Publications

March 2025
Case

Stagwell: AI and the Future of Marketing

By: Suraj Srinivasan and Radhika Kak

In early 2025, Mark Penn, Founder, CEO and Chairman of Stagwell, a global marketing company with a network of over 70+ agencies that served over 4000 blue-chip customers across 40 countries, was looking at ways that marketers should navigate the disruption emanating... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Innovation Strategy; Change Management; AI and Machine Learning; Digital Transformation; Technology Adoption; Marketing Strategy; Service Delivery; Creativity; Business Model; Advertising Industry; Advertising Industry

07 Oct 2008
Working Paper Summaries

Securing Online Advertising: Rustlers and Sheriffs in the New Wild West

Keywords: by Benjamin G. Edelman; Advertising

January 1993 (Revised November 1993)
Case

FCB and Publicis (B): Managing Client and Country Diversity

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

Discusses FCB and Publicis, partners in a global advertising agency alliance, working together with their clients to provide excellent service. May be used with FCB and Publicis (A): Forming the Alliance and (C): The German-Led Network. View Details

Keywords: Customer Relationship Management; Alliances; Cooperation; Globalized Firms and Management; Partners and Partnerships; Marketing Strategy; Advertising; Diversity; Advertising Industry; France; Germany; United States

26 Jun 2020
Video

Peter Vundla

Peter Vundla, who co-founded the first Black-owned advertising agency in South Africa, describes how while working in advertising during the last years of the apartheid regime, he sought to educate White people... View Details

28 Aug 2020
Video

Peter Vundla

Peter Vundla, who co-founded the first Black-owned advertising agency HerdBuoys in South Africa in 1991, explains how advertising was entirely controlled by white people in apartheid South Africa, who defined how Black people were presented in the media, and how he... View Details

March 2012 (Revised July 2018)
Case

V-Cola: General Instructions

By: Ian Larkin and Hal Movius

V-Cola is a six-party exercise that simulates a negotiation between a boutique advertising agency and a beverage company that is launching a new product. Each of the six parties has different incentives and information, which leads to a complex, realistic simulation... View Details

Keywords: Negotiation Process; Contracts; Information; Motivation and Incentives; Advertising Industry; Advertising Industry

April 1999 (Revised September 2000)
Case

Interep National Radio Sales, Inc.

By: Benson P. Shapiro, Stephen X. Doyle and Wade Myers

Interep must mobilize sales information technology, organizational structures, and sales management processes to protect and enhance its strong position as a radio advertising sales firm. Opportunities and risks are high in this complex, rapidly changing sales agency... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Sales; Strategy; Information Technology; Advertising; Risk and Uncertainty; Opportunities; Fluctuation; Advertising Industry; Advertising Industry; New York (state, US)

Find at Harvard

23 Jun 2015
First Look

First Look: June 23, 2015

associated with the incumbent attracting and retaining more profitable customers over time. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=39914 Build It, Buy It Or Both? Rethinking the Sourcing of Advertising... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

23 Sep 2008
First Look

First Look: September 23, 2008

Working PapersSecuring Online Advertising: Rustlers and Sheriffs in the New Wild West Author:Benjamin G. Edelman Abstract Read the news of recent computer security guffaws, and it's striking how many problems stem from online advertising. View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

2024
Working Paper

Second- versus Third-party Audit Quality: Evidence from Global Supply Chain Monitoring

By: Maria R. Ibanez, Ashley Palmarozzo, Jodi L. Short and Michael W. Toffel

Capitalizing on the superior credibility and flexibility and potential lower cost of external assessments, many global buyers are relying less on their own employee (“second-party”) auditors and more on third-party auditors to monitor and prevent environmental and... View Details

Keywords: Auditing; Audit Quality; Working Conditions; Sustainability; Empirical Operations; Empirical Service Operations; Sustainability Management; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Supply Chain Management

SSRN

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26 Jun 2020
Video

Peter Vundla

Peter Vundla, who co-founded the first Black-owned advertising agency in South Africa in 1991, discusses how the business started by exploiting the fact that White-owned companies had no understanding of Black... View Details

June 1989 (Revised May 1993)
Case

Rossin Greenberg Seronick & Hill, Inc. (A)

By: John A. Quelch

Rossin Greenberg Seronick & Hill (RGSH), a New England advertising agency, was keen to secure the account of Microsoft Corp. The case describes the bid for the account, which included the submission of a "flier" referring to knowledge of a competitor's plans, as a... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Marketing; Advertising; Advertising Industry; New England

26 Jun 2020
Video

Peter Vundla

Peter Vundla, who co-founded the first Black-owned advertising agency in South Africa, discusses how he discerned the importance of strong values in business success, and resolved to place integrity at the... View Details

November 2005 (Revised February 2009)
Case

Publicis Groupe: Leading Creative Acquisitions

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Ryan Raffaelli

The CEO of a French-based advertising agency network led a series of high-profile acquisitions that created the world's 4th largest global communications company, after a failed strategic alliance taught him lessons about leadership and business relationships. View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Leadership; Management Succession; Partners and Partnerships; Cooperation; Integration; France

Research Summary

Knowledge Spillovers and Growth

Professor King and colleagues investigate the role of knowledge spillovers and externalities in the dramatic disagglomeration and growth of the advertising agency industry following World War II. High demand, low wages, and externalities associated with clusters of... View Details

July 2012
Case

Droga5: Launching Jay-Z's Decoded

By: Anita Elberse and Kwame Owusu-Kesse

In 2010, David Droga and Andrew Essex, co-founders of advertising agency Droga5, hope to convince both John Meneilly, manager of hip-hop star Shawn Carter—better known as Jay-Z—and a partner in Carter's company Roc Nation and Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Advertising Campaigns; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Entertainment; Advertising Industry; Advertising Industry

28 Aug 2020
Video

Peter Vundla

Peter Vundla, who co-founded the first Black-owned advertising agency HerdBuoys in South Africa in 1991, discusses how the business started by exploiting the fact that white-owned companies had no understanding of Black consumers and their languages, and by providing a... View Details

January 1991
Case

Volkswagen of America: Audi 5000 (A)

By: Stephen A. Greyser

Audi marketing executives and their advertising agency colleagues must decide which of several advertising executions should be employed for the introductory campaign for the Audi 5000, their new car entry scheduled to replace the Audi 100LS in the United States in the... View Details

Keywords: Advertising Campaigns; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Launch; Auto Industry; United States