Claxon fuels the Indie vs HoldCo debate with launch of “Your HoldCo = Beige” campaign
Full-service independent agency Claxon is so proud of its independent heritage that the agency has decided to put its money where its mouth is and take the Indie vs HoldCo debate to new levels: launching an OOH ‘attack’ on the HoldCos via a provocative billboard campaign.
The campaign designed to bring attention to “why working with a Holdco results in “beige” outcomes,” involves jumbo format placements rolled out in high traffic areas located in Melbourne City centre and Sydney Airport, during October. The OOH campaign will be supported by digital and social across all owned assets.
Founder and CEO of Claxon, Daniel Willis, said for too long the independents are positioned as being limited by their size and less able to drive large budget, multi-channel, innovative and highly creative campaigns. Willis argues: “this is simply not true.”
Continues Willis: “Leading independent agencies can deliver brave, bold work crafted by senior agency staff. What HoldCos like to tout as an Independent’s weakness – our smaller size – is actually our strength. Our agility, bold thinking and raw hustle within the culture of the top indies is truly unmatched and brands need to know there is a better way.
“Too often brands who work with HoldCos might think they are getting the best, but what they really end up with is working with a junior level team, constrained by a big machine mentality and a culture that produces homogenised work.
“The innovation and agility driving Independents – like Claxon – I describe as a kaleidoscope of colour compared to the HoldCos beige.
“While I recognise a small number of OOH placements won’t change the world, this is really about what Independents can offer vs HoldCos. We want to put a line in the sand and call the HoldCos out for delivering what we believe is ‘safe’ & ‘beige’ work. If brands truly want to work with an agency that thinks differently and are bold and brave themselves, then in my opinion, a leading independent is the partner to have.”
“I can assure you the response to both Melbourne and Sydney’s billboard has been amazing, my phone has literally run hot since the OOH placements were installed.”
29 Comments
Might help if they had some work on their website to compare their own ‘un-beige’ work to?
the cream, the bone, the white, the off white, the ivory or the beige.
and who actually uses the term ‘holdco’?
A round of applause for that pun. Top notch stuff
Can honestly say I’d never heard of Claxon until this release. So I guess it kinda worked?
And they’re flogging generic neon AI performance ads? What could possibly be more mediocre?
‘Fuels the indie vs holdco debate’ LOL I must have missed this trending topic on Twi– I mean, X. How bizarre to put up OOH to reach the one in a million who’s to hire an ad agency. And even they might not understand what ‘holdco’ means! If this is the type of strategy the ‘kaleidoscope of colour’ represents, I’ll take the shades of brown, thanks. P.S. ‘my phone has literally run hot since the OOH placements were installed’ – your phone number’s not on the billboard, so are these just your mates calling? Or is this a battery issue?
Is Baby Gronk the new Drip King, or is he just getting rizzed up by Livvy?
HoldCo just rizzed up Baby Gronk
Pretty funny reading all the rusted-on-holco CD’s pretending that they are important.
The comments on here from all the holdco CD’s is literally proving their point. Boring predictable comments, just like your most of your work.
Hope they got that OOH inventory for free…
Couldn’t agree more. I read this release in astonishment. It’s so utterly bizarre and frankly, pointless.
Good on them for having a crack.
Looks like their website was done by AI.
‘Holdco’ have never heard that one in 41 years in the industry!
What a load of twaddle.
Is that 41 years living under a rock if you haven’t heard the term holdco? Clearly in deep.
Never heard of these mob before… would say this is effective….Still not sold small agencies can do it all, especially media deals.
Have been both sides. The leading indys can match holdco’s on any output, if not exceed, but for much better value. What the good ones lack in sheer buying power with media deals they make up in creativity. I’ve seen a couple of media deals created by indys that would put my time on the other side to Shane.
An ad promoting an agency that says “don’t buy us”.
They aren’t a holdco
Good God, Claxton, I certainly wouldn’t trust you with my media budget if that’s how you’re going to waste it.
Hmmm… a few observations…
1. Those billboards look like an amateur Photoshop job, which leads one to wonder if there really was an OOH media buy at all?
2. From a design perspective, the equals sign isn’t coming across – and certainly not on the vertical execution. It just looks like a pair of black parallel lines. Which means the already obscure and niche messaging is rendered even more meaningless.
3. The general consensus seems to be while most people have heard of a ‘holding company’ (and I’d argue ‘parent company’ is much more common), no one has ever uttered much less heard the phrase ‘holdco’ before in the history of mankind.
So, yeah… this appears to be a trade presser for an ad by an ad agency which is advertising how their own ad agency thinks other ad agencies are boring, except that they haven’t really bought the ad at all (despite purporting to specialise in media).
Which is actually fortunate because the fake ad they made is so badly designed and copywritten that there isn’t a single person on the planet who would even know what it was about unless this lame press release hadn’t alerted them to it.
And now, to compound said irony, we’re all sniggering at them so much that any sensible brand or marketing person who may have potentially hired their services… probably never will. Especially once they tried clicking on their website’s ‘case studies’ section as it’s a dead link.
Is that really a klaxon bell I hear sirening? Or the ‘bwamp-bow’ buzzer on a game show?
I have a feeling that your ramble was probably as successful as your last awards submission. After a long time in our industry it’s still the type of comment that sometimes makes me wish I wasn’t. Good on them for having a crack.
Interesting example of challenger mentality here. This has clearly streamlined the awareness process for Claxon among peers, based on the comments here.
There’s a consideration to be made that the “safe & beige” work that Claxon derides is exactly what certain Chief Marketing Officers will want & ask for. It may not win a Lion or Pencil, but it very well may keep them in a role beyond the dreaded 18-month mark.
What I suspect Claxon’s doing here is trying to go for the brands more amenable to hiring challengers: start-ups and declining companies. Brands where ‘rolling a dice’ is either second nature or the last resort.
Colour may not be the most immediate area in this space to focus on, but I suspect it’s difficult to call out competitors for being formulaic when Claxon’s tagline is “The Formula To Success”.
There’s a great point made around comparing junior holdco vs. senior indie expertise. Perhaps there’s a potential idea in there…
Seems all the “holdco” staff have some serious amount of time on their hands given the length of some of these responses. Should be spending this much time doing right by clients instead of selling the same old shit repackaged under a different name.
The OOH isn’t beige, it’s brown, shit brown, plain and simple.
They’re describing the approach of the network agencies so maybe shit brown is actually a better way to describe it. Your holdco agency = shit brown. Would have been an even bolder choice. You should write them a note and suggest it.
We should really be helping the independent startups, not shitting all over them. That said, the billboards are hideously inefficient, so, up your game Claxon. But good luck nonetheless.
Coming from another Indy this is one of the best things I’ve ever seen hahahaha followed by the sour comments above from all the limp creatives that obviously come from some of the big boys! Well done Claxon!