Agency.com's YouTube Pitch is Lame

In a high risk strategy, Agency.com has posted a video of themselves preparing to pitch for Subway's interactive business. From the looks of it, this was not authorized by Subway. While I give Agency.com credit for having the guts to try something like this and others may disagree (just check out the discussion on Adfreak), I feel the move shows poor judgment on their part.

First of all, to put Subway's brand at risk like this at the expense of winning an account is a bad business decision. Agency.com is holding Subway's brand hostage for ransom. If I were the brand manager for Subway I would find this totally offensive. It's one thing when you encourage Subway customers post a video. That's called feedback. It's another when someone trying to pitch your business does so without your permission (at least it seems). That's called lame.

Second, the video is now getting mocked by others. Worse, bloggers are beating it to a pulp.

Finally, Agency.com didn't just hurt their reputation with Subway (at least that's my bet). They set their entire credibility in the social media space back eons and maybe did the same for other interactive agencies. Was it really worth it?

::Later: There have been lots of links to this post. It's quite a polarizing video. One person even says I lost my mind. Consider this though. The bar for Subway and whomever wins the word of mouth business has been set MUCH higher thanks to this stunt. "Get us more links than the Agency.com video" is what I would be telling my agency if I worked for Subway (but I don't).

::Even later: Agency.com crows about their stunt with an equally lame blog

Tags: subway, agency.com