The Martin Agency

Walmart has supposedly selected R/GA to handle its digital property, SaveMoneyLiveBetter.com. AdAge pegs the project as a $40M campaign and couldn't get anyone to confirm the win from the agency nor the brand. So, you know. This one is a rumor has it.

Meanwhile, The Martin Agency, the lead agency on the account, has had a definitive win for one of their clients, Geico. The shop has been paying internet starts to create videos in which the Geico lizard can be seen in the background. In one case, Gary Brolsma, creator of the "Numa Numa Dance", was paid $2,000 for his spot. Watch it above. In two days, the YouTube posting of the vid has clocked over 280,000 views. Nice.

More: Geico Caveman and Serta Sheep Are In The Hall Of Fame

While we are all busy planning, producing, shooting and coding the next big campaign, there's a little thing called the Presidential election happening outside the office doors. In an article about Obama's recent trip to Richmond an advertising executive got some press lines:

"Rye Clifton, an advertising executive at the Martin Agency, stands in Starbucks by the glass doors opening into the hotel. When Republican-nominee Sen. John McCain was in town in June, Clifton tormented Shockoe Espresso, a coffee competitor two blocks down the street, by retrieving the still-full mug McCain left behind. He sold the "mug of lies" on eBay for S213.61 and donated it to Obama. The incident so angered the manager of the coffee shop that he banned Clifton from returning."

Go on Rye! I'm not sure which is more surprising: that he made it out of the office long enough to get in some guerrilla action or that someone paid two hundred smackers for the mug?

Clifton is also the guy behind the video, which took Unilever to task for pushing the pro-women message of the Dove brand with one hand, while the other is totally rubbing some T&A with Axe. Love it.

In case you missed it, Brian Collins has swung back into action setting up his shop inconjunction with The Martin Agency. His first HUGE piece of business has been working with the agency on the Al Gore branding and advertising campaign.

Collins', one time leader of the Brand Integration Group over at Ogilvy, has named his new agency Collins. The New York Times did a spread on Brian's logic for the Gore' logo design. Regarding Collins, The Martin Agency is on the record as saying:

"In his new company, Mr. Collins will take a more radical approach to finding solutions for brands looking for innovative ways to connect in a new landscape. "It's an open frontier, ready for revolutionary thinking," said Mr. Collins. "Unfortunately, old-school advertising relegates designers to the tail end of the creative process--if we're there at all. We will flip that equation on its head, placing design--and the customer's real experience--at the beginning, the center and the end of everything we do."

Addendum 11:43 AM, April 8, 2008:
Oh christ! I knew this idea of the "me" and "we" reminded me of something! Dammnit, it's the recent
Converse spot from Anomaly! Wow. Is that the collective unconscious working or a total bite? We shall never know.

Al Gore has unveiled his new $300m advertising blitz in an attempt to force a stronger debate on climate change during the U.S. presidential elections. If you recall, Gore selected The Martin Agency who beat out Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Young & Rubicam and Crispin Porter + Bogusky for the account.

The Nobel laureate appeared on 60 Minutes to roll out the effort also announced that he will be donating a share of his personal fortune to the campaign and his Nobel prize money.

"We all share the exact same interest in doing the right thing on this," he told CBS. "Are we destined to destroy this place that we call home, planet earth? I can't believe that that's our destiny. It is not our destiny. But we have to awaken to the moral duty that we have to do the right thing and get out of this silly political game-playing about it. This is about survival."