Advertising: Interpublic's Dowley Joins Endeavor; Marketer to Continue Work Wit
By Suzanne Vrancia
Wall Street Journal
Ending weeks of speculation, Mark Dowley, chief executive of Interpublic
Group’s Sports & Entertainment Group, has joined Endeavor, the Los Angeles
talent firm. Mr. Dowley, 38 years old, is opening a New York outpost of Endeavor
Marketing Solutions.
Mr. Dowley, an experienced marketer, will continue to do some business with
several clients. These include AOL Time Warner’s America Online unit and American
Express. Both clients also will continue to work with Interpublic, which is
disbanding its Sports & Entertainment corporate umbrella as part of a cost-saving
move. Interpublic is retaining the individual divisions.
"We have a longstanding relationship with Mr. Dowley," says Len Short,
executive vice president of brand marketing at America Online. "He will
be working on specific programs at Endeavor for AOL that tie the brand to the
Olympics and Super Bowl." A spokeswoman for American Express declined to
comment.
Over the past two years, the entertainment-marketing space has exploded. Big
marketers, worried about audience fragmentation and the proliferation of personal
video recorders such as TiVo, increasingly are using product placement, elaborate
sponsorships and content creation to get their brand names in front of consumers.
TV viewers know first-hand how product placement is changing the TV landscape
—sometimes for the worse. For example, some ad executives have cited "The
Restaurant," a reality show that ran on General Electric’s NBC, as an example
of runaway product placement.
Commercial Alert, a nonprofit group founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader,
yesterday asked the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade
Commission to conduct an investigation of current product-placement practices
on TV. "Television is turning into an infomercial medium," says Gary
Ruskin, executive director at Commercial Alert. "It is threatening to take
over the airwaves."
Many in the advertising community are worried about personal video recorders,
which Forrester Research estimates are in 4.3 million U.S. households. Forrester
says 38.9 million households will have the devices by 2007, transforming a technology
once endorsed only by the tech elite into a mass-market product. The rollout
is being spurred by manufacturers building the devices into digital-videodisc
players and satellite-television boxes.
Endeavor launched its marketing arm in 2000 and has tried to marry advertisers
with entertainment properties. For example, it worked with Omnicom Group’s media-buying
arm in 2001 to secure product placement for such clients as State Farm Mutual
Automobile Insurance on Viacom’s UPN. It also helped Yum Brands’ Taco Bell get
plugs on "Murder in Small Town X," a reality show that aired on News
Corp.’s Fox. "It takes more to create momentum than just TV advertising
today," says America Online’s Mr. Short
Endeavor says Mr. Dowley will give it additional credibility with big ad spenders.
Patrick Whitesell, an Endeavor partner, says some corporate clients want somebody
inside the shop who speaks their language when it comes to building brands.
"Clients are demanding to get as close to the content and creativity as
they can to ensure their messages break through the ad clutter," says Mr.
Dowley, who became familiar with Endeavor last year after he tried to buy a
stake in the talent firm on behalf of Interpublic.
In this climate, though, business can be hard to come by. Bedell McLean, a
two-year-old entertainment start-up, closed in April after failing to expand
its business beyond a handful of clients. "Marketers are frustrated because
there is no way to measure if such efforts work," says Stuart McLean, former
president of Bedell McLean.